Out of Sight: The Los Angeles Art Scene of the Sixties

Here is an extensive, detailed double history, of the development of art in the mid-1900s in Los Angeles and the history of the city of Los Angeles itself. The text is comprehensive and well written by seasoned journalist William Hackman, who did several years of very thorough research on these two subjects. The history of contemporary art and the city is finely interwoven. In Out of sight, Hackman starts in the 1910s and describes the barely budding art scene, leading into the chief period and focus of his studies, the mid-1950s through early 1970s. California artists dared to break away from the East Coast art format with a drastically different approach that authorities regarded with suspicion, and sometimes labeled as communist influenced. The main character through much of the book is Walter Hopps, who provided venues and unfailing support to artists through galleries and museums, such as Ferus, home for West Coast artists, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Pasadena Art Museum. A few black and white photos from the period show artists and exhibits, and a sixteen-page color insert illustrate some of the period’s artwork. Extensive chapter-by-chapter notes and a bibliography end this volume.