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.

24 Pieces

24 Pieces

24 Pieces, 1970, Allen Ruppersberg. Spiral-bound offset lithograph. Self-published book. 6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. The Getty Research Institute, 89-B22093.c1. © Allen Ruppersberg

As a follow-up to his first book, 23 Pieces, which featured photographs of public settings around Los Angeles, Allen Ruppersberg produced 24 Pieces, which contrasts photographs of immaculate Hollywood hotel interiors with images suggestive of chaos and disorder. The resulting juxtapositions generate narratives that comment on the banal qualities of the Los Angeles environment and explore various states of incompleteness. The content of these photographs was realized a year later in 1971, when Ruppersberg opened a fully-functional hotel on Sunset Boulevard, an art environment known as Al’s Grand Hotel.

Works of Art

  • Greetings from L.A.: A Novel

    Greetings from L.A.: A Novel, 1972, Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph. Self-published book. 8 x 5 1/4 x 11/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, 90-B12310.c1. © Allen Ruppersberg

  • Al's Grand Hotel

    Al's Grand Hotel catalog, 1971, Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph. 9 x 6 x 1/16 in. The Getty Research Institute, 94-B15837. © Allen Ruppersberg

Explore the Archive

  • Video: L.A. artists and commercial culture

    Video: Discover how L.A. artists of the 1960s and 1970s appropriated commercial culture

  • Letter and brochure for Al's Grand Hotel

    Letter and brochure for Al's Grand Hotel, May 2, 1971, designed by Allen Ruppersberg. Offset lithograph brochure, typed letter (signed). © Allen Ruppersberg. The Getty Research Institute, Gift of Michael Asher, 2009.M.30.2