PST Home
 
< BACK TO EXHIBITIONS
left arrow right arrow
left arrow right arrow

  • The Atom (1962)

    Mel Ramos

    In 1963 this work was exhibited in Six More, an exhibition that explored the contribution of California painters to Pop Art. Mel Ramos's The Atom boldly uses the visual language and iconography of the comic book. The fictional character was an emblem of the Cold War popular culture in the U.S., first in 1940 and relaunched in 1961. Ramos showed this work and five others in Six More, alongside paintings by Billy Al Bengston, Joe Goode, Phillip Heffterton, Ed Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud, who was Ramos's teacher. Six More was a signal exhibition, then at the Guggenheim Museum, which was curated by Lawrence Alloway, who coined the term Pop Art.

    Oil on canvas 50 x 44 in
    Crocker Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Thiebaud. © Mel Ramos/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

  • Untitled Composition (1953)

    John McLaughlin

    This work is comparable to McLaughlin's painting, which was exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of 1953.


    Oil on canvas 47 7/8 x 36 in
    Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts © Louis Stern Fine Arts, photograph by Gerard Vuilleumier

  • Black Cloud Over Vineyard (1953)

    Hans Burkhardt

    Exhibited in Annual Exhibition, 1954


    Oil on canvas 41 1/2 x 54 in
    Courtesy of Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Inc Copyright Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation

  • Cat's Skull (1946)

    Howard Warshaw

    Exhibited in the Annual Exhibition, 1947


    Red and black chalk, white gouache heightening 10 1/4 x 14 1/2 in
    Photo courtesy of Denenberg Fine Arts, Inc © Denenberg Fine Arts, Inc.

  • Encounter #36 (1960)

    Tony Berlant

    Exhibited in Annual Exhibition of 1960


    Oil, duco, enamel, and crayon on board 31 x 28 in
    Courtesy Berlant Family Collection © Tony Berlant

  • Gas Tank and Tachometer 2 (1961)

    Billy Al Bengston

    This piece was exhibited in the exhibition Six More, which took place in L.A. in 1963.


    Oil on canvas 42 x 40 in
    Courtesy of Ed Ruscha. Photograph by Susan Haller © Billy Al Bengston

  • Holmby Home (1952)

    Ed Moses

    Exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of 1952


    Crayon and tempera on wood 16 x 20 1/2 in
    Courtesy of Ed Moses © Ed Moses

  • Magical Space Forms (1954)

    Lorser Feitelson

    This piece was displayed in the exhibition of 1957 entitled Pacific Coast Artists, and at the São Paolo Biennial in 1955.


    Oil on canvas 50 x 60 in
    Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts. Photograph by Gerard Vuilleumier © The Feitelson/Lundeberg Art Foundation

  • Micropainting (1960)

    John Baldessari

    This painting is comparable to one the artist exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of 1960.


    Oil on canvas 10 x 8 in
    Private Collection, Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery © John Baldessari

  • Rice Tea (ca. 1959)

    Larry Bell

    Exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of 1959.


    Watercolor 21 1/2 x 31 1/2 in
    Courtesy of Larry Bell © Larry Bell

  • Sophia (1960)

    Billy Al Bengston

    This piece is comparable to a painting Bengston exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of 1960, and again in the exhibition Six More in 1963.


    Oil on canvas 21 x 21 in
    Courtesy of Billy Al Bengston Artist Studio Holdings. Photograph by Samuel Freeman © Billy Al Bengston

  • Untitled Abstract Composition (1955)

    Frederick Hammersley


    Oil on canvas 24 x 30 in
    Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA © Frederick Hammersley Foundation

  • V.S. #3 (1959)

    Karl Benjamin

    Comparable to a painting exhibited by Karl Benjamin in the Annual Exhibition, 1960


    Oil on canvas 42 x 48 in
    Courtesy of Louis Stern Fine Arts. Photograph by Michael Faye © Karl Benjamin

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Artistic Evolution: Southern California Artists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1945-1963

Artistic Evolution: Southern California Artists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1945-1963 is inspired by works shown at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (formerly Los Angeles County Museum) through the Annual Exhibition of Los Angeles and Vicinity series and related contemporary exhibitions. The exhibition highlights the central role of the Museum as a standard-bearer for contemporary art in Southern California in the 1940s-early 1960s and includes paintings, drawings, and prints, with loans of works by John Baldessari, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Tony Berlant, Frederick Hammersley, Lorser Feitelson, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Ed Moses, John McLaughlin, Lee Mullican, Mel Ramos, Ed Ruscha, and Betye Saar. Guest curated by art historian Charlotte Eyerman, the exhibition offers a kaleidoscopic view of the Museum's past exhibitions, when art was shown at the Museum until the move of its collections to the then new Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire in the mid-1960s. The establishment of a new museum dedicated to the visual arts, and the subsequent move of NHM's art collections, signaled the beginning of a new era for the continually evolving art scene of Los Angeles, whose institutional roots remain in Exposition Park.
10/02/2011 – 01/15/2012
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles , CA 90007