Greetings from L.A.: A Novel
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
On View at the Getty Center: Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics 1950-1980
Beginning in the 1960s select Los Angeles artists began to mimic the look and feel of commercial marketing strategies by treating viewers as consumers. In this vein, Allen Ruppersberg produced a series of books that demonstrate an interest in the products of popular culture. One of these was Greetings from L.A., the subtitle for which declares it to be a novel. A flip of its pages reveals only occasional bits of narrative, with the most of the pages left blank. The back cover, meanwhile, features a parody of the exaggerated and breathy prose used to sell airport fiction and cheap thrillers. The piece is striking for this contrast between its content, a high-culture exploration of text and spacing that nods to the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, and its seeming appearance as low-culture pulp fiction.
Works of Art
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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
