"The Journey of Artists Claiming New Domains"

The L.A. Art Scene really began in the decaying and abandoned Beach Front Town of Venice, California in 1960's. Rents were cheap and warehouses were plentiful. This is not a unusual scenario, as artist throughout time have turned areas with cheap rent and large spaces into chic and avante-garde areas where their presence has always drawn Boutiques, Restaurants and Galleries, driving the once undesirable areas into upscale and overpopulated areas. For this reason the art scene and all the venues to follow have moved from place to place over the decades, with artists always searching out the next neglected spot, containing cheap abandoned warehouses, open space and lofts.
During the late 60's and early 70's the Art Galleries in Los Angeles were primarily located on a street in Los Angeles named La Cieniga. The street was littered with Art Galleries which had had Open House on the first Tuesday of every month. All the Galleries served up wine and cheese and the small group of Art Aficionado's and Artists would walk from gallery to gallery taking in the art and free drinks. During this time there was no more than a few dozen Galleries and not more artist than that. Such artist as Robert Cremien, Ed Kienholz, Wallace Berman, John Altoon and of course the Larger Galleries would be showing "Blue Chip" works from New York, such as Warhol and Rausenberg.
Los Angeles had not yet established itself as a "Art Capital". Slowly a group of artist from the now growing area, Venice Beach began showing up on the rosters. Chris Burden was doing Performance Art, and covering himself in a tarp and lying in the street on La Cienaga. Ed Moses was doing bare canvas's with horizontal lines and roplex poured around the edges and stapled to the wall along with others such as, Judd Fine, Tom Wuhdl, Robert Graham, Kim Jones, Christopher Georgesco, Fredrick Eversley, Billy AlBengston, Martha Alf, Chuck Arnoldi, Ron Cooper etc.
Around this time (now the early 70's), Christopher Georgesco was having his first show of "Wood and Canvas Sculptures" which were made from the materials he was using to build stretcher bars for his paintings. These works were held together by the tension of the canvas. This show was attended by the infamous "Modern Art Committee" from the Los Angeles County Museum. Most of the artist in Venice were lined up at this time for their arrival for the coveted prize of "The New Talent Award" which included a purchase of a work from the Museum, and was headed up by Maurice Tuchman.
One of these committee members was Joni Gordon who was latter to open a Galley named Newspace. This Gallery was one of the first to bring the Art movement further East on Melrose Boulevard near Western, and was the first Gallery to pick up Christopher Georgesco along with Martha Alf, John Baldessari, Dan McCleary, John Sonsini, and a host of other artist which would be the beginning of the of the Downtown / Mid Wilshire Gallery Scene. Soon this area would show the likes of Cirrus Gallery, which hosted its stable of now prominent newcomers and was one of the first places in L.A. to start doing "Fine Art Prints". Nicholas Wilder opened his prestigious Gallery of the top L.A. Artist and latter Gemini would also join the ranks , also specializing in "Fine Art Print Editions", with its prestigious list of Artist from New York and L.A. such as Ed Ruscha, Jasper Johns, Richard Serra among other high profile artists, further West on Melrose. These Galleries were on the cutting edge of the "New L.A. Art Movement", and spawned many new and now well established artist in the out of the way region of the Mid Wilshire District of Los Angeles and Melrose Ave.
The "Art World" was beginning to take hold in L.A.in the middle to late 70's, but still there were relatively few artist. These were exciting times and along with "Performance Art", the new movement of "Art and Technology" began. Such artist as Larry Bell with his large studio and Vaporizing Chamber was coating glass in multi hued coatings of minerals, DeWain Valentine was exploring the possibilities of Cast Resin Sculptures and Robert Irwin was exploring Light and Space. Most of the artist of this era were experimenting with non traditional mediums and formats. This was really a exciting time in L.A. and the styles and mediums became very experimental. "Ace Gallery" was one of the pioneer Galleries in Venice, shortly followed up by "L.A. Louver Gallery".
Now that Venice was fully established by the 1980's, the artist who had not secured long leases or were fortunate or old enough to purchase their studios began migrating towards the eastern parts of L.A. / Chrenshaw Boulevard, Mid Wilshire and eventually even the Downtown section of L.A. Unbelievable as it seemed, the downtown movement exploded. The same thing that happened in Venice was to happen in Downtown Los Angeles. Fueled by "Otis Art Institute" and cheap lofts, the "L.A. Art World" had truly began to expand at accelerated pitch. By 1980 no longer were the small hand full of artist who established themselves in Venice the norm. The Gallery Scene was booming and Galleries could be found everywhere from the San Fernando Valley to Venice Beach to the Mid Wilshire District to Downtown Los Angeles. There were no more boundaries, and being a Artist became "The Hip New Tend", as new experimental Art Schools such as "Cal Arts", in Valencia and "Chinard" in Downtown Los Angeles began churning out new troops of artists by the hundreds, "Hard to Believe", but true. The Art Market in Los Angeles became flooded.
The prices in Venice shot sky high as the Marina Del Rey began to be developed. All the lofts were sewed up and the rich and the poor began to co mingle in a "Circus Like Atmosphere" on the boardwalk of Venice. The Artist who migrated Downtown eventually found themselves in the same boat as the Venetians as shrewed developers began converting warehouses into lofts with huge profits. Over the the next few decades even Downtown Los Angeles became extremely high priced, over developed and the few artist who began the Art Scene in Venice were now pioneers of "The New West Coast Art Capital ", Fantastic L.A.". Hundreds of Galleries emerged and thousands of artist began replacing the once outsider position of "The Artist". Who would of guessed?
As for myself Christopher Georgesco / Sculptor, I found refuge from the over priced, over populated, smog covered landscape of L.A. and moved to the Desert just outside of Palm Springs in 1994 when land was still dirt cheap, only to hear that Ed Moses and Andrea Zittel along with a host of others artists are also now here in the Desert. This just goes to show that Art has no boundaries and the Artists will always retreat to cheap wide open spaces, only to find themselves in the middle of boom town once again. The old tried and true prevails, and History does repeat itself once again.