Delve into the postwar Los Angeles art world in this online archive, which provides additional material related to the exhibitions on view at the Getty Center. Learn about hipsters and happenings, and the venues across the city where all the action took place through images from the archives and first-hand accounts with the artists.
Billy Al Bengston’s exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in 1963 featured a number of large paintings that incorporated the artist’s signature chevron stripes, encircled with haloes of vibrantly colored lacquer. The titles of several works, such as Sonny, invoked Hollywood celebrities—“Sonny” refers to Sonny Tufts, an actor in the 1940s and 1950s. Other paintings included Buster (1962), as in Buster Keaton, and Busby (1963), referring to Busby Berkeley. These paintings were essentially abstract arrangements of colors and forms, yet Bengston’s use of recognizable symbols, his references to popular culture, and his use of materials and techniques associated with custom car culture, led many critics to label him a Pop artist in the early 1960s.
Explore the Era
Delve into the postwar Los Angeles art world in this online archive, which provides additional material related to the exhibitions on view at the Getty Center. Learn about hipsters and happenings, and the venues across the city where all the action took place through images from the archives and first-hand accounts with the artists.
Sonny
Sonny, 1961, Billy Al Bengston. Oil on Masonite. 36 x 36 in. Billy Al Bengston Studio Holdings. © Billy Al Bengston. Photo by Brian Forrest
On View at the Getty Center: Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970
Billy Al Bengston’s exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in 1963 featured a number of large paintings that incorporated the artist’s signature chevron stripes, encircled with haloes of vibrantly colored lacquer. The titles of several works, such as Sonny, invoked Hollywood celebrities—“Sonny” refers to Sonny Tufts, an actor in the 1940s and 1950s. Other paintings included Buster (1962), as in Buster Keaton, and Busby (1963), referring to Busby Berkeley. These paintings were essentially abstract arrangements of colors and forms, yet Bengston’s use of recognizable symbols, his references to popular culture, and his use of materials and techniques associated with custom car culture, led many critics to label him a Pop artist in the early 1960s.
Historic Map Locations
Styles & Materials
Time Periods & Venues
Works of Art
Big Jim McLain, 1967, Billy Al Bengston. Polyurethane and laquer on aluminum. 60 x 58 in. Collection of Joan and Jack Quinn. © Billy Al Bengston
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Video: Billy Al Bengston speaks about his work, March 2010
Billy Al Bengston’s studio at Clark Street and Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, 1957. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston on a his BSA Victor motorcycle in the Ballona Wetlands, Marina del Rey, California, 1966. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston’s studio at Clark Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, 1957. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston polishing an artwork, 1963. © Billy Al Bengston. Image courtesy of Marvin Silver and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Marvin Silver
Poster for The Studs group exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1964. Image courtesy of Hal Glicksman
Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Ken Price outside Hotel Caesars in Tijuana, Mexico, 1968. Image courtesy of Larry Bell
Billy Al Bengston’s studio on Mildred Street in Venice, California, 1970. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston
Several Los Angeles artists at Culture Day at LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art), 1968. Photo by and © Julian Wasser.