Los Angeles, California.- The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Watts Towers Arts Center present “Civic Virtue” exploring the intertwined histories of two of Los Angeles’s oldest and most diverse centers of artistic activity, both operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. “Civic Virtue” is on view at both venues from December 15th through February 12th. The Civic Virtue exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) is a chronological survey of the role of civic government in the development of the arts in Los Angeles, beginning in the early 1950’s. The exhibition illustrates the history of the gallery through displays of significant artworks and artifacts including Frank Lloyd Wright’s original sketches and drawings for the building; artwork and documentation from City Hall hearings related to charges that modern painting and sculpture were vehicles of Communist subversion; photographs documenting early citywide festivals celebrating diverse artists; images of the seminal experimental performances at LAMAG by Guy de Cointet and Robert Wilhite, Senga Nengudi, Marren Hassinger, and Ulysses Jenkins; and works from many of LAMAG’s celebrated exhibitions, including works by Karl Benjamin, David Hammons, Lorser Feitelson, Julius Shulman, June Wayne, John Altoon, Llyn Foulkes, John Mason, Betye Saar and Patssi Valdez.
