It would be an intriguing exercise to put the shoe on the other foot and mount a reassessment of art in New York as a regional scene. We might account for the expansive, liberating gesture in the painting of the 1950s as compensation for enduring cramped living conditions. Pop art might be explained by proximity to Madison Avenue advertising agencies and the television networks on Sixth Avenue; the crisp lines of Minimalism a response to the raggedness of a decrepit and decaying infrastructure. Exactly parallel pop-sociological hypotheses have constantly distorted discussions of art in Los Angeles, while New York art hasn’t been subjected to this reductive treatment as a localized phenomenon.
—
Thomas Crow, “LA Stories: A Roundtable,” ARTFORUM, October 2011.
A discussion on the the reductive nature in which LA art is discussed and perceived in the larger post-1945 art movements. #LAallday!!!
