Introduction

Lorser Feitelson moved to Los Angeles in 1927, after living in Paris and New York. “Here I found I couldn’t sell my work,” he told Artforum in 1962. “I had no audience, therefore I painted for my own satisfaction and what a wonderful thing that was!” By that time, the painter of geometric abstractions was an elder statesman whose art lectures were broadcast on television in Los Angeles. Many younger artists had come to the same conclusion: When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.

In 1960, Los Angeles had no modern art museum and few galleries, which was exactly what renegade artists liked about it: Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Robert Irwin, Ed Kienholz, Larry Bell, Joe Goode, Bruce Nauman, Craig Kauffman, Judy Chicago, Vija Celmins, and John Baldessari among them. Freedom from an established way of seeing, making, and marketing art fueled their creativity, which, in turn, changed the city. Today, Los Angeles has four museums dedicated to contemporary art, hundreds of galleries, and thousands of artists. This book tells the saga of how the scene came into being—how a prevailing permissiveness in Los Angeles in the 1960s brought about countless innovations: Andy Warhol’s first show, Marcel Duchamp’s first retrospective, Frank Gehry’s unique architecture, Rudi Gernreich’s topless bathing suit, Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, and the Doors. In the 1960s, Los Angeles was the epicenter of cool.

This decade was so dense with activity, much of it overlapping if not actually connected, that a strict chronology proved impossible. The book is organized according to groups of people who knew one another as well as key events. I’ve included a timeline for clarification.

Since this book is not encyclopedic, I apologize in advance to all of those who feel they should have been included or whose work deserved more attention. I agree with you. So many artists, so little time! Despite that possible failing, please accept this as a love letter to Los Angeles, still a place of perpetual possibility and infinite invention.