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.

Charles Brittin Home and Studio

At the height of the Beat era, in the 1950s, Charles Brittin lived in an apartment on Speedway and Avenue 54, near this location. In the apartment above him lived the celebrated jazz singer Anita O’Day, and he received frequent visits from artist friends such as Wallace Berman and Robert Alexander.

Historic Map Locations

Works of Art

  • Business-card box for Charles Brittin

    Business-card box for Charles Brittin, 1957, Robert Alexander. Collaged box with medicine cap affixed. 2 1/2 x 6 3/8 x 3 7/8 in. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin Papers, 2005.M.11.27. Courtesy of the Temple of Man, Inc.

  • Business-card box for Charles Brittin

    Business-card box for Charles Brittin, ca. 1950s, Robert Alexander. Collaged box with key affixed. 2 1/4 x 4 5/16 x 3 15/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin Papers, 2005.M.11.28. Courtesy of the Temple of Man, Inc.

Explore the Archive

  • Wallace Berman in an abandoned building

    Wallace Berman in an abandoned building on the Speedway (an alleyway running parallel to the beach) in Venice, California, ca. 1955–57. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin