Untitled (Faceless Faces with Kabala)&raquo;Pacific Standard Time at the Getty

Delve into the postwar Los Angeles art world in this online archive, which provides additional material related to the exhibitions on view at the Getty Center. Learn about hipsters and happenings, and the venues across the city where all the action took place through images from the archives and first-hand accounts with the artists.

Untitled (Faceless Faces with Kabala)

Untitled (Faceless Faces with Kabala), 1963–70, Wallace Berman. Verifax collage with transfer lettering. 29 7/8 x 28 11/16 in. Collection of Nicole Klagsbrun. Permission courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles

On View at the Getty Center: Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970

In Untitled (Faceless Faces with Kabala), Berman combined found photographic portraits of mid-century couples that he passed through a Verifax machine, obliterating their faces. The work disrupts these comfortable visions of the American Dream, rendering the prettily dressed women and neatly suited men anonymous and unsettling. At the bottom of the work, a line of Hebrew letters is applied with transfer lettering. Berman would have seen Hebrew signs in shop windows during his childhood in Los Angeles’s Fairfax district, and he was particularly fascinated by the Kaballah, a mystical branch of Judaism, which he probably discovered via the poets Robert Duncan or David Meltzer, and read about in the book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Jewish letters recur throughout Berman’s oeuvre. Here, in the context of these rows of anonymous people the script also assumes more somber universal allusions related to the mourning of lost souls and a lost language in the post-Holocaust era.

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Works of Art

Untitled (Verifax Collage), 1969, Wallace Berman. Verifax collage on board. 45 x 48 in. Collection of Michael D. Fox, Berkeley, CA, courtesy Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA. Permission courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo by Joe Schopplein
Topanga Seed, 1969–70, Wallace Berman. Dolomite rock and transfer letters. 39 x 40 3/4 x 41 in. Collection of the Grinstein Family. Permission courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Semina cover with Wife (photograph of Shirley Berman), 1959, Wallace Berman. Semina journal, no. 4 (1959) by Wallace Berman. Halftone reproduction on cardstock. 9 7/16 x 8 x 1/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, 2564-801.no1.2. Courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Semina cover with photograph of Cameron, 1955, Wallace Berman. Semina journal, no. 1 (1955) by Wallace Berman. Gelatin silver print mounted on cardstock. 7 1/2 x 4 in. The Getty Research Institute, 2564-801.no1.2. Courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Semina cover with altered press photograph of William George Heirens (the “Lipstick Killer”), 1963, Dean Stockwell. Semina journal, no. 8 (1963) by Wallace Berman. Halftone reproduction on cardstock, mounted on cardboard. 7 1/16 x 5 1/2. The Getty Research Institute, 2864-801.no8.6. Courtesy of Dean Stockwell and the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, 1964, Wallace Berman. Mixed media collage. 44 1/2 x 32 ¼ x 2 in. Collection of David Yorkin & Alix Madigan, Los Angeles. Permission courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Homage to Hermann Hesse, 1949 (modified 1954), Wallace Berman. Wood. 59 x 21 3/16 x 17 7/8 in. Collection of Joy Stockwell. Permission courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Card to George Herms, 1970, Wallace Berman. Letterpress, ink, and gelatin silver print on board. 6 1/4 x 4 in. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of George Herms, 2009.M.20.9. Courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Card to Betty Asher, ca. 1965, Wallace Berman. Photomontage and ink on board. 4 x 2 15/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Michael Asher, 2009.M.30.25. Courtesy of the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles

Explore the Archive

Video: George Herms speaks about the work of Wallace Berman, March 2011
Exterior view of the Semina Gallery in Larkspur, California, with partial view of Charles Brittin’s exhibition. 1961. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.21 © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Installation view of Charles Brittin exhibition at Semina Gallery in Larkspur, California, 1961. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.19. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Wallace Berman and friends in the alley next to the Ferus Gallery showing a sculpture to the LAPD vice squad, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.10. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Contact sheet showing images of Wallace Berman's exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.13. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photos by Charles Brittin
Wallace Berman's assemblage Temple in his exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.12. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Temporary closure sign at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers 2005.M.11.11. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Robert Alexander, John Reed, Wallace Berman, Juanita Dixon, and Walter Hopps in the alley next to Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, ca. 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.9. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Strip of photos taken by Charles Brittin at the Semina Gallery in Larkspur, California, 1960. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11. © J. Paul Getty Trust
Dean Stockwell and Wallace Berman at Stone Brothers Printing, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.18. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Wallace Berman with a copy of Semina no. 1 in the Stone Brothers Printing display window, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.17. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Arthur Richer and Wallace Berman at Syndell Studio in Los Angeles, 1957. Richer’s art is in the background. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.16. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Image courtesy of Lauri Richer. Photo by Charles Brittin
Wallace Berman and the LAPD vice squad at Ferus Gallery, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.8. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin
Wallace Berman with his collage Papa's Got a Brand New Bag in 1965. Art © the Estate of Wallace Berman and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Marvin Silver and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Marvin Silver

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