March 15–June 10, 2012
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

Entrance to the Martin-Gropius-Bau
 
Occupying double the space of the original Getty exhibitions—Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950–1970 and Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics, 1950–1980—this reconceived exhibition features many new works, such as Sam Francis's monumental painting Berlin Red, which was painted in Los Angeles as a commission for the Neue Nationalgalerie in 1969. Other new additions include more than 50 photographs by Julius Shulman, the most important American photographer of architecture in the postwar period, as well as a selection of photographs by Dennis Hopper and separate galleries devoted to the work of artists Larry Bell, Robert Graham, Bruce Nauman, and James Turrell.

The exhibition is structured both chronologically and thematically, tracing the rise of the Southern California art scene between 1950 and 1980. It features assemblage sculptures and collages by artists such as Ed Bereal, Wallace Berman, and George Herms as well as paintings by David Hockney and Ed Ruscha. Hockney's iconic 1967 painting A Bigger Splash is one of the key works in the exhibition.

The show also explores how Southern California artists changed the conventional relationship between art and the public. Photographs, artists' catalogs, books, posters, postcards, invitations, letters, and artworks illustrate how these artists developed alternatives for a public role of art and its place in society.