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.

The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire

The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965–68, Ed Ruscha.

The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965–68, Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas. 53 1/2 x 133 1/2 in. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1972. © Ed Ruscha. Photography by Lee Stalsworth

Ed Ruscha started this depiction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the same year that the museum moved to a new complex built in Hancock Park. Rendering the buildings with precise detail, Ruscha painted the museum with multiple vanishing points and from a perspective that appears slightly elevated. This elaborate figuration is further complicated by the flames and smoke that erupt from the museum’s Ahmanson Building on the left side of the composition. Both the depicted disaster and the formally skewed perspective produce an eerie sense of uncertainty and discomfort.

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Works of Art

  • Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas

    Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963, Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas. 64 1/2 x 121 3/4 in. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; gift of James Meeker, Class of 1958, in memory of Lee English, Class of 1958, scholar, poet, athlete and friend to all. © Ed Ruscha

  • Some Los Angeles Apartments

    Some Los Angeles Apartments, 1965, Ed Ruscha. Self-published book, offset lithograph, 1965 (seconding printing 1970). 7 1/16 x 5 9/16 x 1/4 in. The Getty Research Institute, 86-B19485.c2. © Ed Ruscha

  • Real Estate Opportunities

    Real Estate Opportunities, 1970, Ed Ruscha. Self-published book, offset lithograph. 7 1/16 x 5 5/8 x 3/16 in. Open to pages depicting 12th & Sentous (southeast corner), and 1140 E. Pico. The Getty Research Institute, 86-B19480. © Ed Ruscha

  • Every Building on the Sunset Strip

    Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, Ed Ruscha. Self-published book, offset lithograph, 1966 (second printing 1971). 7 1/8 x 5 3/4 x 3/8 in. Open unfolded: 7 1/8 x 297 in. The Getty Research Institute, 86-B19486.c1. © Ed Ruscha

Explore the Archive

  • Video: Ed Ruscha

    Video: Ed Ruscha speaks about his work, April 2011

  • Ed Ruscha holding "Every Builging on the Sunset Strip"

    Ed Ruscha holding his book Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1967. © Ed Ruscha. Image courtesy of Jerry McMillan and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Jerry McMillan

  • Ed Ruscha's studio

    Ed Ruscha's studio at 1024 3/4 N. Western Avenue in Hollywood, California, 1970. Photo by Larry Bell. Image courtesy of Billy Al Bengston

  • Betty Asher and Henry Hopkins

    Betty Asher and Henry Hopkins in front of Ed Ruscha's painting The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire (1965–68), ca. late 1960s. © Ed Ruscha. The Getty Research Institute, Betty Asher Papers, Gift of Michael Asher, 2009.M.30

  • Ed Ruscha in his studio

    Ed Ruscha in his studio at 1024 3/4 N. Western Avenue in Hollywood, California, 1970. Image courtesy of Billy Al Bengston. Photo © Larry Bell

  • Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode on horseback

    Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode on horseback. Exhibition catalogue cover for the Fine Arts Patrons of Newport Harbor at the Balboa Pavillion Gallery, 1968. Image courtesy of Jerry McMillan and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Jerry McMillan