Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980, one-day workshop, Getty Center

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Curators, scholars, and educators will set the stage for Southern California”™s long-awaited Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980, with a one-day workshop at the Getty Center addressing some of the myths, stereotypes and realities that persist about Los Angeles art in the postwar period, on Friday, May 13, 2011, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Report by Pauline Adamek

Presented by the Getty Research Institute, Questioning the Standard: New Narratives of Art in Los Angeles confronts the art historical clichés that have framed Los Angeles as provincial and peripheral.  These have assumed that all L.A. art is inspired by its landscape, light and lifestyle and have frequently depicted the city’s art world as a series of separatist communities with little mutual interest.  Questioning the Standard examines these myths in order to develop terms more appropriate to the specificities of Southern California art and to encourage a more nuanced understanding based on recent research.

Confirmed panelists include:

Claudia Bohn-Spector (Speaking in Tongues: The Art of Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken, Amory Center for the Arts); Robin Clark (Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface, Museum of Contemporary Art  San Diego); Michael Duncan (L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles, 1945-1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy, Pasadena Museum of California Art); Rita Gonzalez (Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972-1987, Los Angeles County Museum of Art); Kellie Jones (Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980, Hammer Museum, UCLA); Alexandra Juhasz (Doin It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Womans Building, Otis College of Art and Design); Jesse Lerner (MEX/LA: Mexican Modernism(s) in Los Angeles, 1930-1985, Museum of Latin American Art); Wendy Kaplan (California Design, 19301965: “Living in a Modern Way”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art); Kimberli Meyer (Sympathetic Seeing: Esther McCoy and the Heart of American Modernist Architecture and Design, MAK Center); Karen Moss (State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970, Orange County Museum of Art and Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive); Tere Romo (Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation; Mural Remix: Sandra de la Loza, Audrey National Center with UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center); and Jennifer Watts (Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1980, Palm Springs Art Museum).

Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.

Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time will take place for six months beginning October 2011.

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Questioning the Standard: New Narratives of Art in Los Angeles

A one-day workshop presented by the Getty Research Institute

Friday, May 13, 2011

9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

At the Getty Center,

1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles.

Admission is free, but reservations are required and seats are limited.

For reservations, visit the official site or call (310) 440-7300.

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The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations:  the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.

The Getty Research Institute is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It serves education in the broadest sense by increasing knowledge and understanding about art and its history through advanced research. The Research Institute provides intellectual leadership through its research, exhibition, and publication programs and provides service to a wide range of scholars worldwide through residencies, fellowships, online resources, and a Research Library. The Research Library – housed in the 201,000-square-foot Research Institute building designed by Richard Meier – is one of the largest art and architecture libraries in the world. The general library collections (secondary sources) include almost 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogues encompassing the history of Western art and related fields in the humanities. The Research Library’s special collections include rare books, artists’ journals, sketchbooks, architectural drawings and models, photographs, and archival materials.

Visiting the Getty Center

The Getty Center is open Tuesday through Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed Monday and major holidays. Admission to the Getty Center is always free.  Parking is $15 per car, but free after 5pm on Saturdays and for evening events throughout the week. No reservation is required for parking or general admission. Reservations are required for event seating and groups of 15 or more. Please call 310-440-7300 (English or Spanish) for reservations and information. The TTY line for callers who are deaf or hearing impaired is 310-440-7305.  The Getty Center is at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California

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About Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980

Pacific Standard Time is a collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together for six months beginning in October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene and how it became a major new force in the art world. Each institution will make its own contribution to this grand-scale story of artistic innovation and social change, told through a multitude of simultaneous exhibitions and programs. Exploring and celebrating the significance of the crucial years after World War II through the tumultuous period of the 1960s and 70s, Pacific Standard Time encompasses developments from L.A. Pop to post-minimalism; from modernist architecture and design to multi-media installations; from the films of the African-American L.A. Rebellion to the feminist activities of the Womans Building; from ceramics to Chicano performance art; and from Japanese-American design to the pioneering work of artists collectives. Initiated through $10 million in grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time involves cultural institutions of every size and character across Southern California, from Greater Los Angeles to San Diego and Santa Barbara to Palm Springs. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Additional information is available here.