Pacific Standard Time: Historic Publications Now Online

We just released a new set of books, free for your perusal, in our online Reading Room. This is a particularly gorgeous set chosen for their connection to Pacific Standard Time. We added them to an earlier group of books about Southern California artists in the 1960s and 70s.

From the Craftsmanship catalogues documenting juried shows of decorative arts in the 1950s and 60s, through the groundbreaking Art and Technology (1971), to the influential catalogue for the massive campus-wide exhibition Made in California (2001), these publications record the history of the museum, art and artmaking in California in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Guide to Architecture in Southern California, 1965, is a field guide to what were deemed the best examples “before they are destroyed by a rapidly expanding megalopolis”; it includes numerous photographs by Julius Shulman. The set also includes the catalogue for Los Four: Almaraz / de la Rocha / Luján / Romero, 1974, the first major museum show of Chicano art. LACMA created a sixteen-panel accordion-fold brochure, printed in multicolored inks. Chicanismo en el Arte, 1975, is the catalogue of a juried exhibition of thirty-one young Chicano artists representing twelve art schools and the Asco group.

Two publications in particular connect with our California Design exhibition: Six More, and New York School: The First Generation, Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s. Both were published in conjunction with exhibitions at LACMA, in 1963 and 1965, respectively. Six More was designed by Deborah Sussmann, who trained in the Eames Office, working closely with Charles and Ray. She recalls that experience in a video we created for California Design.

New York School was designed by Lou Danziger, who still teaches at the Art Center College of Design. He talked about moving from New York to Los Angeles, and the art and design scene here at the time.

All of the new publications in the Reading Room were published by LACMA, unless otherwise noted. We are especially grateful to University of California Press.

Amy Heibel