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Gemini G.E.L.’s 60th Anniversary Show Is a Love Letter to L.A.

A new exhibition at the preeminent printmaking studio proves that no city has inspired artists quite like Los Angeles.

On the corner of Melrose Avenue and Kings Road in West Hollywood sits an unassuming building designed by Frank Gehry in the 1970s. It incorporates deconstructivist “L.A. School” elements such as exposed wood stud framing, skylights and airy spaces ideal for artmaking, an activity that has long occupied Gemini G.E.L., one of North America’s preeminent printmaking studios since 1966. Its client list is a who’s who of American artists from the mid-century onward, and this year marks its 60th anniversary.

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“That’s many generations of artists,” curator Susan Dackerman tells Observer about the L.A.-themed show, “Impressions of Los Angeles: 60 Years of Printmaking at Gemini G.E.L.,” on through May 1. “This show could be done over and over with different imagery. Looking through the prints I realized that there was a great group of images in which artists tried to recreate the atmospheric conditions of L.A., the sunlight, mist, haze, L.A. exuberance, L.A. magic hours, from the hard light of Ken Price to the diffuse magic hour that Tacita Dean captures.”

In addition to the abovementioned, there are works by people like David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Ann Hamilton, John Baldessari, Richard Tuttle, Analia Saban, Frank Gehry, Ed Ruscha, Claes Oldenburg, William Crutchfield, Joe Goode, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Diebenkorn, Toba Khedoori and Vija Celmins.

“One of the things Gemini has done so well is match artists with a technique that will allow them to execute their ideas no matter how difficult,” says Dackerman, a lecturer in art history at UCLA specializing in western print culture. “Some artists are working closer with a master printer, and there are printers........

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