Page 31 - Studio International - October 1970

How Los Angeles Untitled i969
Billy Al Bengston
looks today Lacquer and polyester resin on aluminium, 36x 34 in.
Collection: Joe Goode, Los Angeles
Photo: Artist Studio
Helene Winer

This fall, Germany and London will get a fair
dose of Los Angeles art, in two separate but
simultaneous exhibitions; one at the Hayward
Gallery in London, and the other travelling to
several cities in Germany. Although there is
some core-group overlap of artists in the two
shows, the intent is clearly disparate, with the
result that seeing both exhibitions would give
a somewhat biased but unusually extensive
exposure to L.A. art.'
The Hayward show is a cross-generation
cross-style approach that might well be
attempting to make a case for a general
diversity that Los Angeles has not been thought
to have. Several of the artists included in the
Hayward exhibition are not discussed in the
following article. It was originally written as
the catalogue introduction to the German
exhibition organized by Hans Neuendorf. The
German exhibition of Los Angeles art, while
including possibly too many artists, concerns
itself with a more specialized aspect of the art.
So, the following article is not intended to be
comprehensive. It is an introduction to some of
the developments associated with Los Angeles,
and the artists most integrally involved. The
last section has been added to the article, and
discusses briefly some of the artists who were
not included in either exhibition, and who
represent a very definite 'new wave', new
vitality, or change of direction for art in Los
Angeles during the past few years.

Masses of material has been written about that
sprawling phenomenon of urban non-planning,
Los Angeles. Every aspect of the city seems
unlike that of any other. In essence it is the
expanse of area, the warm climate, and the Hollywood Wax Museum, Forest Lawn, the romantic. History and tradition, for art as for
large-scale development of aerospace industry, elaborate real-life portrayals of famous art the city itself, are references or objective sources
along with the aura of Hollywood, that works of the annual Festival of the Living Arts; of information, rather than masterplans. If
comprise an adequate starting point to not to mention the comparative tameness of the Los Angeles has any tradition at all, it would
comprehending the nature of the city. These natural and more integral attributes of sea, certainly be one of change and experimentation.
factors have been the source of the constant mountains and Sunset Strip. All levels of Its sense of history that is less a respect for
population expansion, of the physical reality and fantasy merge into the single tradition than a 'camp' nostalgia, enters more
conglomeration of the city itself and finally, of concept of a push-button environment, a pill noticeably into the art of visiting artists, such
the omnipotent role of the automobile. An for every mood, with the automobile as time as David Hockney, than into that of the
indirect consequence is the privacy of anonymity machine. residents. Much has been said of the L.A.
that comes with the physical isolation, and the Literally and implicitly, within the chaos of `look' in art, and this refers almost exclusively
lack of identifiable history or traditions. The the city exist the materials of our future, both to the way in which the artists have exploited
fantasy inherent in the Los Angeles experience constructive and destructive. Capitalizing on new materials rather than to a recognizable
is largely supported by territorial extensions the positive factors, Los Angeles has become, cultural imagery (Ed Ruscha's and Billy Al
facilitated by the ownership of and dependence in little more than a decade, a major art centre Bengston's early imagery). The most
upon one's automobile. In this machine, with of unique developments and broadening technologically sophisticated, flawlessly executed
an extreme of place transference which implications. Artists have sought and refined and clean (as well as transparent) work that has
approaches science-fiction instantaneousness, beauty and clarity that is camouflaged by the ever been produced emanates from Los Angeles.
we are transported in just minutes to Disneyland, considerable chaos of Los Angeles, and they What L.A. artists have most specifically
Marineland, Safari Land, Japanese Deer Park, have arrived at an art that is idealistic and and significantly in common with one another is
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