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LA in the 70s

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    LA in the 70s

    I spent a fair bit of time in LA in the mid to late 70s. One the things that fascinated me were murals, especially around Venice. I photographed a fair number and they're part of my slide reclamation project. Street art was not as common back then as it is today, so though many look fairly prosaic by today's standards they have historical relevance, and a few remain stunning examples of the form. I've no idea how many still exist (Inca?)

    Here's the first batch I'll post more tomorrow.

    Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 14-02-2020, 00:10.

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            #6
            ace!

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              #7

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                #8
                Wonderful stuff, Amor.

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                  #9
                  I remember the last one from 1980

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                    #10
                    Those are fantastic.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                      I remember the last one from 1980
                      That was particularly well known. It was used on the cover of book from the period I have (somewhere) called Big Art.

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                        #12
                        I feel a little insulted I wasn’t called to this thread immediately.

                        the last one is still around. I’ll have to look at these more closely later.

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                          #13
                          Well I did ask for you in my opening post.

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                            #14
                            Ah, missed that. I think most that were closer to the beach are less likely to be around today, because of a combination of being painted over and more likely, redevelopment.

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                              #15
                              Agnès Varda’s film Mur murs documents murals like these- she was in LA at that time. It’s not as good a film as her late documentaries but definitely worth seeing if you like mural art, or to see some of the artists at work

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                                #16
                                Great stuff. Keep sharing, please, as you find more images. I can transport myself back there while it's 7 degrees F here with snow on the ground. Never leave LA.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by danielmak View Post
                                  Never leave LA.
                                  If you don't drive, I imagine it's a hard city to appreciate properly. That was my 1979 impression, anyway.

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                                    #18
                                    Jesus, they're fantastic. I particularly like the second one.

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                                      #19
                                      They’re wonderful.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Sporting View Post

                                        If you don't drive, I imagine it's a hard city to appreciate properly. That was my 1979 impression, anyway.
                                        It's better now. You can take a train from the Santa Monica Pier to downtown LA (though because it's on surface streets for a lot of the route and it doesn't have signal priority in downtown it's a lot slower than it should be). And before the 2028 Olympics we're supposed to have the subway extended to UCLA and the VA on Wilshire. Plus, everyone takes rideshare if you can't drive.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                          So, this one I definitely know. Or, knew. This mural was looking really sad, though some mystery person began trying to paint over tags and was doing ad hoc "restorations", though they (or someone else) started adding their own figures into the mural, like George Washington riding a surfboard. A local article on that, with just a bit that I'll highlight: https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_...ses_Waves.html

                                          Captive on a concrete wall of a surf shop in the heart of what used to be known as "Dog-Town" because of its grit, a delicate, 30-year-old mural reflecting spirits of Santa Monica's past goes everywhere with Jane Golden.

                                          Now over 50 and the director of Philadelphia's prestigious Mural Arts Program, Golden was a fresh-faced 21-year-old when she first stood on the corner of Main Street and Ocean Park Boulevard in 1977, painting her first public artwork, absorbing the California sun and the vibe of a neighborhood in the midst of social change.

                                          "I fell in love with that mural," Golden, who is now a nationally renowned artist, said in a phone interview from Philadelphia. "It was my very first mural, and without it, I would never have gone on to preserve the thousands of other murals I have worked on since."
                                          ...
                                          "There is a mystery person doing something to the mural," said Mikke Pierson, a co-owner of ZJ Boarding House, which has been leasing a storefront in the building with the mural since 1988.
                                          ...
                                          Although not emotionally attached to the work -- which some find "creepy" because of the faceless figures -- Pierson is angered by the graffiti, which spills over into his business and which he calls "tragic."

                                          "It's definitely bummed out the local community," he said, adding that numerous individuals have offered to help clean up the vandalism. "It's a bad scene."
                                          If you ever saw Dogtown and Z-boys, the documentary about the birth of skater culture in Santa Monica and Venice, the "Z-boys" part comes from ZJ Boarding House, though they were originally not in that location. But it's safe to say that skateboarding today wouldn't be the same without that store and it's location near a hill near the beach.

                                          Anyway, the mural was changed, and this is what is there now:



                                          Nearby on Ocean Park is one of my favorite murals around, which is also sadly in need of some restoration. It stretches for about 3 blocks and shows the carousel building at the Santa Monica Pier and imagines the carousel horses coming to life and running on the beach.

                                          Can't really capture it in one photo, so here is the Google Streetview:
                                          https://goo.gl/maps/EC1uzcsp6fANxwF39

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                                            #22
                                            Thanks for the info Inca. It's too bad Golden's mural was desecrated. Graff writers are generally good at policing each others work, but maybe murals don't count. They are a different practice with dissimilar concerns. OTOH, it's remarkable that any of them have survived at all. Many modern buildings don't last forty years.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                              This is "The Isle of California," painted in the early 1970s on the side of a recording studio. It is still there today, but it is really faded now and the exterior bolts and plates that were part of a seismic retrofit have left rust streaks down the side of the mural.

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                                                #24

                                                Originally posted by Incandenza View Post

                                                It's better now. You can take a train from the Santa Monica Pier to downtown LA (though because it's on surface streets for a lot of the route and it doesn't have signal priority in downtown it's a lot slower than it should be). And before the 2028 Olympics we're supposed to have the subway extended to UCLA and the VA on Wilshire. Plus, everyone takes rideshare if you can't drive.
                                                Inca's still there and I'm not (much to my regret) so he understand the nuances better than I do, but the other thing that has changed dramatically is the movement to downtown and along parts of the city where there is now a subway system. I'm back there at least once a year to visit my parents and the development of the subway system is a really nice addition to the city. But still, it's a car culture for sure. And I think it's hard to appreciate that LA is a city of neighborhoods, which is something missed by critics who claim it's a city of giant sprawl with no neighborhoods (and often misapplying Gertrude Stein's line about Oakland to Los Angeles: "There's no there, there.").

                                                BTW, I think the feel of AdC's photos fit very nicely with the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. If you haven't seen it, check it out.





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                                                  #25
                                                  Those are absolutely brilliant, Amor. Loving the old cars in a couple of them too.

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