Pacific Standard Time documents the rise of postwar L.A. art

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Pacific Standard Time documents the rise of postwar L.A. art

September 18, 2011 22:25

Part of the Getty's exhibition is "Standard Station, Amarillo Texas, 1963" by Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937). Oil on canvas. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; gift of James Meeker, Class of 1958, in memory of Lee English, Class of 1958, scholar, poet, athlete and friend to all. © Ed Ruscha

The Huntington will explore the furniture of mid-century craftsman Sam Maloof (1916 – 2009) including this 1984 fiddle-back chair of maple and ebony, 46 ½ x 25 ½ x 23 ¾ in. Collection of the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts Alta Loma, Calif. Credit: John Sullivan, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

The Getty's unprecedented, six-month initiative "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980," a series of region-wide exhibitions, is set to thoroughly record Southern California in the history of art. This eye-opening cultural extravaganza celebrates the Los Angeles artists who helped shaped postwar American art and those who came to worldwide prominence.

While a handful of the more than 60 shows have already opened, "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980" officially launches Oct. 1 and 2 with a trio of major surveys opening at the Getty, MOCA and LACMA. Museums and galleries throughout Southern California will host related exhibitions and events.

"The majority of the 40 artists featured in 'Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970,' the exhibition at the Getty Museum that stands as the cornerstone of the large Pacific Standard Time initiative, developed their breakthrough styles in the '60s: Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Bruce Nauman, Vija Celmins, Ed Kienholz, Judy Chicago, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, John Baldessari, Wallace Berman, Ken Price, Joe Goode, Peter Alexander and DeWain Valentine are a few of the best known," writes Hunter Drohojowska-Philp in the Los Angeles Times of the keynote event.

Among the California galleries participating in the Getty-funded initiative, Santa Barbara's Sullivan Goss will present LA’s RISEN, a sweeping exhibition that historicizes significant Los Angeles art from 1940 through to the 1980s, covering artists from Millard Sheets to Hank Pitcher.

Hans Burkhardt’s (1904–1994) expansive career and influence in L.A. are the focus of a survey exhibition of paintings and drawings entitled Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles.

Louis Stern Fine Arts will have on view an extensive retrospective exhibition of the work of Karl Benjamin, one of the founding fathers of Hard Edge painting. "The artist 's thirty-year trajectory, catalogued in the forthcoming exhibition, could serve as a guide for the evolution of American abstract painting," according to a gallery release about the exhibition "Karl Benjamin and the Evolution of Abstraction, 1950-1980."

A listing of Pacific Standard Time events and locations is available online.