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.

Walter Hopps
Curator

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

Walter Hopps (1932–2005) was a Southern California native whose initiation into the art world began as a high school student with visits to the home of modernist art collectors Walter and Louise Arensberg. In 1957, Hopps and artist Edward Kienholz founded the notable Ferus Gallery, which fostered an exciting new generation of California artists. When Hopps became curator at the Pasadena Museum of Art he presented significant exhibitions of Pop Art and the work of Marcel Duchamp, among many other important artists. Through his other positions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, Hopps gained a reputation as a groundbreaking curator and a champion of contemporary artists.

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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

  • Video: Lyn Kienholz on censorship

    Video: Arts advocate Lyn Kienholz talks about censorship in the L.A. art scene

  • Video: the postwar L.A. gallery scene

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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 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

  • 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