Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 at The Geffen Contemporary @ MOCA / CELEBRATING CALIFORNIA AS A TURBULENT, OFTEN ANARCHIC CENTER FOR ARTISTIC FREEDOM AND EXPERIMENTATION DURING THE 1970s

Yesterday I saw this amazing and large show and I really enjoyed it.  Here is a description from the MOCA website.

Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981

Celebrating California as a turbulent, often anarchic center for artistic freedom and experimentation during the 1970s, this major survey exhibition examines the rise of pluralistic art practices across the state. The years 1974 and 1981 bracket a tumultuous, transitional span in United States history, beginning with Richard Nixon’s resignation and ending with Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. The exhibition borrows its title from the 1982 album by the Los Angeles–based punk band X to suggest that, during this period, the California Dream and the hippie optimism of the late 1960s had been eclipsed by a sense of disillusionment during the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam era.

Some of the highlights for me were the Ed Ruscha paintings, the Chris Burden piece;  The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, 1979 – pictured partially above, the John Divola images of Zuma Beach from the 1970’s which are amazing  ( and you can see the whole series on his website which I found today ) and I loved all the images and footage of the Punk scene in LA in the 1970’s.  The whole show is great and well worth a visit.



02/7/2012 | Posted by Eye Forward

Categories: Fashion

Tags: http://divola.com/, http://www.moca.org/index.php