Getty-Supported Exhibition Projects
American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA)
Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945–1975
Common Ground, a survey of Southern California studio ceramic artists, investigates the interconnections within the postWorld War II clay community of the greater Los Angeles area, including how the social, political, and economic climate of the time affected ceramic design, styles, instruction, and trends. Central to AMOCA's presentation is artist Millard Sheets whose leadership in art making, education, design, and industry had an unsurpassed influence on the artists and craftsmen who resided or attended college in the area. Though Sheets is not the sole focus of the project, he is the common denominator among the cast of characters.
Armory Center for the Arts
Speaking in Tongues: The Art of Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken
Speaking in Tongues focuses on the innovative concepts and techniques Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken used to challenge existing rules and traditions in the visual arts. Both artists worked extensively with collage, Berman with his Semina journal and Heinecken with experimental photocollages, using mass media imagery to resist the status quo, and both artists shared a disdain for the creative compromises that often came with commercial success. The Armory will explore their influential works within the unique cultural context of 1960s Southern California, as it fueled and amplified their highly original approaches to art-making.
Speaking in Tongues: The Art of Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken
Speaking in Tongues focuses on the innovative concepts and techniques Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken used to challenge existing rules and traditions in the visual arts. Both artists worked extensively with collage, Berman with his Semina journal and Heinecken with experimental photocollages, using mass media imagery to resist the status quo, and both artists shared a disdain for the creative compromises that often came with commercial success. The Armory will explore their influential works within the unique cultural context of 1960s Southern California, as it fueled and amplified their highly original approaches to art-making.
California African American Museum (CAAM)
Places of Validation, Art, and Progression
Through documents, artifacts, and art, Places of Validation tells the story of the lesser recognized places and people that presented, collected, traded, and gave validation to the visual art of African Americans in Los Angeles from 1940–1980. This exhibition explores how a network of community support and Black commerce laid the foundation for a structure, still in place today, that encouraged and enabled Black artists to create and proliferate in the face of economic, social, and political challenges. This foundation nurtured and thus validated their artistry and importance in Los Angeles.
Places of Validation, Art, and Progression
Through documents, artifacts, and art, Places of Validation tells the story of the lesser recognized places and people that presented, collected, traded, and gave validation to the visual art of African Americans in Los Angeles from 1940–1980. This exhibition explores how a network of community support and Black commerce laid the foundation for a structure, still in place today, that encouraged and enabled Black artists to create and proliferate in the face of economic, social, and political challenges. This foundation nurtured and thus validated their artistry and importance in Los Angeles.
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
The Experimental Impulse: Los Angeles Art from 1945 to 1980
The Experimental Impulse explores the pivotal role of experimentation in artmaking in Los Angeles during a time when the city was emerging as an important artistic center. Conceived from the perspective of artists who currently live and work in Los Angeles, this exhibition will offer new insights into the understanding of developments in the art world between 1945 and 1980, and in doing so, bridges the distance between earlier developments and current practice. The exhibition will be presented at the school's REDCAT gallery, housed in the Walt Disney Hall complex.
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
The Experimental Impulse: Los Angeles Art from 1945 to 1980
The Experimental Impulse explores the pivotal role of experimentation in artmaking in Los Angeles during a time when the city was emerging as an important artistic center. Conceived from the perspective of artists who currently live and work in Los Angeles, this exhibition will offer new insights into the understanding of developments in the art world between 1945 and 1980, and in doing so, bridges the distance between earlier developments and current practice. The exhibition will be presented at the school's REDCAT gallery, housed in the Walt Disney Hall complex.
California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside (UCR)
Seismic Shift: Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal and California Landscape Photography
When the nexus of landscape-centered photography moved from Northern to Southern California in the postwar decades, this geographic shift was also matched by changes in style and attitude. Once dominated by the romantic sensibilities, the landscape became a subject of hard-scrabble objectivity in the hands of the Southern-California New Topographics in the 1970s. Seismic Shift revisits this turning point, focusing on artists like Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal who turned their cameras towards the regions rapidly changing suburban landscape, documenting the replacement of farmland by tract homes and industrial parks.
Seismic Shift: Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal and California Landscape Photography
When the nexus of landscape-centered photography moved from Northern to Southern California in the postwar decades, this geographic shift was also matched by changes in style and attitude. Once dominated by the romantic sensibilities, the landscape became a subject of hard-scrabble objectivity in the hands of the Southern-California New Topographics in the 1970s. Seismic Shift revisits this turning point, focusing on artists like Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal who turned their cameras towards the regions rapidly changing suburban landscape, documenting the replacement of farmland by tract homes and industrial parks.
California State University, Northridge
Identity and Affirmation: African-American Photographers in Los Angeles
With over 750,000 images produced by Los Angeles-based African-American photographers in its collections, California State University, Northridge will present an exhibition exploring the role of photography in creating a new sense of identity in the African-American community in the post-war era. Working in both journalistic and fine arts capacities, photographers documented and made visible activities within their communities, from street scenes and local politics to cultural celebrations and musical performances. Identity and Affirmation: African-American Photographers in Los Angeles will feature 150–175 photographs, displayed in several locations across the university, that demonstrate the range of photographic practice in the decades after the war.
Identity and Affirmation: African-American Photographers in Los Angeles
With over 750,000 images produced by Los Angeles-based African-American photographers in its collections, California State University, Northridge will present an exhibition exploring the role of photography in creating a new sense of identity in the African-American community in the post-war era. Working in both journalistic and fine arts capacities, photographers documented and made visible activities within their communities, from street scenes and local politics to cultural celebrations and musical performances. Identity and Affirmation: African-American Photographers in Los Angeles will feature 150–175 photographs, displayed in several locations across the university, that demonstrate the range of photographic practice in the decades after the war.
Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA
Three locations: Autry National Center, LACMA, UCLA Fowler Museum
Los Angeles: The Mexican Presence in L.A. Art, 1945–1980
This series of exhibitions explores the important distinctions and continuities between Mexican American and Chicano art, and among individual painters and artists identified with social movements. The exhibition Los Angeles: The Mexican American Generation, 1945–1965 at the Autry National Center will present works of art and may include historic documents. Los Angeles: Chicano Art Organizations, 1965–1980 at the UCLA Fowler Museum will be an archive-focused exhibition, but will include artworks related to each of the Latino arts organizations featured in the exhibition. The exhibition at LACMA, Los Angeles: Space is Place, will consist of a research-based commissioned piece by local artist Sandra de la Loza that will act as the aesthetic and historical bridge between the other two exhibitions.
Three locations: Autry National Center, LACMA, UCLA Fowler Museum
Los Angeles: The Mexican Presence in L.A. Art, 1945–1980
This series of exhibitions explores the important distinctions and continuities between Mexican American and Chicano art, and among individual painters and artists identified with social movements. The exhibition Los Angeles: The Mexican American Generation, 1945–1965 at the Autry National Center will present works of art and may include historic documents. Los Angeles: Chicano Art Organizations, 1965–1980 at the UCLA Fowler Museum will be an archive-focused exhibition, but will include artworks related to each of the Latino arts organizations featured in the exhibition. The exhibition at LACMA, Los Angeles: Space is Place, will consist of a research-based commissioned piece by local artist Sandra de la Loza that will act as the aesthetic and historical bridge between the other two exhibitions.
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA)
Two locations: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (MAG) and the Watts Towers Noah Purifoy Gallery (WTAC)
Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Watts Towers Arts Center
These two exhibitions examine the role played by the City of Los Angeles and its two pre-eminent arts venues, The Municipal Art Gallery (MAG) and the Watts Towers Arts Center's Noah Purifoy Gallery (WTAC), in the development of post-war art in Los Angeles. In a time when the vibrant environment of public and private museums and galleries was in its infancy, MAG and WTAG were bright spots for numerous artists both from this community and beyond. Both exhibitions will include selections of art from artists whose work is contained in the institutions' archives along with historical photographs, City of L.A. documents, historical film, and archival exhibition catalogues.
Two locations: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (MAG) and the Watts Towers Noah Purifoy Gallery (WTAC)
Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Watts Towers Arts Center
These two exhibitions examine the role played by the City of Los Angeles and its two pre-eminent arts venues, The Municipal Art Gallery (MAG) and the Watts Towers Arts Center's Noah Purifoy Gallery (WTAC), in the development of post-war art in Los Angeles. In a time when the vibrant environment of public and private museums and galleries was in its infancy, MAG and WTAG were bright spots for numerous artists both from this community and beyond. Both exhibitions will include selections of art from artists whose work is contained in the institutions' archives along with historical photographs, City of L.A. documents, historical film, and archival exhibition catalogues.
18th Street Arts Complex
Collaboration Labs: Southern California Artists and the Artist Space Movement
Far more than just exhibition alternatives to the gallery system, Los Angeles's artist-run spaces of the 1970s were sites of community organizing and political engagement on issues ranging from gay liberation to feminism. Collaboration Labs will focus on five case studies of such artist spaces: artists Rachel Rosenthal, Barbara T. Smith, Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz Starus, Kit Galloway and Sherri Rabnowitz of Electronic Café, and Michael Masucci and John Dorr of EZTV. These five seminal and often overlooked artists and artists groups were fundamental to charting the course for the artists' space movement and its vision of egalitarian artistic production and reception.
Collaboration Labs: Southern California Artists and the Artist Space Movement
Far more than just exhibition alternatives to the gallery system, Los Angeles's artist-run spaces of the 1970s were sites of community organizing and political engagement on issues ranging from gay liberation to feminism. Collaboration Labs will focus on five case studies of such artist spaces: artists Rachel Rosenthal, Barbara T. Smith, Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz Starus, Kit Galloway and Sherri Rabnowitz of Electronic Café, and Michael Masucci and John Dorr of EZTV. These five seminal and often overlooked artists and artists groups were fundamental to charting the course for the artists' space movement and its vision of egalitarian artistic production and reception.
Film & Television Archive, UCLA
Billy Wilder Theater
L.A. Rebellion
L.A. Rebellion was a strategic chapter in the history of black representation on film. This arts movement of black communities creating film art from the late 1960s to the early 1980s is distinguished by its sustained intellectual rigor, its introduction of watershed films, and the intensity with which it confronted the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in its own aims. The film exhibition will feature the major works of at least twelve different filmmakers, who have been identified as members of the L.A. Rebellion, as well as selected examples of films by a second generation of African-American UCLA filmmakers who directly reference L.A Rebellion in their work.
Billy Wilder Theater
L.A. Rebellion
L.A. Rebellion was a strategic chapter in the history of black representation on film. This arts movement of black communities creating film art from the late 1960s to the early 1980s is distinguished by its sustained intellectual rigor, its introduction of watershed films, and the intensity with which it confronted the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in its own aims. The film exhibition will feature the major works of at least twelve different filmmakers, who have been identified as members of the L.A. Rebellion, as well as selected examples of films by a second generation of African-American UCLA filmmakers who directly reference L.A Rebellion in their work.
Friends of the Chinese American Museum
Built in L.A.: Pioneering Chinese American Architects, 1945–1980
Built in L.A. will document and showcase the architectural achievements and contributions of pioneering Chinese American architects in the development of Los Angeles' urban and visual landscape between 1945 and 1980. Focusing on four architects whose designs had a significant impact on modern architecture -- Eugene K. Choy, Gilbert Leong, Helen Liu Fong and Gin Wong -- the exhibition aims to increase public awareness of their work and to demonstrate how they negotiated the changing demographic climate in post-war LA.
Built in L.A.: Pioneering Chinese American Architects, 1945–1980
Built in L.A. will document and showcase the architectural achievements and contributions of pioneering Chinese American architects in the development of Los Angeles' urban and visual landscape between 1945 and 1980. Focusing on four architects whose designs had a significant impact on modern architecture -- Eugene K. Choy, Gilbert Leong, Helen Liu Fong and Gin Wong -- the exhibition aims to increase public awareness of their work and to demonstrate how they negotiated the changing demographic climate in post-war LA.
Hammer Museum
Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980
Now Dig This! examines the vital but overlooked legacy accorded to the city's African American visual artists with this comprehensive survey. Charting the work of key figures such as David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Noah Purifoy, and Betye Saar, the exhibition will examine a prevailing artistic shift away from didactic artistic modes toward more performance-based practices. It will also present African Americans creative output alongside parallel developments and tease out the connections among individuals of different ethnic origins. This multicultural component will bring to light a significant network of friendships and collaborations across racial lines and establish the influence that African American artists had on the era's larger movements and trends.
Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980
Now Dig This! examines the vital but overlooked legacy accorded to the city's African American visual artists with this comprehensive survey. Charting the work of key figures such as David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Noah Purifoy, and Betye Saar, the exhibition will examine a prevailing artistic shift away from didactic artistic modes toward more performance-based practices. It will also present African Americans creative output alongside parallel developments and tease out the connections among individuals of different ethnic origins. This multicultural component will bring to light a significant network of friendships and collaborations across racial lines and establish the influence that African American artists had on the era's larger movements and trends.
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
The House that Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945–1975
The Huntington's exhibition focuses on Sam Maloof, a woodworker who became a nationally recognized leader of the American Studio movement—a movement that favored the aesthetics of craft and the handmade over the machine and mass-production. The House that Sam Built will showcase classic examples of his work, spanning more that twenty-five years of his career, beside approximately eighty works by his friends and colleagues. The exhibition sheds new light on the rich network of influences and exchanges that developed among artists and artisans living in the Pomona Valley in this dynamic period of American art.
The House that Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945–1975
The Huntington's exhibition focuses on Sam Maloof, a woodworker who became a nationally recognized leader of the American Studio movement—a movement that favored the aesthetics of craft and the handmade over the machine and mass-production. The House that Sam Built will showcase classic examples of his work, spanning more that twenty-five years of his career, beside approximately eighty works by his friends and colleagues. The exhibition sheds new light on the rich network of influences and exchanges that developed among artists and artisans living in the Pomona Valley in this dynamic period of American art.
Japanese American National Museum (JANM)
Drawing the Line: Japanese American Art, Design and Activism in Post—War Los Angeles
Drawing the Line is an ambitious survey that provides an unprecedented perspective on the dynamic diversity and depth of Japanese American contributions to the visual landscape of L.A. in the post—World War II period. The exhibition will examine works of art and historic documents, including video clips, texts, and images from extensive oral histories, which will illustrate the delicate line that exists between form and function. The diversity and effectiveness of the work of those artists represented in the exhibition will reveal an intriguing narrative about the impact of ethnicity and race on their artistic trajectories in Southern California.
Drawing the Line: Japanese American Art, Design and Activism in Post—War Los Angeles
Drawing the Line is an ambitious survey that provides an unprecedented perspective on the dynamic diversity and depth of Japanese American contributions to the visual landscape of L.A. in the post—World War II period. The exhibition will examine works of art and historic documents, including video clips, texts, and images from extensive oral histories, which will illustrate the delicate line that exists between form and function. The diversity and effectiveness of the work of those artists represented in the exhibition will reveal an intriguing narrative about the impact of ethnicity and race on their artistic trajectories in Southern California.
LAXART
Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival
The history of postwar art in Los Angeles is punctuated by dramatic examples of ephemeral artworks and public installations, as performance art became increasingly popular beginning in the 1970s. From Mark di Suvero and the Los Angeles Artists Protest Committee's 1966 Artist's Tower of Protest, erected in response to the Vietnam War, to Judy Chicago's Atmospheres, a series of environmental interventions in public spaces, artists utilized non-traditional exhibition spaces and materials to collapse the divide between art and daily life and create unexpected experiences. In conjunction with Pacific Standard Time, LAXART will coordinate a week-long Performance and Public Art Festival that will offer a wide array of curatorial approaches to the reinvention of ephemeral art. The festival will consist of four key components: ambient public art projects; large-scale single-event spectacles; theatrical performance art; and media interventions.
Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival
The history of postwar art in Los Angeles is punctuated by dramatic examples of ephemeral artworks and public installations, as performance art became increasingly popular beginning in the 1970s. From Mark di Suvero and the Los Angeles Artists Protest Committee's 1966 Artist's Tower of Protest, erected in response to the Vietnam War, to Judy Chicago's Atmospheres, a series of environmental interventions in public spaces, artists utilized non-traditional exhibition spaces and materials to collapse the divide between art and daily life and create unexpected experiences. In conjunction with Pacific Standard Time, LAXART will coordinate a week-long Performance and Public Art Festival that will offer a wide array of curatorial approaches to the reinvention of ephemeral art. The festival will consist of four key components: ambient public art projects; large-scale single-event spectacles; theatrical performance art; and media interventions.
Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA)
Exchange and Evolution: World Wide Video/Long Beach
Exchange and Evolution explores the connections forged between the Long Beach Museum of Art and the international community during a most fertile and dynamic period in the history of the LBMA between the years 1974 and 1994. The project analyzes the important role that video played in the history of Southern California contemporary art, focusing especially on the international video artists working and exhibiting in the LBMA video production and exhibition program, who influenced the field of video in Southern California and beyond.
Exchange and Evolution: World Wide Video/Long Beach
Exchange and Evolution explores the connections forged between the Long Beach Museum of Art and the international community during a most fertile and dynamic period in the history of the LBMA between the years 1974 and 1994. The project analyzes the important role that video played in the history of Southern California contemporary art, focusing especially on the international video artists working and exhibiting in the LBMA video production and exhibition program, who influenced the field of video in Southern California and beyond.
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE)
Los Angeles Goes Live: Exploring the Origins of Performance Art in Southern California
Los Angeles Goes Live explores histories and legacies of performance art in Southern California in the 1970s emphasizing the evolution of performance within a broader drive toward artistic experimentation that cut across many spheres of cultural production. The show will focus on synthesizing the disparate practices of early performance art in the region, and will include re-stagings of historic performances.
Los Angeles Goes Live: Exploring the Origins of Performance Art in Southern California
Los Angeles Goes Live explores histories and legacies of performance art in Southern California in the 1970s emphasizing the evolution of performance within a broader drive toward artistic experimentation that cut across many spheres of cultural production. The show will focus on synthesizing the disparate practices of early performance art in the region, and will include re-stagings of historic performances.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way"
This exhibition will be the first major study of California mid-century modern design. With over 300 objects—furniture, ceramics, metalwork, fashion and textiles, and industrial and graphic design—the exhibition will examine the state's role in shaping the material culture of the entire country. Organized into four thematic areas, the exhibition's goal is to elucidate the 1951 quote from émigré Greta Magnusson Grossman that is incorporated into the exhibition's title: California design "is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions.... It has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way."
California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way"
This exhibition will be the first major study of California mid-century modern design. With over 300 objects—furniture, ceramics, metalwork, fashion and textiles, and industrial and graphic design—the exhibition will examine the state's role in shaping the material culture of the entire country. Organized into four thematic areas, the exhibition's goal is to elucidate the 1951 quote from émigré Greta Magnusson Grossman that is incorporated into the exhibition's title: California design "is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions.... It has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way."
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Asco: Elite of the Obscure
This exhibition will be the first retrospective to present the wide-ranging work of the Chicano performance and conceptual art group Asco. Asco (1971–1987) began as a tight-knit core group of artists from East Los Angeles composed of Harry Gamboa Jr., Willie Herrón, and Patssi Valdez. Taking their name from the forceful word for disgust and nausea in Spanish, Asco set about through performance public art and multimedia to respond to turbulent socio-political periods in Los Angeles and within the larger international context.
Asco: Elite of the Obscure
This exhibition will be the first retrospective to present the wide-ranging work of the Chicano performance and conceptual art group Asco. Asco (1971–1987) began as a tight-knit core group of artists from East Los Angeles composed of Harry Gamboa Jr., Willie Herrón, and Patssi Valdez. Taking their name from the forceful word for disgust and nausea in Spanish, Asco set about through performance public art and multimedia to respond to turbulent socio-political periods in Los Angeles and within the larger international context.
Los Angeles Filmforum
Numerous venues throughout Los Angeles
Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in L.A. 1945–1980
Alternative Projections focuses on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators, and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental cinema in Southern California from 1945–1980. The project will expand understanding of how experimental filmmaking evolved by contextualizing its practice in postwar art and film history. In addition to screenings in numerous venues throughout Los Angeles, Alternative Projections will coordinate screenings and special events in collaboration with other Pacific Standard Time partners such as MOCA; REDCAT; Otis College of Art and Design; and the Film & Television Archive, UCLA.
Numerous venues throughout Los Angeles
Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in L.A. 1945–1980
Alternative Projections focuses on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators, and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental cinema in Southern California from 1945–1980. The project will expand understanding of how experimental filmmaking evolved by contextualizing its practice in postwar art and film history. In addition to screenings in numerous venues throughout Los Angeles, Alternative Projections will coordinate screenings and special events in collaboration with other Pacific Standard Time partners such as MOCA; REDCAT; Otis College of Art and Design; and the Film & Television Archive, UCLA.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)
California Art in the Age of Pluralism: 1974–1980
California Art in the Age of Pluralism, 1974–1980 examines the exceptional fertility and diversity of art practice in California. The exhibition argues that pluralism reached its apex in California during the mid- to late 1970s, and features approximately 225 works, by 120 artists, ranging from decorative art to representational painting, conceptual performance to spectacular public demonstration, and documentary video to staged photography. Bracketed chronologically by the departure of President Richard Nixon (1974) and the auspicious arrival of President Ronald Reagan (1980), both from California, the exhibition addresses a period of nationwide disillusionment, moral collapse, and de-centeredness.
California Art in the Age of Pluralism: 1974–1980
California Art in the Age of Pluralism, 1974–1980 examines the exceptional fertility and diversity of art practice in California. The exhibition argues that pluralism reached its apex in California during the mid- to late 1970s, and features approximately 225 works, by 120 artists, ranging from decorative art to representational painting, conceptual performance to spectacular public demonstration, and documentary video to staged photography. Bracketed chronologically by the departure of President Richard Nixon (1974) and the auspicious arrival of President Ronald Reagan (1980), both from California, the exhibition addresses a period of nationwide disillusionment, moral collapse, and de-centeredness.
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD)
At the Museum's La Jolla and Downtown San Diego locations
Phenomenal: California Light and Space
Phenomenal: California Light and Space focuses on perceptual investigations that began in Southern California in the 1960s, fomenting many of the most vanguard practices still engaging younger artists today. Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, Robert Irwin, Bruce Nauman, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, and Douglas Wheeler are among a cadre of artists whose work focused on visual perception and facilitated an awareness of one's physical body moving through space. The accompanying publication, the first critical reader on this topic, will be co-published by MCASD and University of California Press.
At the Museum's La Jolla and Downtown San Diego locations
Phenomenal: California Light and Space
Phenomenal: California Light and Space focuses on perceptual investigations that began in Southern California in the 1960s, fomenting many of the most vanguard practices still engaging younger artists today. Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, Robert Irwin, Bruce Nauman, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, and Douglas Wheeler are among a cadre of artists whose work focused on visual perception and facilitated an awareness of one's physical body moving through space. The accompanying publication, the first critical reader on this topic, will be co-published by MCASD and University of California Press.
Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)
MEX/LA: The Legacy of Mexican Modernism(s) in Los Angeles 1930–1985
As early as 1930, strong links between the art scenes of Los Angeles and Mexico had emerged. Artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco completed influential murals in greater Los Angeles, and, together with other Mexican modernists such as Alfredo Ramos Martinez and the nationalized French/Mexican painter Jean Charlot, this group stimulated an entire generation of American artists and paved the way for the Mexican-American and Chicano artists of later decades. Yet few exhibitions or publications have examined this legacy in the postwar era, despite Los Angeles's geographical and cultural proximity to Mexico. Featuring approximately 100 objects, this exhibition will be organized chronologically and address works of art in wide-ranging media from murals to performance art.
MEX/LA: The Legacy of Mexican Modernism(s) in Los Angeles 1930–1985
As early as 1930, strong links between the art scenes of Los Angeles and Mexico had emerged. Artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco completed influential murals in greater Los Angeles, and, together with other Mexican modernists such as Alfredo Ramos Martinez and the nationalized French/Mexican painter Jean Charlot, this group stimulated an entire generation of American artists and paved the way for the Mexican-American and Chicano artists of later decades. Yet few exhibitions or publications have examined this legacy in the postwar era, despite Los Angeles's geographical and cultural proximity to Mexico. Featuring approximately 100 objects, this exhibition will be organized chronologically and address works of art in wide-ranging media from murals to performance art.
Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA)
State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970
State of Mind investigates the development of California's seminal conceptualism and related avant-garde activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s when artists adopted new attitudes and experimented with new forms of art that coincided with the sweeping political and cultural shifts taking place during the same period. State of Mind will present the significant development in the new genres of video, performance, sound art, artist books, and installations made by artists across the state, featuring works by approximately forty artists, ranging from those who became major international figures to other lesser known artists who nonetheless made important contributions. The exhibition will be presented first at OCMA and then travel to the Berkeley Art Museum.
State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970
State of Mind investigates the development of California's seminal conceptualism and related avant-garde activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s when artists adopted new attitudes and experimented with new forms of art that coincided with the sweeping political and cultural shifts taking place during the same period. State of Mind will present the significant development in the new genres of video, performance, sound art, artist books, and installations made by artists across the state, featuring works by approximately forty artists, ranging from those who became major international figures to other lesser known artists who nonetheless made important contributions. The exhibition will be presented first at OCMA and then travel to the Berkeley Art Museum.
Otis College of Art and Design, Ben Maltz Gallery
Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building
From the 1970s through the early 1990s, Los Angeles was home to one of the most internationally renowned sites of feminist activity, the Woman's Building. This center was a space for artistic, social, pedagogical, and political experimentation and provided a multi-faceted community in which innovation was supported. The exhibition will contextualize the artists, exhibitions, activities, and its importance to the development of the Los Angeles art scene.
Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building
From the 1970s through the early 1990s, Los Angeles was home to one of the most internationally renowned sites of feminist activity, the Woman's Building. This center was a space for artistic, social, pedagogical, and political experimentation and provided a multi-faceted community in which innovation was supported. The exhibition will contextualize the artists, exhibitions, activities, and its importance to the development of the Los Angeles art scene.
Palm Springs Art Museum
Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945–1980
Backyard Oasis examines the Southern California swimming pool as depicted in photographs. The backyard pool, as a private setting, became a space to participate in various sub-cultural rituals and to enact clandestine desires. As a medium, photography became the primary vehicle for the circulation of post—World War II imagery. This exhibition will trace, for the first time, the integrated history of photography and the iconography of the swimming pool, bringing new light to many aspects of this rich interaction.
Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945–1980
Backyard Oasis examines the Southern California swimming pool as depicted in photographs. The backyard pool, as a private setting, became a space to participate in various sub-cultural rituals and to enact clandestine desires. As a medium, photography became the primary vehicle for the circulation of post—World War II imagery. This exhibition will trace, for the first time, the integrated history of photography and the iconography of the swimming pool, bringing new light to many aspects of this rich interaction.
Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA)
L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945–1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy
L.A. Raw maps the relatively unexplored development of figurative art in Los Angeles in the postwar period. From popular artists of the 1940s and 50s like Rico Lebrun and Howard Warshaw to the resurgence of the body in the 1990s with artists such as Mike Kelley, Catherine Opie, and Paul McCarthy, the show examines thoroughly the regions figuration tradition and present an alternative history to the more fashionable lineages of formal abstraction or Duchampian conceptualism.
L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945–1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy
L.A. Raw maps the relatively unexplored development of figurative art in Los Angeles in the postwar period. From popular artists of the 1940s and 50s like Rico Lebrun and Howard Warshaw to the resurgence of the body in the 1990s with artists such as Mike Kelley, Catherine Opie, and Paul McCarthy, the show examines thoroughly the regions figuration tradition and present an alternative history to the more fashionable lineages of formal abstraction or Duchampian conceptualism.
Pomona College Museum of Art (PCMA)
It Happened at Pomona: Art at Pomona College 1969–1973
From 1969 to 1973, the Pomona College Museum of Art presented some of the most experimental exhibitions of contemporary art curated by Hal Glicksman and Helene Winer. The display of groundbreaking works by artists who bridged the gap between Post—Minimalism and Conceptual Art, such as Michael Asher, Tom Eatherton, and Allen Ruppersberg, formed the educational backdrop for a generation of artists who spent their formative years in Los Angeles, like Pomona alumni Chris Burden, James Turrell, and Mowry Baden. Art at Pomona College 1969–1973 will take the form of a series of exhibitions (anchored by a timeline), events, and a publication chronicling the activities of artists, scholars, students, and faculty associated with the College during this period.
It Happened at Pomona: Art at Pomona College 1969–1973
From 1969 to 1973, the Pomona College Museum of Art presented some of the most experimental exhibitions of contemporary art curated by Hal Glicksman and Helene Winer. The display of groundbreaking works by artists who bridged the gap between Post—Minimalism and Conceptual Art, such as Michael Asher, Tom Eatherton, and Allen Ruppersberg, formed the educational backdrop for a generation of artists who spent their formative years in Los Angeles, like Pomona alumni Chris Burden, James Turrell, and Mowry Baden. Art at Pomona College 1969–1973 will take the form of a series of exhibitions (anchored by a timeline), events, and a publication chronicling the activities of artists, scholars, students, and faculty associated with the College during this period.
Santa Monica Museum of Art
Beatrice Wood: Career Woman—Drawings, Paintings, Vessels, and Objects
Beatrice Wood is a figure worth reexamining as a reflection of the developments and changes in the artistic and cultural milieu of Southern California throughout the 1900s. Career Woman, a comprehensive survey of this seminal California artist, offers a scholarly, commemorative evaluation of Wood, whose extraordinary life and work traversed the entire 20th century. Featuring over sixty artworks, the exhibition will trace the arc of Wood's career from her early immersion in the Dada movement through her mature work as a ceramic artist, and will survey all media of her production, with a particular emphasis on clay.
Beatrice Wood: Career Woman—Drawings, Paintings, Vessels, and Objects
Beatrice Wood is a figure worth reexamining as a reflection of the developments and changes in the artistic and cultural milieu of Southern California throughout the 1900s. Career Woman, a comprehensive survey of this seminal California artist, offers a scholarly, commemorative evaluation of Wood, whose extraordinary life and work traversed the entire 20th century. Featuring over sixty artworks, the exhibition will trace the arc of Wood's career from her early immersion in the Dada movement through her mature work as a ceramic artist, and will survey all media of her production, with a particular emphasis on clay.
Scripps College
Clay's Tectonic Shift: John Mason, Ken Price and Peter Voulkos, 1956–1968
During the postwar period, Scripps College was a vital part of the burgeoning ceramics art scene in Los Angeles. Clay's Tectonic Shift examines the role that John Mason, Ken Price, and Peter Voulkos played in redefining ceramics at mid-century. This exhibition will explore the ways in which each artist created a new and distinctive language for clay sculptures, one that claimed for clay the same freedom of expression then accorded to painting and sculpture.
Clay's Tectonic Shift: John Mason, Ken Price and Peter Voulkos, 1956–1968
During the postwar period, Scripps College was a vital part of the burgeoning ceramics art scene in Los Angeles. Clay's Tectonic Shift examines the role that John Mason, Ken Price, and Peter Voulkos played in redefining ceramics at mid-century. This exhibition will explore the ways in which each artist created a new and distinctive language for clay sculptures, one that claimed for clay the same freedom of expression then accorded to painting and sculpture.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Pasadena to Santa Barbara: A Selected History of Art in Southern California, 1951–1969
Beginning in the 1940s, the Pasadena Art Museum and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art became centers for dialogue and exchange between leading European and American artists and Southern California-based practitioners. Serving to both connect local artists to broader art movements and to challenge the primacy of the international scene, the PAM and SBMA were key sites for encouraging contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition will showcase Southern California artists who participated in shows at PAM and SBMA, along with international artists whose work had a significant impact on the region, and will demonstrate the influence of these two institutions in fostering a thriving art scene.
Pasadena to Santa Barbara: A Selected History of Art in Southern California, 1951–1969
Beginning in the 1940s, the Pasadena Art Museum and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art became centers for dialogue and exchange between leading European and American artists and Southern California-based practitioners. Serving to both connect local artists to broader art movements and to challenge the primacy of the international scene, the PAM and SBMA were key sites for encouraging contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition will showcase Southern California artists who participated in shows at PAM and SBMA, along with international artists whose work had a significant impact on the region, and will demonstrate the influence of these two institutions in fostering a thriving art scene.
University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)
Peace Press Graphics 1967–1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change
Cal State University Long Beach (CSULB) will mount a survey of the press's work and its connections to artist collectives of the time. Peace Press Graphics 1967–1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change will feature 50–75 posters from the press's archive alongside works on paper by artist groups who worked with the press, including the Feminist Studio Workshop and Women's Graphic Center, the Méchicano Art Center, and Self-Help Graphics and Art, Inc. A graphic timeline, music listening stations, poetry and spoken word performances, film clips interspersed in the galleries, and a separate film screening series will accompany the artworks and give audiences a unique opportunity to understand the art of political protest within its larger cultural milieu.
Peace Press Graphics 1967–1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change
Cal State University Long Beach (CSULB) will mount a survey of the press's work and its connections to artist collectives of the time. Peace Press Graphics 1967–1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change will feature 50–75 posters from the press's archive alongside works on paper by artist groups who worked with the press, including the Feminist Studio Workshop and Women's Graphic Center, the Méchicano Art Center, and Self-Help Graphics and Art, Inc. A graphic timeline, music listening stations, poetry and spoken word performances, film clips interspersed in the galleries, and a separate film screening series will accompany the artworks and give audiences a unique opportunity to understand the art of political protest within its larger cultural milieu.
University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch
Carefree California will examine Lost Angeles-based Cliff May's design and business savvy, through which he boldly shaped lifestyle expectations by subtly adapting the rancho sensibility to modern, system-built homes. In the process, May became associated less with specific architectural advancements than he does with the development and dispersal of a relaxed lifestyle model.
Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch
Carefree California will examine Lost Angeles-based Cliff May's design and business savvy, through which he boldly shaped lifestyle expectations by subtly adapting the rancho sensibility to modern, system-built homes. In the process, May became associated less with specific architectural advancements than he does with the development and dispersal of a relaxed lifestyle model.
USC Fisher Museum of Art
Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies
In 1974, the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies was formed to encourage the growth and appreciation of photography and to provide an infrastructure for study and exhibition. The organization became a hub for the photographic community, generating opportunities to explore ideas, expand knowledge, and experience new work. Active members included Robert Flick, Eileen Cowin, Jack Butler, Grant Mudford, and Donald Blumberg. The exhibition at the Fisher will examine the personalities, programs, and impact of the LACPS and make clear its role in facilitating a critical dialogue crucial to photographys development and acceptance as an art form.
Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies
In 1974, the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies was formed to encourage the growth and appreciation of photography and to provide an infrastructure for study and exhibition. The organization became a hub for the photographic community, generating opportunities to explore ideas, expand knowledge, and experience new work. Active members included Robert Flick, Eileen Cowin, Jack Butler, Grant Mudford, and Donald Blumberg. The exhibition at the Fisher will examine the personalities, programs, and impact of the LACPS and make clear its role in facilitating a critical dialogue crucial to photographys development and acceptance as an art form.
Vincent Price Art Museum Foundation
'Round the Clock: Chinese American Artists Working in Los Angeles
The Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) at East Los Angeles College will present an exhibition of Chinese-American artists working in Los Angeles in the postwar decades. Figures such as George Chann, John Kwok, Jake Lee, Milton Quon, and Tyrus Wong came to be known for their work in local creative industries such as film, commercial design, and advertising, yet to this day they have received little recognition for their personal artistic endeavors. VPAM aims to correct this oversight by presenting a survey of these artists' work that will include paintings, watercolors, drawings, and animation cels.
'Round the Clock: Chinese American Artists Working in Los Angeles
The Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) at East Los Angeles College will present an exhibition of Chinese-American artists working in Los Angeles in the postwar decades. Figures such as George Chann, John Kwok, Jake Lee, Milton Quon, and Tyrus Wong came to be known for their work in local creative industries such as film, commercial design, and advertising, yet to this day they have received little recognition for their personal artistic endeavors. VPAM aims to correct this oversight by presenting a survey of these artists' work that will include paintings, watercolors, drawings, and animation cels.
Though not grant recipients, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute also will be offering exhibitions as part of Pacific Standard Time:
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Paintings and Sculpture 1945–1970
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Paintings and Sculpture 1945–1970 will offer a fundamental reappraisal and reinterpretation of postwar Los Angeles art, leading viewers on a dynamic tour from the beginnings of an important indigenous modernism in and around Los Angeles to the great diversity of artistic practices that characterized the end of the postwar era. Featuring no more than 50 artists, the exhibition will include multiple works from each artist, allowing visitors to get a sense of the distinctiveness of individual practices as well as the place of Southern California artists within broader historical movements.
The Getty Conservation Institute at the Getty Center
From Start to Finish: DeWain Valentine'Gray Wall
This special display will focus on the technical aspects of one of DeWain Valentine's monumental sculptures, Gray Wall. His quest for a material that would allow him to create large-scale single castings while retaining the surface qualities and refractive properties he desired led Valentine to develop an entirely new polyester resin formula. This imposing piece will allow for an in depth study of the materials and manufacturing process–from start to finish–highlighting some of the key aspects of modern materials used in contemporary sculpture. The display will also explore the practical and ethical issues surrounding the conservation of these fragile and surface-specific pieces.
The Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center
Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics 1945–1980
In the postwar years, artists in Southern California developed free-spirited alternatives to the traditional art market. Wallace Berman, George Herms, and their friends circulated handmade works between one another. Others, like Allen Ruppersberg and Ed Ruscha, appropriated mass media and commercial forms to bypass galleries. Meanwhile, art schools provided forums for innovators such as Judy Chicago, John Baldessari, and Maria Nordman, and the peace and feminist movements mobilized artists to reach out to society at large. Through photographs, ephemera, correspondence, and artwork–many on view for the first time–this exhibition surveys a vibrant artistic community, one built from diverse and varied publics.