Renaissance & Rebellion - Flipbook - Page 72
In the late ‘50s, Chouinard alum Frederick Hammersley along with Karl Benjamin, Lorser
Feitelson and John McGlaughlin quietly helped to finally upend the dominant grip of New Yorkbased Abstract Expressionism by their presentation of “Hard Edge” painting in their landmark
exhibition Four Abstract Classicists in 1959. Art went from the “unplanned” existentialism of New
York Abstract Expressionism to the “planned,” thus contributing to the revolution of West Coast
Pop and the other L.A.-based movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s to follow.
The ongoing climate of art persecution in L.A. also led to the eventual denouncement of
the “American Way of Life” and the mainstream art world by a group of artists who became
known as West Coast Assemblage artists. Associated with the Beat milieus of Topanga
Canyon and San Francisco, this loosely formed group that included Berman, Kienholz and
George Herms, made ephemeral assemblages, collages and tableaus. Culled from everyday
objects rather than traditional art materials, their works critiqued popular culture and the
notion of art as precious and everlasting. This movement was instrumental in forging the
path for future avant-garde movements that used art for activism like the Antiwar and
Feminist Art movements, as well as the artists forwarding performance and experience-based
Conceptual Art in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Despite the upheaval of these decades, the 1960s became a time of growth and prosperity
for the arts in Los Angeles and the origin of the momentum that propelled the city into the
limelight today. As with the youth culture at large, there was a general feeling of freedom
and that anything was possible. For many artists, this attitude led to artistic experimentation
and innovation. Both the Finish Fetish and Light and Space movements were formed at this
time when artists began using industrial materials usually reserved for surfboards, cars and
the aerospace industry. In Hollywood, artist June Wayne revolutionized the printmaking
industry when she opened her Tamarind Lithography Workshop in 1960 and invited artists
from all over the world to learn the nearly forgotten printmaking technique, including
legendary Chouinard artist/teachers Ynez Johnston, Matsumi Kanemitsu and Emerson
Woelffer. In 1965 Artforum magazine, co-founded by Dean of Chouinard Gerald Nordland,
moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
opened as the city’s first dedicated art museum. The gallery scene boomed in the 1960s, with
the iconoclastic Ferus Gallery (1957-66) at its forefront. Founded by Walter Hopps, Shirley
Hopps and Ed Kienholz, the Ferus Gallery added director Irving Blum in 1958 and hosted
trailblazing exhibitions, including Andy Warhol’s first solo showing of his Soup Cans in 1962,
and had an impressive roster of artists. Ferus is probably best known for its stable of local
artists—now known as the Ferus Gang or L.A.’s Cool School—including John Altoon, Larry
Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Wallace Berman, Llyn Foulkes, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Ed
Kienholz, John Mason, Ed Moses, Ken Price and Ed Ruscha—all pillars of West Coast Pop
and most of whom attended the Chouinard Art Institute. In 1961, Hopps joined the staff of
the progressive Pasadena Art Museum (P.A.M.) which was at the forefront of the West Coast
avant-garde from 1954 to 1974, when it closed and became the Norton Simon Museum.
CALIFORNIA 138
LOCOS
Andy Warhol, 1985
Terry O’Shea on motorcycle, 1969
Andy Warhol, Soup Cans, 1962
Terry O’Shea capsules, 1968
RENAISSANCE
139
REBELLION
