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.

From the Archive

Poster for Richard Pettibone exhibition

Poster for Richard Pettibone exhibition Wanted: $2000 Reward at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1966. Courtesy of the artist. Offset lithograph mounted on board. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Irving Blum, 2009.M.37.2

For his first solo exhibition, Richard Pettibone appropriated the work of other artists by reproducing them in miniature. This poster, likewise appropriated the work of another artist, in this case the Dada artist Marcel Duchamp. In 1963, Walter Hopps, a founder of Ferus Gallery, and then acting director at the Pasadena Art Museum, had overseen the first ever retrospective of Duchamp.

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Explore the Archive

  • Video: the postwar L.A. gallery scene

    Video: Making the Scene—find out about the L.A. gallery scene during the postwar years

  • Poster for Craig Kauffman exhibition

    Poster for Craig Kauffman exhibition at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1962. © The Estate of Craig Kauffman. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Michael Asher, 2009.M.30.16. Courtesy Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California

  • Wallace Berman's exhibition at Ferus Gallery

    Contact sheet showing images of Wallace Berman's exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.13. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photos by Charles Brittin

  • Temporary closure sign at Ferus Gallery

    Temporary closure sign at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers 2005.M.11.11. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin

  • Robert Alexander, John Reed, Wallace Berman, Juanita Dixon, and Walter Hopps

    Robert Alexander, John Reed, Wallace Berman, Juanita Dixon, and Walter Hopps in the alley next to Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, ca. 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.9. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin

  • Wallace Berman and the LAPD Vice Squad

    Wallace Berman and the LAPD vice squad at Ferus Gallery, 1957. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.8. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin

  • 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

  • Protest outside Ferus Gallery

    Protest on La Cienega Boulevard, outside the Ferus Gallery, May 15, 1965. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin

  • Irving Blum with Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans

    Irving Blum with Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1962. Photo by William Claxton. Courtesy Demont Photo Management, LLC.