Allen Ruppersberg
Artist
Greetings from L.A.: A Novel, 1972, Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph. Self-published book. 8 x 5 1/4 x 11/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, 90-B12310.c1. © Allen Ruppersberg
Allen Ruppersberg (born 1944) was raised in suburban Cleveland and became interested in animation and commercial art after visiting Disneyland as a young boy. He graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in 1967 and initially worked as a painter. He soon became fascinated with pulp fiction novels, magazines, posters, and films—the stuff of everyday life and culture—and made them the content and form of his work. Al’s Café (1969), an art project masquerading as a restaurant, was followed in 1971 by an installation in a craftsman-style house called Al’s Grand Hotel, which Ruppersberg ran as an actual hotel over the course of six weekends.
Works of Art
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Greetings from L.A.: A Novel, 1972, Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph. Self-published book. 8 x 5 1/4 x 11/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, 90-B12310.c1. © Allen Ruppersberg
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Al's Grand Hotel catalog, 1971, Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph. 9 x 6 x 1/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, 94-B15837. © Allen Ruppersberg
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24 Pieces, 1970, Allen Ruppersberg. Spiral-bound offset lithograph. Self-published book. 6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. The Getty Research Institute, 89-B22093.c1. © Allen Ruppersberg
Explore the Archive
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Video: Discover how L.A. artists of the 1960s and 1970s appropriated commercial culture
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Letter and brochure for Al's Grand Hotel, May 2, 1971, designed by Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph brochure, typed letter (signed). © Allen Ruppersberg. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Michael Asher, 2009.M.30.2
