Untitled
Untitled, 1969, Larry Bell. Mineral-coated glass. 40 x 40 x 40 in. Courtesy The Pace Gallery. © Larry Bell. Photo by Ellen Labenski
On View at the Getty Center: Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970
Larry Bell’s works in glass are concerned with the mechanics of perception. Although he would later utilize coating technologies developed in the aerospace industry, Bell was first inspired to use etched and mirrored glass while working at a commercial frame shop during his time as a student at the Chouinard Art Institute. In Bell’s early cube works, he used coated glass panes fabricated to his specifications by a Los Angeles company. Later, he purchased his own Kinney vacuum-coating chamber, which allowed him to apply thin films of semi-transparent substances to sheets of glass, using a process by which metals such as aluminum, chromium, rhodium, and silicon monoxide are vaporized inside the chamber and their particles deposited on the surface of the glass. Bell taught himself the process using a copy of the 1956 textbook on the subject, Vacuum Deposition of Thin Films. The results articulate Bell’s fascination with both the reflection and absorption of light and evince his interest in the possibilities opened up by the transparent and reflective qualities of glass.
Works of Art
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Untitled, Wall Piece, 1967, Larry Bell. White and black glass, vacuum coated. 120 x 300 in. Collection of Michael Straus, Birmingham, Alabama. © Larry Bell
Explore the Archive
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Video: Joe Goode, Larry Bell, Ron Miyashiro, and Jerry McMillan speak about the exhibition War Babies, 2010–11
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Video: Larry Bell speaks about his work, March 2011
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Larry Bell in his studio in Venice, California, ca. late 1960s. Image courtesy of and © Larry Bell
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Sterling Holloway at his house, next to Larry Bell’s painting Little Blank Riding Hood (1961–62). Photo by Frank J. Thomas. Image courtesy of Larry Bell and the Frank J. Thomas Archives
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Exterior view of Larry Bell's studio on Market Street in Venice, California, ca. 1970. Image courtesy of and © Larry Bell
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Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Ken Price outside Hotel Caesars in Tijuana, Mexico, 1968. Image courtesy of Larry Bell
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Larry Bell’s studio in 1970. Photo by Larry Bell. Image courtesy of Billy Al Bengston
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Several Los Angeles artists at Culture Day at LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art), 1968. Photo by and © Julian Wasser.
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Poster for the exhibition War Babies at Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles, May 29–June 17, 1961. Poster created by Jerry McMillan and Joe Goode. Photo © Jerry McMillan. Design © Joe Goode. The Getty Research Institute, 2006.M.1.5. Image courtesy of Jerry McMillan and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
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Larry Bell in his studio in Venice, California, 1969. Image courtesy of Malcolm Lubliner and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Malcolm Lubliner
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Larry Bell in his Market Street studio in Venice, California, 1961. Image courtesy of Larry Bell, Marvin Silver and Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica. © Marvin Silver
