Jan. 1, 1945
Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller “Spellbound” opens, with memorable dream sequences by Salvador Dalí.Photo: Ingrid Bergman, left, and Gregory Peck in "Spellbound."
(UA/Selznick International Picture)
Jan. 1, 1946
Bassist and composer Charles Mingus, who grew up in Watts, records with his band the Stars of Swing. The recordings, now lost,anticipated the next decade’s influential West Coast jazz sound. But director Peter Jackson’s critically acclaimed film insisted on looking at the women through the prism of their friendship, bringing an enlightened humanity and sympathy to two girls whom a previous generation had written off as depraved. Photo: Mingus in 1960
Jan. 1, 1946
Theodor Geisel, who writes children’s books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, moves to Hollywood to work for Warner Bros.Photo: Theodor Geisel.
Jan. 1, 1947
Cold War begins in response to formation of Eastern Bloc: Resulting expansion of U.S. defense budget creates aerospace boom in Southern California.Photo: Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego during WWII.
Jan. 1, 1947
Beginning of organized resistance to Modernism and abstraction in art as well as the beginning of “the painting witch hunt,” in the words of art historian Peter Plagens. “If screenwriters and college professors could be called on the patriotism carpet,” he writes in “Sunshine Muse,” a key history of West Coast art, “why not artists?” Photo: An untitled Peter Plagens painting from 1978
(USC Fisher Gallery)
Jan. 1, 1950
Texas saxophonist Ornette Coleman arrives in Los Angeles as a member of a rhythm and blues band. After he is fired from the band, Coleman remains in L.A. for most of the decade, working at times as an elevator operator, and emerges as the leader of the jazz avant-garde. Photo: Coleman in 2007.
Jan. 1, 1953
Helen Lundeberg, an important and innovative Los Angeles artist who works with both geometric abstraction and landscape, has a one-woman show at Pasadena Art Institute. Photo: Lundeberg in 1983.
Jan. 1, 1954
Los Angeles industrialist Norton Simon purchases his first artwork: two paintings from the Dalzell Hatfield Gallery inside the Ambassador Hotel. By the end of 1955, he had purchased 17 more works. Photo: Jennifer Jones Simon and Norton Simon in 1971.
(George Brich / Associated Press)
Jan. 1, 1955
Beat-influenced artist Wallace Berman publishes first issue of Semina, an idiosyncratic magazine of poetry and visual art. Photo: "Wife," a photo of Shirley Berman taken by Berman.
Jan. 1, 1956
Driving a Ford along Route 66, Ed Ruscha arrives in Los Angeles from Oklahoma and begins one of the city’s great art careers. Photo: Ruscha in 1968.
(Gagosian Gallery)
Jan. 1, 1957
The Ferus Gallery, begun by eccentric curator Walter Hopps and artist Ed Kienholz, opens on La Cienega Boulevard. Photo: From left, Ed Moses, John Altoon, Billy Al Bengston and co-owner Irving Blum in front of Ferus Gallery in 1959.
Jan. 1, 1958
Business-minded Irving Blum takes over the Ferus co-ownership from Kienholz; he either saves the gallery’s finances or dulls its leading edge, depending on whom you ask. Photo: Blum, left, and Jasper Johns in 1964.
(Dennis Hopper / Gagosian Gallery)
Jan. 1, 1959
LACMA show, “Four Abstract Classicists,” of Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Fred Hammersley and John McLaughlin, geometrically minded artists later described as fathers of an L.A. school of “hard edge” painting.Photo: Karl Benjamin's 1955 "Markers."
(Claremont Museum of Art)
Jan. 1, 1959
Heiress Virginia Dwan opens gallery in Westwood that will at times outstrip Ferus and any other for inventiveness and imagination.Photo: Claes Oldenberg's 1963 installation at Dwan Gallery.
(Dwan Gallery)
Jan. 1, 1960
Important developments in Los Angeles modern architecture: Maverick “organic modernist” John Lautner designs flying-saucer-like Chemosphere House in Hollywood Hills. Julius Shulman photographs Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House in an arrangement of light, costume and hillside. Photo: Lautner's Chemosphere House.
(Joshua White / Escher GuneWardena)
Jan. 1, 1960
Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominates Sen. John F. Kennedy for the presidency. Norman Mailer, writing about it for Esquire, calls Los Angeles “a kingdom of stucco … one has the feeling it was built by television sets giving orders to men.” Photo: Esquire's Clay Felker in 1978.
Jan. 1, 1961
Hawthorne band the Beach Boys begin recording their debut album, “Surfin’ Safari,” released the following year. Photo: The Beach Boys in 1968.
(Capitol)
Jan. 1, 1962
Andy Warhol’s first show anywhere in the world takes place at Ferus Gallery; his Campbell’s Soup Cans paintings sell for $100 each. Photo: Andy Warhol's 1962 Campbell's Soup Cans.
Jan. 1, 1963
Walter Hopps, new director at Pasadena Art Museum, puts on Marcel Duchamp retrospective, an important portal for the influence of the French Dada artist on the West Coast. Photo: Fountain sculpture by Marcel Duchamp.
( Artists Rights Society)
Jan. 1, 1964
Studio Watts begun by collection of L.A. jazz players, artists and poets; space offers classes in visual art, dance and acting as well as studio space for artists. Photo: Watts Prophets: Richard Anthony Dedeaux, left, Father Amdé Hamilton and Otis O'Solomon.
( Ed Colver)
Jan. 1, 1964
A young gay painter from Yorkshire, David Hockney, visits L.A. in part because of John Rechy’s novel “City of Night.” Meets writer Christopher Isherwood and creates swimming-pool paintings. Photo: David Hockney's 1980 "Lithograph at Water Made of Thick and Thin Lines, a Green Wash, a Light Blue Wash, and a Dark Blue Wash.
( Handout)
Jan. 1, 1965
White police officers in Watts pull over a young black driver; their conflict sparks a conflagration that will result in 34 deaths, more than a thousand injured and in excess of $40 million in damages. Photo: 1965 Watts riots.
Jan. 1, 1965
Nicholas Wilder opens his gallery, selling work by Bruce Nauman, John McCracken and David Hockney. Photo: Bruce Nauman's untitled folded arms.
( Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1965
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art moves from Exposition Park to larger quarters on Wilshire Boulevard, becoming the largest museum of its kind in the American West. Photo: LACMA opening 1965.
Jan. 1, 1966
Gemini G.E.L., a seminal lithography studio, opens. Associated at first with East Coast figures like Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Rauschenberg but later prints work by Ruscha, Hockney and John Altoon. Photo: Richard Serra at Gemini artist studio in 2000.
Jan. 1, 1966
Opening of Ed Kienholz retrospective at LACMA includes “Back Seat Dodge ’38” and “Roxy’s,” the artist’s recollection of a Las Vegas bordello; the L.A. County Board of Supervisors denounces the show as “revolting and pornographic.” Photo: Kienholz and his work "Back Seat Dodge '38" in 1966.
( Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1967
Artist brothers Alonzo and Dale Davis open Brockman Gallery in South Central Los Angeles, one of the city’s first black-owned galleries. Photo: Catlett's "Black Unity" from the Alonzo Davis collection.
( Jim Frank)
Jan. 1, 1968
Los Angeles band The Byrds releases “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” an unlikely turn toward country folk and traditional American music for the pioneers of psychedelia. Photo: "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" cover art.
Jan. 1, 1968
Nation rocked by Sirhan Sirhan’s assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel. Photo: Robert F. Kennedy.
( Courtesy Fahey / Klein Gallery)
Jan. 1, 1969
“Easy Rider,” directed by Ferus fellow traveler Dennis Hopper, opens, signaling a new sensibility in Hollywood. Photo: Dennis Hopper, Perter Fonda and Jack Nicholson in scene from "Easy Rider."
( Columbia Pictures)
Jan. 1, 1969
The Manson family murders occur in Benedict Canyon and environs; they become a symbol of the end of the ’60s and of the dark side of the counterculture. Photo: Manson in 1969.
( Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1969
The Pasadena Art Museum moves into a new Ladd + Kelsey-designed building on Colorado Boulevard. Though it was one of very few modern art strongholds south of San Francisco, the museum was hit with serious financial strain over the next few years. Photo: Pasadena Art Museum's 1968 opening.
( File photo)
Jan. 1, 1970
Shy San Diego-area teacher and artist John Baldessari moves to Los Angeles. He will become an important force in Conceptual Art not only for his own work, but for his decades of teaching at CalArts and UCLA. Photo: Baldessari in 2007.
( Sidney B. Felsen)
Jan. 1, 1971
LACMA’s Art and Technology show — which includes Christo, Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol and other European and New York superstars — highlights a program the museum had been pursuing since 1967. Photo: L.A. County Museum of Art.
( Rick Meyer / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1971
CalArts, which had grown out of the Chouinard Art Institute and had been funded by Walt Disney for a decade, moves to Valencia, becoming one of several influential and prestigious art schools in Southern California. Photo: CalArts' Wild Beast interior in Valencia in 2010.
( Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1972
A modern-day Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration is held in Los Angeles, instigated in part by California muralist Carlos Bueno. Key event in building of the Chicano movement and a return to traditional Latin American arts and culture. Photo: Day of the Dead celebration at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2010.
( Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1972
Womanhouse, a politically minded exhibition space for women artists only, launched in a large Hollywood home by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro of CalArts' feminist art program. Photo: Miriam Schapiro's 1972 "Doll House."
( Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1972
Helene Winer, director and curator of the Pomona College art gallery, is fired, bringing to an end several years of experimentation in minimalism, conceptual art, performance art and video. Photo: Steve Roden's 2010 "When words become forms" exhibition at Pomona College.
Jan. 1, 1973
Tom Bradley elected Los Angeles' first black mayor. He shapes the city and perceptions of it for the next 20 years. Photo: Bradley in 1987.
( Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1973
African American architect Paul R. Williams, who re-designed the Beverly Hills Hotel as well as new homes for Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Barbara Stanwyck, retires. Photo: Williams in 1970.
( Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1974
Opening of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades designed by Robert E. Langdon Jr. and Ernest C. Wilson Jr. in emulation of a first-century Roman villa. Photo: The Getty museum in 1982.
Jan. 1, 1974
Norton Simon takes over the struggling Pasadena Art Museum, moving his collection of European and Asian art into the Colorado Boulevard space. Photo: Simon in 1990.
( Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1974
Orange County native and Whittier College alum Richard Nixon resigns the presidency of the United States on the eve of impeachment for his role in the Watergate scandal. Photo: Nixon in 1974.
( Chick Harrity / Associated Press)
Jan. 1, 1975
A key show demonstrating the region's leadership in video art, "Southland Video Anthology," opens at the Long Beach Museum of Art and tours on the West Coast. Includes work by Allan Kaprow, Paul McCarthy, David Salle and others. Photo: Long Beach Museum of Art.
Jan. 1, 1975
Artists from Los Angeles and elsewhere in the state make up a third of the Whitney Biennial. It's considered a recognition of California's cultural flowering. Two years later, the Whitney would include work by Baldessari, Vija Celmins, Nauman, Chris Burden and others. Photo: Hans Haacke's Whitney Biennial installation "Sanitation" in 2000.
Jan. 1, 1976
"Concepts: Six Contemporary Asian Artists," an exhibit at Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum, demonstrates the wide range of work produced by the state's Asian American artists. Photo: The Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena.
( Geraldine Wilkins / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1976
John Outterbridge, Alonzo Davis and Greg Bryant and other artists in and around Watts launch Los Angeles' first jazz festival, named for Watts Tower artist Simon Rodia and eventually encompassing a range of art forms. Photo: Rodia at Watts Tower.
Jan. 1, 1976
Art Center College of Design moves to its Craig Ellwood-designed Hillside Campus in Pasadena. Photo: Art Center College of Design.
( Princeton Architectural Press)
Jan. 1, 1976
California Gov. Jerry Brown closed the California Arts Commission, creating the California Arts Council. With a leadership including Noah Purifoy and other Southland artists, the council will emphasize grants and community-based projects. Photo: Brown in 1976.
( Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1977
The exhibit "Los Angeles in the Seventies" opens at the Fort Worth Art Museum and tours nationally. A wide range of media is represented, including work by artists Michael Asher and Judy Fiskin. Photo: Art historian and critic Libby Lumpkin in 1996.
( Alexander Gallardo / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1977
California African American Museum chartered by the state of California. Will open in 1981 in a temporary space and in a permanent building in Exposition Park during the 1984 Olympics. Photo: California African American Museum.
( Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1979
The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles is founded; fundraising and organization begin, though the museum in its early years occupied what is now the Geffen Contemporary -- the Arata Isozaki building on Grand Avenue will not open for another seven years. Photo: MOCA in 2002.
( Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)
Jan. 1, 1980
"Los Angeles," the debut album by the band X, is released, emphasizing a desperate, nihilistic sensibility different from the canyon-rock and introspective singer-songwriters who preceded them. Photo from left: Billy Zoom, John Doe, Exene Cervenka and DJ Bonebrake.
( Frank Gargani / Slash)
Jan. 1, 1980
Ronald Reagan elected the 40th president of the United States. Photo: Reagan in 1980.
( Rusty Kennedy / Associated Press)
