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.

Sonny

Sonny

Sonny, 1961, Billy Al Bengston. Oil on Masonite. 36 x 36 in. Billy Al Bengston Studio Holdings. © Billy Al Bengston. Photo by Brian Forrest

Billy Al Bengston’s exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in 1963 featured a number of large paintings that incorporated the artist’s signature chevron stripes, encircled with haloes of vibrantly colored lacquer. The titles of several works, such as Sonny, invoked Hollywood celebrities—“Sonny” refers to Sonny Tufts, an actor in the 1940s and 1950s. Other paintings included Buster (1962), as in Buster Keaton, and Busby (1963), referring to Busby Berkeley. These paintings were essentially abstract arrangements of colors and forms, yet Bengston’s use of recognizable symbols, his references to popular culture, and his use of materials and techniques associated with custom car culture, led many critics to label him a Pop artist in the early 1960s.

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Works of Art

  • Big Jim McLain

    Big Jim McLain, 1967, Billy Al Bengston. Polyurethane and laquer on aluminum. 60 x 58 in. Collection of Joan and Jack Quinn. © Billy Al Bengston

Explore the Archive

  • Video: Billy Al Bengston

    Video: Billy Al Bengston speaks about his work, March 2010

  • Billy Al Bengston’s studio

    Billy Al Bengston’s studio at Clark Street and Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, 1957. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston

  • Billy Al Bengston on his motorcycle

    Billy Al Bengston on a his BSA Victor motorcycle in the Ballona Wetlands, Marina del Rey, California, 1966. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston

  • Billy Al Bengston in his studio

    Billy Al Bengston’s studio at Clark Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, 1957. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston

  • Billy Al Bengston polishing an artwork

    Billy Al Bengston polishing an artwork, 1963. © Billy Al Bengston. Image courtesy of Marvin Silver and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Marvin Silver

  • Poster for The Studs group exhibition

    Poster for The Studs group exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1964. Image courtesy of Hal Glicksman

  • Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Ken Price

    Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Ken Price outside Hotel Caesars in Tijuana, Mexico, 1968. Image courtesy of Larry Bell

  • Bill Al Bengston's studio in Venice

    Billy Al Bengston’s studio on Mildred Street in Venice, California, 1970. Image courtesy of and © Billy Al Bengston

  • Los Angeles artists at Culture Day at LACMA, 1968

    Several Los Angeles artists at Culture Day at LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art), 1968. Photo by and © Julian Wasser.