As you may have heard, the starchitect Peter Zumthor’s unconventional structure for the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which opened in April, consists of a single amoeba-shaped structure that bridges Wilshire Boulevard. And within the envelope, individual works of art and self-contained exhibition chambers float like organelles. In the open layout, four zones represent the arts of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea. A first unhurried look could easily take you a solid four-plus hours. Pressed for time? Concentrate on the Folding Screen with Indian Wedding and Flying Pole, from Mexico, circa 1690, which celebrates showy Spanish-colonial and Indigenous customs in exuberant counterpoint. Or on Yuki Kihara’s video Siva in Motion (New Zealand, 2012), with its single dancing figure multiplying into many like a petal extravagantly blossoming into a rose. The Matisse patio ceramic La Gerbe (The Sheaf) in the artist’s bold, late cutout style makes the short list, too. And do note the little group of tiny shark’s teeth on the horizon of Guido Reni’s Bacchus and Ariadne (c. 1619). Those are the sails of the Athenian fleet of Theseus, in flight from the the Cretan princess who saved him from the Minotaur. O felix culpa! A god from Olympus quickly shows up on her desert island to mend her fortunes. The moral: You think you’ve missed the boat? You never can tell. —Matthew Gurewitsch