Los Angeles during World War II: Art at the Margins

Los Angeles during World War II was in its artistic infancy. Fueled in part by an energized wartime economy and European emigres, Hollywood’s film industry was booming. The city attracted a range of avant-garde artists, architects, filmmakers, photographers, painters and writers, some of whom resided there for brief periods and others who stayed. The American men were, for one reason or another, ineligible for the draft, mingled with the recent emigres who had fled the war in Europe. Many artists, writers, and filmmakers gathered in ad hoc salons, such as those arranged by photographer Edmund Teske, while living at Aline Barnsdall’s home at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House (1919–21). An interest in open-minded and free attitudes towards art and life was a common bond for the diverse artists. This session invites research on artists active during the understudied period 1939–45 and encourages presentations that consider potential connections between the postwar art communities in Los Angeles and New York.