Explore the Era

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.

Eleanor Antin
Artist

Eleanor Antin

Representational Painting, 1971. © Eleanor Antin. Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Eleanor Antin is an influential performance and installation artist. She was born in New York City in 1935, received her BA in creative writing and art at City College of New York in 1958, and moved to Southern California in 1968. From 1971 to 1973,  Antin produced 100 Boots, a conceptual work in which she staged 100 boots in various settings, then had them photographed and mailed as postcards, bypassing the traditional gallery system. For her performance work, she interrogates gender, race, and identity by taking on fictional personas whose experiences are drawn from historical events. Teaching has also been central for Antin who has served as a professor of art at the University of California, San Diego from 1975–2002.

Works of Art

  • 100 Boots

    100 Boots, 1971–73, Eleanor Antin. Halftone reproductions on 51 cards. 4 ½ x 7 in. each. The Getty Research Institute, 2011.M.23, 2006.M.24, 890164, and 2009.M.5 (Gift of Hal Glicksman). © Eleanor Antin. Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Explore the Archive

  • Video: Barbara T. Smith on art schools

    Video: Learn more about the region’s network of art schools with artist Barbara T. Smith