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.

“Secret Exhibition” by George Herms

One of the more legendary, but least viewed, temporary art exhibitions was George Herms’s “secret exhibition” in 1957. It was installed among the foundation blocks of a row of demolished buildings in Hermosa Beach, California. Visited by only a handful of friends on a single day, the works were then abandoned to the elements and left to decay.

Historic Map Locations