Los Angeles Artists

Artists who have lived and worked in Los Angeles, from Watts Towers and modernist houses to Pop, conceptual art and assemblage.

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No open-access works for Los Angeles Artists are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.

About

Los Angeles grew with the film industry, the car and the single-family house, and its artists have often worked with those facts. Between 1921 and 1954 Simon Rodia built the Watts Towers from steel, cement and broken pottery. After the war, the Case Study House programme commissioned modern homes, and Charles and Ray Eames designed furniture and films from their Venice studio.

From the late 1950s, a local scene formed around artists such as Ed Ruscha, who painted gas stations and the Hollywood sign,. Betye Saar turned a kitchen caricature into a weapon in The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972), and the Chicano group Asco staged street performances in East Los Angeles. John Baldessari's teaching at CalArts shaped generations, and Chris Burden and Charles Ray tested the limits of sculpture and risk. Frank Gehry's buildings, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003), reshaped the city's architecture.