Huysman Gallery

The Huysman Gallery was an art gallery in Los Angeles, California that operated from December 1960 to summer 1961.^{[1][2]["note" 1]} It was located at 740 North La Cienega Boulevard, across the street from the noted Ferus Gallery.^[3][4] Curator Henry Hopkins,^[5] who founded the gallery, named it after the French decadent novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans.^[6] The gallery showcased the works of several young artists who later had great success, including Joe Goode, Ed Ruscha, and Larry Bell.^[4]

War Babies exhibition

The gallery's most famous exhibition, War Babies, ran from May 29, 1961 to June 17, 1961.^[2] It showed the work of Goode, Bell, Ed Bereal, and Ron Miyashiro, all of whom were born in the late 1930s and experienced World War II in their early childhood.^[4] According to Hopkins, "the exhibition title was selected by Goode to establish a birth point in time and to indicate a sense of post-war internationalism."^[7] War Babies was one of the earliest racially integrated exhibitions^[7] and "was a daring challenge to the prevailing norms and mores of postwar America and its underlying racial stereotypes and identity politics."^[4] The participating artists played off the work of the nearby Ferus artists.^[8] Goode contributed thickly painted images of stars along with a cardboard box nailed to the gallery wall, Miyashiro contributed paintings suggestive of sinister eroticism, Bereal contributed leather pouches that stank of oil, and Bell contributed a "saddle painting".^[8] The mix of styles present in the exhibition was indicative of the fluidity of the Los Angeles art scene in the early 1960s.^[8]

The exhibition's poster, created by Jerry McMillan and Joe Goode, ultimately attracted more attention than the exhibition itself.^[8] It depicted the four participating artists seated at a table covered with an American flag as a tablecloth.^[4][7] Each of the artists was posed with a prop playing off an ethnic or religious stereotype: Bell (Jewish) held a bagel, Bereal (African American) held a watermelon, Miyashiro (Japanese American) held chopsticks, and Goode (Catholic) held a mackerel.^[4][7] Liberals and conservatives alike criticized the poster; the John Birch Society denounced the gallery for flag desecration.^[3][4][7] Following the controversy surrounding War Babies, the gallery's backers—a group of three lawyers—withdrew their support for the gallery.^[9][8] The gallery closed in summer 1961, soon after the close of the War Babies exhibition.^[2][3]

Notes

1. ^ Most sources say the gallery was founded in 1960. However, Henry Hopkins once wrote that the gallery was founded in 1961.^[9]

References

1. ^ Kristine McKenna (2009). The Ferus Gallery: a place to begin. Steidl. ISBN 978-3-86521-610-6.^{[page needed]}
2. ^ "Huysman Gallery". Getty Center. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
3. ^ "Poster for 'War Babies' Exhibition". Getty Center. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
4. ^ Willick, Damon (Spring 2010). "L.A.'s Art Historian: Henry T. Hopkins, 1928–2009". X-TRA. 2 (3). Retrieved June 21, 2014.
5. ^ "Henry Hopkins papers (1950-2005)". Getty Research Institute. hdl:10020/cifa2006m1. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
6. ^ Bradnock, Lucy. "Name Games". In Rebecca Peabody & Lucy Bradnock (2011). Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980. Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-60606-072-8.
7. ^ Whiting, Cecile (2010). "California War Babies: Picturing World War Two in the 1960s". Art Journal. 69 (3): 41. doi:10.1080/00043249.2010.10791383
8. ^ Bradnock, Lucy and Rani Singh. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag". In Rebecca Peabody & Lucy Bradnock (2011). Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980. Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum. pp. 110–12. ISBN 978-1-60606-072-8.
9. ^ Hopkins, Henry. "Museum Director, Educator: Henry Hopkins". In Hertz, Richard (2011). The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the L.A. Art World. Hol Art Books. pp. 126, 128. ISBN 978-1-936102-20-4.