De Wain Valentine (American, born 1936), Gray Column, 1975-1976, polyester resin, 355.6 x 222.3 x 24.1 cm (140 x 87.5 x 9.5 inches). © De Wain Valentine. Lent by De Wain Valentine. Image courtesy the J. Paul Getty Museum.
On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I was able to see some of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, a cross-institutional series of exhibitions celebrating the history of contemporary art in L.A. The brainchild of the Getty Foundation, the six-month event is composed of 68 museum exhibitions and over 70 galleries featuring more than 1,300 artists. As I wandered the rooms at the Getty Museum admiring Judy Chicago’s Car Hood and Ed Ruscha’s The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, I wondered if this sort of collaboration could happen in Atlanta.
The exhibitions comprising Pacific Standard Time delve into broad themes including politics and music. Exhibits such as Trouble in Paradise: Music and Los Angeles, 1945-1975 at The GRAMMY Museum were broad in theme but still thoughtful in execution. Others were extremely focused, such as From Start to Finish: De Wain Valentine’s Gray Column, a single-room show at the Getty that explains the creation and conservation of the artwork. Several of the shows deal with issues of race and gender in the postwar period, giving focus to the conditions of minority artists and architects and the contributions they made.
The art is fantastic, and the exhibitions are well thought-out. The only thing more impressive is the effort put into organizing such an expansive region-wide collaboration. Planning for Pacific Standard Time began a decade ago, and its realization has been a truly collaborative exchange of resources and permanent collections between the Getty and participating institutions.
As someone invested in the Atlanta art scene, Pacific Standard Time seems to stand as a challenge. In her review for The New York Times, Roberta Smith writes that a message to take away from Pacific Standard Time is “that New York did not act alone in the postwar era.” It seems everywhere that isn’t New York is burdened with the knowledge that New York is the center and apex of art. If Pacific Standard Time successfully challenges that, what does it mean for other art-making regions, and how are they supposed to respond?
I posed this question to James Meyer, associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Art and former associate professor of art history at Emory University. He replied via email, “Pacific Standard Time indeed poses questions for other areas of the United States. Southern California stands out as the other major art scene [second to New York], though by no means the only one. Atlanta is far behind other cities, much less L.A., for historical reasons that are well known. Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Chicago are much more interesting.”
“There is a lack of civic will or vision,” Meyer continued. “The city leadership allowed the only local art school, ACA [ De Wain Valentine doing the final polishing of Gray Column in 1976. Every effort has been made to identify and contact the photographer whose work may still be in copyright, or their estates. Anyone having further information concerning copyright holders should contact the Getty. Courtesy of De Wain Valentine. Artwork © De Wain Valentine.
