As our gaze now opens up and we look beyond the Ferus Gallery and the Ferus Gang of artists promoted by Walter Hopps and Irving Blum, we begin to recognize that there genuinely was something significant going on in greater Los Angeles during the Post-WWII years as far as the visual arts were concerned. Under the leadership of the Getty Foundation, visionaries in Southern California arts administration not only recognized the tremendous contributions made by both Hopps and Blum, but their collective effort was in serious danger of being contextually lost with the passage of time and the death of its leaders and artists. This precarious situation caused the Getty leadership to mobilize and seek to recognize, celebrate and preserve the greater Ferus/LA legacy. Deborah Marrow, Interim President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, stated the following in the Pacific Standard Time Exhibition Catalog:
“Identifying and preserving the archives that document the milestones of contemporary art in the postwar period of our region…We wound up with the most comprehensive and public collaboration by cultural organizations in Southern California, or perhaps anywhere, and one that is now itself a creative landmark.”
What are your thoughts on an organization like the Getty Trust stepping in and using it’s foundation financial strength to initiate a series of document gathering endeavors and representative exhibitions of the Post-WWII era visual art production in Los Angeles?
Deborah Marrow of the Getty Trust
Art 434: Contemporary Issues in Art 