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.

Noah Purifoy Home and Studio

In the early 1950s, artist Noah Purifoy moved into a house at this location on La Brea Avenue. It became a gathering place for African American artists such as Judson Powell and John Outterbridge to discuss their work and organize ways to exhibit it, including through the exhibition 66 Signs of Neon in 1966. As Purifoy recalled in 1990, “Everybody knows about that old house I had. I had moved there when the rent was $50 a month, and I’d probably been there 20 years or 15 years or so when I went to work in Watts [in 1964]. That little place where I lived became a center for most of the artists and people I know that would come through.”

Historic Map Locations

Works of Art

  • Untitled

    Untitled, 1966, Noah Purifoy. Mixed media, including debris from the Watts rebellion. 29 3/4 x 16 3/16 in. Private collection. Permission granted by the Noah Purifoy Foundation