Artists Talk: LA Legends
 – A Conversation with California Art Icons

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It’s not often you get the opportunity to see a group of influential artists come together in person to talk about their work, process, histories and lives. That’s precisely what makes Artists Talk: LA Legends such an important and exciting series. Co-sponsored by the Broad Stage and Sotheby’s Institute Of Art – Los Angeles, the first conversation will feature artists Larry Bell (b. 1939), Billy Al Bengston (b. 1934), Robert Irwin (b. 1928), Ed Moses (b.1926), and Ed Ruscha (b.1937). Author and critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp will moderate the discussion.

Transforming Los Angeles’ Art Scene

Since this series of talks with influential California-based artists is intended “to explore the living legacy of Los Angeles’s vibrant contemporary arts scene,” it seems fitting to kick things off with this group of artists. Starting in the late 1950s the legendary Ferus Gallery, a small La Cienega Boulevard storefront that presented Andy Warhol’s first solo show in 1962, championed their work. As their profile rose, they and some other L.A. based artists became known as the “Cool School,” a name “used to describe their collective departure from the gestural painting styles that had long defined West Coast art production for a more ruthlessly cool combination of minimalism, pop, and precise abstraction.”

Ferus Art Gallery PosterTogether these postwar trailblazers helped propel Los Angeles into the upper stratum of international art centers, characterized by great art production and scholarship, as well as world-class institutions. This is a rare opportunity to witness these celebrated artists in conversation.

DETAILS

When: January 18, 2017. Reception at 6:00pm, followed by conversation on stage at 7:30pm

Where: The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage, located at 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica

Cost: Tickets go on sale to the public Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 12pm. They are available online at www.thebroadstage.com and by calling 310-434-3200. If you’re a Broad Stage member you can purchase them now.