Catalog L.A.: Birth of an Art Capital 1955-1985

by Catherine Grenier (Editor)

In the latter half of the twentieth century, Los Angeles took off as an international art capital. Catalog L.A. presents acomprehensive timeline of the burgeoning art scene that reflected the city's mlange of pop culture, celebrity, and political influences. Hundreds of images covering all the major exhibitions of the eraalong with excerpts from film, television, literature, and current eventsprovide a historical perspective on the metropolis's cultural and artistic innovations. A compendium of modern art, ephemera, critical texts, and revealing interviews, this archive chronicles the city's thirty-year metamorphosis into an art giant. Based upon a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2006, Catalog L.A. illuminates a radical period that forever altered the landscape of contemporary art.

Genres: Art

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Vivian]

Excellent art historical resource.

[Brandon Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good book. Insightful, full of rare photographs from every era of L.A.'s art boom of the last half century. Contains ridiculously detailed interviews with Artists like Mike Kelley, Chris Burden and Wallace Berman. Highly reccomended for anyone with an affinity for Los Angeles, the visual arts or both.

[Carlos Rosales-silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great history of Los Angeles' rise as the United States west coast art hub. The book is basically a close to 400 page time line that chronicles not only the visual arts, but all of the political and cultural events that led to L.A becoming a major cultural market and producer.

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

only sections were read........to be fair.

[Travis]

"it's a race to see what disintegrates first, the abstract paintings of the 50's or the finish fetish paintings of the 60's"

[Mario Ramirez-Arrazola · Rating 2 out of 5]

its alright, the formatting is a bit weird.