Avocado Mountain&raquo;Pacific Standard Time at the Getty

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.

Avocado Mountain

Avocado Mountain, 1959, Ken Price. Glazed ceramics (2 parts). 24 x 21 x 21 in. James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles. Permission courtesy Ken Price Studio

On View at the Getty Center: Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970

Ken Price studied ceramics with Peter Voulkos at Otis Art Institute in the mid-1950s, but later in the decade, after receiving his master’s degree from Alfred University, Price moved away from the utilitarian forms of traditional ceramics. In 1959, he began a series of dome-shaped pots using bright, often acid-colored glazes. Though these works are related to conventional pots—each one is capped by a small lid and could be used to store things—their curiously mounded forms and abstract designs demonstrate Price’s experimental approach to ceramics, as well as his interest in surrealist sculpture and abstract expressionist painting. Works from this series were shown in Price’s first solo exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in 1960.

Works of Art

Green and Cream, 1966, Ken Price. Glazed ceramic. 4 x 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. Private collection. Permission courtesy Ken Price Studio. Photo by Zoe Zimmerman
BG Red, 1963, Ken Price. Fired clay with acrylic and lacquer on wooden base. 10 in. high. Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Gifford Phillips. Permission courtesy Ken Price Studio. Photo by Taylor Sherill

Explore the Archive

Poster for The Studs group exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1964. Image courtesy of Hal Glicksman
Installation view of Ken Price's sculptures in the exhibition New American Sculpture at the Pasadena Art Museum, February 11–March 7, 1964. Photo by Frank J. Thomas. Courtesy of the Frank J. Thomas Archives
Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Ken Price outside Hotel Caesars in Tijuana, Mexico, 1968. Image courtesy of Larry Bell
Ken Price firing works for his Curio Store at the home of Dennis Hopper in Taos, New Mexico, 1973. Photo by Happy Price. Image courtesy of the Ken Price Studio
Ken Price at a party in Los Angeles in 1965. Image courtesy of Ken Price Studio
Ken Price with student work at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1956. Image courtesy of the Ken Price Studio

Explore the Era