This fall, in an initiative called Pacific Standard Time, dozens of cultural institutions across Los Angeles are putting on exhibitions and events exploring, explaining and celebrating the Los Angeles art world from 1945 to 1980. This unusual collaboration boasts an amazing roster of shows covering an equally impressive array of artists, art movements and spaces, which is made all the more amazing by the fact that every one of them came from only a thirty-five year timespan and a single geographic location.
For our own unofficial part, we're very pleased to announce the publication of new e-book editions of two terrific books on the Los Angeles art world and its denizens: Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia, and The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the L.A. Art World. Both are by Richard Hertz (former professor at CalArts and graduate director at Art Center College of Design) and both also include contributions from dozens of L.A. insiders.
Not to play favorites, but I have to give a special personal recommendation to Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia. This is a book that when I first read it, really engaged me with artists and ideas that I hadn't known anything about before, and made me want to read more and to see more. What more than that can you ask from a book on art? It also makes not-infrequent appearances on recommendation lists and in interesting articles, and has really been a sort of underground hit since its original paperback release in 2003. I'm thrilled to be able to bring out this new e-book edition and I hope you'll check it out.
As for The Beat and the Buzz, I really need say only one thing: John Baldessari calls it "a page turner". Awesome. Add to cart.
THE START OF AN L.A. ART BIBLIOGRAPHY
Of course, the reading list on Los Angeles art only starts with our two books. There are shelves worth of other great books to read. Here's our recommend list of titles to get you started (alphabetical by author):
The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the L.A. Art World, Richard Hertz
Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia, Richard Hertz
Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
Last Chance for Eden: Selected Art Criticism by Christopher Knight 1979–1994, Christopher Knight
Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness, Chris Kraus
Sunshine Muse: Art on the West Coast, 1945–1970, Peter Plagens
Ed Ruscha's Los Angeles, Alexandra Schwartz
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, Lawrence Weschler
Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition, Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin, and True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney, Lawrence Weschler
Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s, Cécile Whiting
Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 05:19AM ;)
Download the E-Book, 713KB
