Two more prominent L.A. artists resign from MOCA board Two more prominent Los Angeles artists have resigned from the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, citing their disagreement with its direction and the recent ouster of the museum's chief curator. Catherine Opie and Barbara Kruger sent a joint email to museum director Jeffrey Deitch and board chairs David Johnson and Maria Bell on Friday. The day before, artist John Baldessari announced he was resigning. The fourth artist-trustee on the board, Ed Ruscha, is out of the country and could not be reached for comment. The departures follow the forced resignation of chief curator Paul Schimmel, who had closely shaped MOCA's exhibition program until Deitch, a New York gallery owner, was hired two years ago as museum director. Opie said that she did not attend the board meeting last month in which the dismissals of Schimmel, education program manager Aandrea Stang and several curatorial assistants were announced because she was out of town, but that she would have liked to have been consulted or at least informed. "The fact that there was no phone call to us - no heads-up about Paul and all of the other people let go - is troubling," she said. "I love and respect MOCA," she said. But the museum is taking such a different direction now. In comments after his resignation, Baldessari also cited Schimmel's forced resignation, as well as Deitch's plan to present an exhibition about the effect of disco music on art and culture. Kruger, reached in New York, confirmed her decision to leave the board but declined to say more about it. It is unusual for an art museum to have four artists on its board. Although the MOCA artist-trustees are not expected to pay annual dues like other trustees, they participate in board meetings and regularly donate works of art to be sold for the museum's benefit. Kruger sold a six-figure artwork to help fund the "Ends of the Earth" Land Art survey currently at the museum. Reached Saturday, museum board co-chairs Johnson and Bell responded with a statement.