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.

Pasadena Art Museum

Poster for the exhibition New Painting of Common Objects

Poster for the exhibition New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum, 1962. Wood-type letterpress on paper. 42 3/8 x 28 in. Image courtesy of the Ed Ruscha Studio

The Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum) was originally founded in 1922 as the Pasadena Art Institute. It was located in the galleries of the Grace Nicholson Studios at 46 North Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena. Throughout the 1960s, the museum was home to numerous groundbreaking exhibitions under directors Thomas Leavitt and Walter Hopps. These included New Painting of Common Objects (1962)—the first museum exhibition of Pop Art, which included Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode; the first Marcel Duchamp retrospective (1963); and solo exhibitions of artists such as Llyn Foulkes, Sam Francis, Peter Voulkos, Emerson Woelffer, and Joseph Cornell. In 1969, the museum moved to its current location.

Historic Map Locations

Works of Art

  • Torn Cloud Painting 73

    Torn Cloud Painting 73, 1972, Joe Goode. Oil on canvas. 72 x 96 in. Collection of Joe Goode & Hiromi Katayama. © Joe Goode

  • Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas

    Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963, Ed Ruscha. Oil on canvas. 64 1/2 x 121 3/4 in. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; gift of James Meeker, Class of 1958, in memory of Lee English, Class of 1958, scholar, poet, athlete and friend to all. © Ed Ruscha

  • Little Big Horn

    Little Big Horn, 1959, Peter Voulkos. Polychromed stoneware. 62 x 40 x 40 in. The Oakland Museum of California, gift of the Art Guild in memory of Helen Schilling Stelzner. © Mrs. Ann Voulkos, Voulkos Family Trust. Image courtesy of the Voulkos & Co. Catalogue Project. Photo by Joe Schopplein

  • Flanders

    Flanders, 1961–62, Llyn Foulkes. Mixed media. 54 x 36 x 14 in. and 16 x 15 3/4 in. Collection of Ernest & Eunice White. © Llyn Foulkes. Photo © Douglas M. Parker Studio

Explore the Archive

  • Video: Ed Ruscha

    Video: Ed Ruscha speaks about his work, April 2011

  • Video: Joe Goode

    Video: Joe Goode speaks about his work, March 2011

  • Thomas Leavitt, Llyn Foulkes, and Walter Hopps

    Thomas Leavitt, Llyn Foulkes, and Walter Hopps at the opening of Foulkes's exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, September 18, 1962. Image courtesy of and © Llyn Foulkes

  • Ken Price's sculptures

    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

  • Craig Kauffman installation

    Installation view of Craig Kauffman's solo exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, including works from Kauffman's Loops series, 1970. Photo by Frank J. Thomas. Courtesy of the Frank J. Thomas Archives

  • Peter Voulkos's exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1958

    Peter Voulkos's exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, 1958. Courtesy of the Voulkos & Co. Catalogue Project

  • Llyn Foulkes at Pasadena Art Museum

    Llyn Foulkes stands by his work Flanders (1960–62) at the opening of his solo exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, September 18, 1962. Image courtesy of and © Llyn Foulkes