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

Walter and Shirley Hopps

Walter and Shirley Hopps at Ice Boxes in Malibu, California, 1955. Photo by Edmund Teske, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 95.XM.86. © Edmund Teske Archives/Lawrence Bump and Nils Vidstrand

Edmund Teske, who moved to Los Angeles in 1943, became an important part of the local artistic community. In the mid-1950s, Teske discovered an abandoned pile of iceboxes that had been left in the mountains above Malibu in Cornell, California. He made these evocative structures the backdrop for several of his compositions, including this portrait of Walter and Shirley Hopps. Along with Edward Kienholz, Hopps co-founded the Ferus Gallery, which opened in Los Angeles in 1957, and would foster an exciting new generation of California artists.

Works of Art

  • Walter Hopps Hopps Hopps

    Walter Hopps Hopps Hopps, 1959, Edward Kienholz. Paint and resin on wood, printed color reproductions, ink on paper, vertebrae, telephone parts, candy, dental molds, metal, pencil, and leather. 87 x 42 x 21 in. The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of Lannan Foundation. © Nancy Reddin Kienholz. Photo: Susan Einstein

Explore 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

  • 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

  • Announcement, "Action 2"

    Exhibition announcement for Action2: Works by West Coast Painters, at the NOW Gallery inside the Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles, September 5–25, 1956. Robert Alexander, designer. Letterpress on paper mounted on cardboard. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.15. Courtesy of the Temple of Man, Inc.

  • Arthur Richer and Wallace Berman

    Arthur Richer and Wallace Berman at Syndell Studio in Los Angeles, 1957. Richer’s art is in the background. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11.16. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Image courtesy of Lauri Richer. Photo by Charles Brittin

  • George Herms, 1960

    George Herms in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, 1960. Photo by Edmund Teske. Courtesy of and © 1960 Edmund Teske Archives, Laurence Bump and Nils Vidstrand

  • George Herms, 1960

    George Herms in 1960. Photo by Edmund Teske. Courtesy of and © 1960 Edmund Teske Archives, Laurence Bump and Nils Vidstrand

  • 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

  • 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