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.

North Wall

North Wall

Norman Zammitt executing his painting North Wall, 1976. Acrylic on canvas. 96 x 168 in. Collection of Leon Gazarian & Monique Powell. © Norman Zammitt Estate

North Wall is part of a series of monumental striped paintings Norman Zammitt began in 1972 that built upon the color relationships he had explored in his acrylic resin sculptures of the 1960s. To create these works, Zammitt experimented with sequencing his colors based on mathematical logarithms. He even consulted with scientists at the California Institute of Technology who gave him access to computers in order to quantify the visual phenomena of his paintings. For North Wall, Zammitt precisely measured the width of each band and created parabolic graphs to calculate the color progression; he used this data to design a complex abstract painting that produces vibrant shifts from one band of color to the next.

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  • Norman Zammit in his studio

    Norman Zammitt working in his studio in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, 1965. Photo by Frank J. Thomas. Courtesy of the Frank J. Thomas Archives

  • Norman Zammitt's studio

    Norman Zammitt's painting materials in his studio in Pasadena, California, 1978. Image courtesy of and © Norman Zammitt Estate

  • Norman Zammitt in his studio

    Norman Zammitt working in his studio in Pasadena, California, 1976. Image courtesy of and © Norman Zammitt Estate