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 Institute of Contemporary Art (1974–77)

The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA) opened in 1974, on the fifth floor of a building in Century City, as a space dedicated to both local and international contemporary art. Its first exhibition, Nine Senior California Painters (1974–75), featured Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg, and John Mclaughlin. Others included Three L.A. Sculptors: Lloyd Hamrol, George Herms, and Bruce Nauman (1975), Imagination (1976) curated by Llyn Foulkes, and Frederick Eversley (1976). LAICA’s founding director was Robert Smith, and its Board of Directors included artists Peter Alexander and John Baldessari, and collector Elyse Grinstein. Its magazine, Journal, became an important contemporary art publication. In 1977, LAICA moved to a larger space where it operated until 1987.

Historic Map Locations