The founding of Gemini G.E.L. was contemporaneous with a rise in prominence of Los Angeles art galleries and a rapid growth of the LA art scene. In the 1960s new galleries such as Ferus Gallery, Margo Leavin Gallery, and Nicholas Wilder Gallery attracted artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Claes Oldenberg from New York City to Los Angeles. This selection of archives documents the changing landscape of modern art in Los Angeles, and those galleries and gallerists who worked in close relation to artists at Gemini.
Mizuno Gallery records, 1955-2005, 1967-1981
The Mizuno Gallery records contain correspondence, photographs, and printed ephemera, among other materials that document the operation of the gallery from its founding in 1967 until 1984. There are also materials for artists whose work was never shown at the gallery. The collection is rich in materials from Billy Al Bengston, Vija Celmins and Henry Miller. The oral history between artist Vija Celmins and gallerist Riko Mizuno, founder of Los Angeles based Mizuno Gallery, shows the close connection between artists and gallerists while providing fundamental information regarding LA’s art world in the 1960s and 70s.
Betty Turnbull interviews with Southern California artists and related ephemera
This collection comprises interviews, photographs, and ephemera related to southern California artists, art dealers and curators in the mid 1970s and 1980s, including Robert Irwin, Ed Ruscha and Ed Kienholz. The bulk of the collection relates to the organization of Turnbull’s 1976 exhibition at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, The Last Time I Saw Ferus, which was focused on the legacy of Los Angeles' recently closed Ferus Gallery (1957-1966) and the artists affiliated with it.
Exterior of Nicholas Wilder Galley, 1978, Sidney B. Felsen. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Gift of Jack Shear.
Nicholas Wilder Gallery records
The archive records some of the Nicholas Wilder Gallery's activities and includes correspondence with artists, exhibition notices, newspaper reviews, inventories, pricing and ephemera. Also present are photographic documentation and visual materials including black-and-white prints, slides and transparencies of installations and objects shown at the gallery.
Ellsworth Kelly and Margo Leavin in New York City, 1981, Sidney B. Felsen. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Gift of Jack Shear.
Margo Leavin Gallery records
The collection comprises a comprehensive view of business dealings with some of the foremost post-World War II and contemporary American artists, including provenance, histories of installations, brochures, reviews, and photographs and slides of decades of artists' works. The collection includes extensive correspondence with collectors, dealers, and museums; artist and exhibition files including sales documentation; exhibition photographs; and over eighty works of art or unique ephemera.
Ferus Gallery fliers and photograph, 1958-1966
Fifty-six fliers and one invitation on 53 mounts, together with one photographic print, represent 53 exhibitions that took place at Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles between 1958 and 1966. The fliers were designed by Irving Blum.
Robert Rauschenberg and Henry Hopkins at Gemini, 1978, Sidney B. Felsen. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Gift of Jack Shear.
Henry Hopkins papers, 1950-2005
Henry Hopkins's papers include manuscripts of his writings, his lectures, and his research files, correspondence with artists and copies of oral histories conducted with Hopkins by the University of California, Los Angeles, 1980, and the Archives of American Art. Files document events at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Papers related to Huysman Gallery, the Los Angeles Gallery Hopkins founded are also included in this collection.
Betty Asher papers, 1860-1999
The Betty Asher papers, including letters, photographs, posters, press clippings, collection records, and teacup postcards, give a vivid sense of the Michael and Asher families, Betty Asher as collector, and the Los Angeles art world of the postwar years.
William Hemmerdinger papers, 1871, 1941-2007
The William Hemmerdinger papers document his multifaceted career as a teacher, artist, writer, gallerist, and curator. The collection is particularly rich in research files about artists, and in ephemera from Southern California galleries.
Cool School oral history recordings: Cool School oral history interview with Irving Blum, 2006
This material comprises video recordings of an oral interview with gallerist Irving Blum conducted by Morgan Neville and Kristine McKenna for The Cool School (2008), a documentary film about Ferus Gallery and the generation of post-war artists it nurtured.
Irving Blum oral history interview, 2011
This material comprises video recordings of an oral history interview with Irving Blum conducted by the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles on January 26, 2011. Topics of discussion include his work at the Ferus and Irving Blum galleries and the gallery scene in postwar Los Angeles.