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  • The Back of Hollywood (1977)

    Ed Ruscha

    Edward Ruscha’s The Back of Hollywood (1977) is one of several paintings of the iconic Hollywood sign that he made in the 1970s and '80s. The artist has recalled that he used the sign, which was visible from his Venice studio, as an indicator of the weather—if he could see it on a given day, that meant the Los Angeles smog wasn’t so bad. Beginning his career as a commercial artist, Ruscha is perhaps best known for works in which text stands in for his chosen subject. In this work, the Hollywood sign is both text and an actual geographical feature. As he explained, “The Hollywood sign is actually a landscape in a sense. It’s a real thing and my view of it was really a conservative interpretation of something that exists, so it almost isn’t a word in a way—it’s a structure.” The work’s extreme horizontal format and saturated colors are reminiscent of a classic CinemaScope film, such that its subject is imbued with same the glamour and illusion of the movies that helped to make it famous.


    Oil on canvas 22 x 80 in
    Collection of Musee d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, France, courtesy of the artist

  • Untitled (#312 A) (1975)

    Judy Fiskin


    Gelatin silver print, edition 1/6 7 x 5 in. (actual image size: 2 3/4 x 2 in.)
    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor

  • Untitled (#312) (1975)

    Judy Fiskin


    Gelatin silver print, edition 2/6 5 x 7 in
    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor

  • Untitled (#309) (1975)

    Judy Fiskin


    Gelatin silver print, edition 1/6 5 x 7 in
    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor

  • Untitled (#310) (1975)

    Judy Fiskin


    Gelatin silver print, edition 1/6 5 x 7 in
    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor

  • Untitled (#307) (1975)

    Judy Fiskin


    Gelatin silver print, edition 1/6 7 13/16 x 9 3/4 x 5/8 in
    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor

  • It Terrifies Me... (1980)

    Raymond Pettibon


    Print on paper 11 x 8 1/2 in
    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Gift of Barry Sloane

  • The Reason for the Neutron Bomb (1979)

    Chris Burden


    50,000 nickels and 50,000 matchsticks 30 ft. 8 in. x 17 ft. 6 in
    Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

  • My Shadow (1977)

    Robert Colescott


    Acrylic on canvas 84 x 66 1/8 in
    Collection of Oakland Museum of California, Gift of Mrs. Elizabeth Ross

  • Crossroads (1976)

    Bruce Conner

    Bruce Conner’s Crossroads (1976) was made one year after the fall of Saigon, an event that marked the end of American fighting in Vietnam. The video features government archival footage of the United States Military’s nuclear weapons testing program Operation Crossroads, which was carried out in Bikini Atoll during the summer of 1946. Over the course of thirty-six minutes, the work depicts the mushroom cloud from an underwater bomb blast unfolding in extreme slow motion, accompanied by a soundtrack that alternates between incidental noises and explosions, and minimalist music composed by Patrick Gleeson and Terry Riley. Crossroads is a poetic meditation on the unfathomable destruction brought on by the Atomic Age, as well as the effects of both the Cold War and the Vietnam War on the American psyche.


    Installation with sound, 36 min Dimensions variable
    The Conner Family Trust, Los Angeles

  • Zuma #5, from the Zuma Series (1977/2006)

    John Divola


    Archival pigment on rag paper 24 x 30 in
    Courtesy of the artist

  • Portrait of My Father (1972-79)

    Stephen Kaltenbach


    Acrylic on canvas 114 x 170 3/4 in
    Collection of Crocker Art Museum, purchased with contributions from Gerald D. Gordon, Collectors' Guild, Anne and Malcolm McHenry, Kim Mueller and Robert J. Slobe, James R. Lenarz and other donations

  • El Grito de Rebelde (1975)

    Rupert Garcia


    Color silkscreen on white wove paper 26 x 20 in

  • Three Weeks in May (1977)

    Suzanne Lacy


    Panel, map of Los Angeles, RAPE stamps in red 90 x 44 in
    Collection of the artist. Photograph by Grant Mudford

  • All the Pants I Had Except the Ones I Was Wearing (Front and Back) (1974 / 2010)

    Ilene Segalove


    Two chromogenic prints 11 x 14 in
    Collection of the artist, courtesy Jancar Gallery

  • All the Pants I Had Except the Ones I Was Wearing (Front and Back) (1974 / 2010)

    Ilene Segalove


    Two chromogenic prints 11 x 14 in
    Collection of the artist, courtesy Jancar Gallery

  • The History of a Woman Is the History of Her Jewelry (1975 / 2010)

    Ilene Segalove


    Chromogenic print 20 x 33 in
    Collection of the artist, courtesy Jancar Gallery

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974 - 1981

Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 will constitute the most comprehensive survey exhibition to date to examine the exceptional fertility and diversity of art practice in California during the mid- to late 1970s; a period bracketed by Richard Nixon's ignominious resignation and retreat to Southern California in 1974, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and the landslide election of California Governor Ronald Reagan and his ascent to the American Presidency in 1981. Organized by MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel, Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 will feature works by approximately 125 artists working in a wide array of mediums and styles. The exhibition seeks to demonstrate how collective loss of faith in government and other institutionalized forms of authority yielded a pluralistic spirit of freedom and experimentation that reached its artistic apex in California, already a fertile ground for creativity and non-conformity.
10/02/2011 – 02/13/2012
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012