Out of Sight
The Los Angeles Art Scene of the Sixties
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A social and cultural history of Los Angeles and its emerging art scene in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s
The history of modern art typically begins in Paris and ends in New York. Los Angeles was out of sight and out of mind, viewed as the apotheosis of popular culture, not a center for serious art.
Out of Sight chronicles the rapid-fire rise, fall, and rebirth of L.A.’s art scene, from the emergence of a small bohemian community in the 1950s to the founding of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1980. Included are some of the most influential artists of our time: painters Edward Ruscha and Vija Celmins, sculptors Ed Kienholz and Ken Price, and many others.
A book about the city as much as it is about the art, Out of Sight is a social and cultural history that illuminates the ways mid-century Los Angeles shaped its emerging art scene—and how that art scene helped remake the city.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this enjoyable and well-researched book, arts journalist Hackman presents a rich cultural history of Los Angeles art in the 1950s and '60s, arguing that L.A. art "tells us more about the sort of country America was at mid-century, and the sort of place it was rapidly becoming, than does the self-conscious and sophisticated art of New York at the time." Hackman concentrates on curator Walter Hopps a "Wizard of Oz" character in the early days of the L.A. scene and the artists who surrounded him, such as Marcel Duchamp, Judy Chicago, John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman, and Ed Kienholz, with whom Hopps founded the Ferus Gallery in 1957. Hackman is most engaging when he dwells on larger issues, such as the city's geography, right-wing activism, and the conflict between "bohemia, masculinity, and sexuality in 1950s America." The book one of several recent titles to explore postwar art in L.A. (such as Michael Fallon's Creating the Future) serves as further proof of L.A.'s centrality to the story of American art. Illus.
