Designed to continue the momentum of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, last year’s sweeping initiative that included exhibitions and programs at 60 arts institutions across Southern California, Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A., will be smaller in scope, comprising nine exhibitions and accompanying programs and events in and around Los Angeles slated for April–July 2013.
“We wanted to continue our exploration of the region’s postwar visual arts and culture, but obviously we can’t do an initiative on the scale of Pacific Standard Time every year,” said Jim Cuno, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. “Pacific Standard Time Presents will be smaller and geographic reach, but will again spur original scholarship and maintain the collaborative spirit of Pacific Standard Time.”
Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. that will provide a wide-ranging look at the region’s modern architectural heritage, as well as the significant contributions of L.A. architects to national and global developments in architecture. It will examine a broad array of practitioners, from pioneering modernists like Richard Neutra to Pritzker Prize winners such as Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne, as well as other visionary architects who have shaped the region’s distinctive profile, including A. Quincy Jones, Whitney Rowland Smith and Eric Owen Moss. Exhibitions and related programming will explore a range of building types, from iconic modernist homes and civic landmarks such as Disney Hall, to the whimsical coffee shops and vast freeway networks that made Los Angeles the unique megalopolis it is today.
Exhibition partners include Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA); Hammer Museum; A+D Architecture and Design Museum; Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara; Kellogg University Art Gallery at Cal Poly Pomona; MAK Center for Art and Architecture; and Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Additional programming partners include the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Community Art Resources, Inc., The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, the Los Angeles Conservancy, Machine Project, Pasadena Heritage, and the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design.
“Los Angeles is primarily known for its experimental residential architecture, but Modern Architecture in L.A. will show that the region’s design innovations extended to its infrastructure, civic and commercial buildings, and much more,” said Deborah Marrow, Director of the Getty Foundation, which has made $3.6 million in grants to 15 organizations for exhibitions, publications, and programming. “We are very pleased with the caliber of exhibitions, publications, and related programming that will make up Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. next spring. This initiative promises to reveal the city’s architectural legacy and ongoing impact in new ways.”
Among the exhibitions will be the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990, co-organized by the Getty Research Institute, which will be the first major museum exhibition to survey Los Angeles’s built environment and rapid postwar evolution into one of the most populous and influential industrial, economic, and creative capitals in the world.
Exhibitions receiving Getty Foundation grants
- A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California (MOCA)
- The Architecture of A. Quincy Jones (working title) (Hammer)
- Reconsidering LACMA: Peter Zumthor and the Presence of the Past (LACMA)
- Technology and Environment: The Postwar House in Southern California (Kellogg University Art Gallery at Cal Poly Pomona)
- Everything Loose Will Land (MAK Center for Art and Architecture)
- Windshield Perspective (A+D Architecture and Design Museum)
- A Confederacy of Heretics: The Architecture Gallery, Venice, 1979 (SCI-Arc)
- Outside In: the Architecture of Smith and Williams (Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara)
Support for related public programs has also been provided to:
- Center for Land Use Interpretation for On-Site Office Trailers: Invisible Architecture of the Urban Environment, an exhibition of original photography and related construction site tours.
- Community Art Resources, Inc. for CicLAvia: Modern Architecture on Wilshire Blvd, an architectural guide and special programming as part of their June 2013 car-free/open streets event.
- The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens for the online exhibition, Form, and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Basin, 1940–1990, and public programming.
- Los Angeles Conservancy for Curating the City: Modern Architecture in L.A., 1940–1990, an interactive online resource as well as tours, public programs and print material.
- Machine Project for The Machine Project Field Guide to L.A. Architecture, a performance series at architectural sites across the city.
- Pasadena Heritage for a tour of modernist homes in the Pasadena area and a related lecture and oral history project.
- The UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Department for Architecture Beyond Architecture, a series of discussions about the dynamic and interdisciplinary future of architecture.
Exhibitions will run from April through July 2013, with much of the related programming including lectures, films, tours, and panel discussions taking place during Architecture Month, mid-May to mid-June 2013.