WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA.- Spotlighting art that challenged, educated, and inspired the ideas of democracy in California during a turbulent era, Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975 documents the importance of art as a vehicle for social and political progress throughout a watershed decade. Presented by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the exhibition is part of the City of West Hollywood’s arts initiative PST...It All Started Here—West Hollywood Celebrates Pacific Standard Time. Decade of Dissent opened at the new West Hollywood Library—which LA Times’ architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne called one of the “most impressive pieces of public architecture to open in Southern California in a decade”. The show remains on view during regular library hours through April 28.
Decade of Dissent is culled from CSPG's more than 80,000 post-World War II historical posters, the largest collection of its kind in the nation. It was specifically designed to be auxiliary and complementary to Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 exhibitions taking place in West Hollywood. “Art is at the center of every movement for social change,” says Wells. “This exhibition stands testament to the effect poster art had in championing protest for a greater democracy in Southern California and the United States. The show also documents a wide variety of causes, and it is sobering to realize that nearly 40 years later, people are still taking to the streets over many of these same issues—from opposition to war to promoting LGBTQ rights.”
Special events to be held at the library (625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, 90069) during Decade of Dissent include a book signing and conversation with Mr. Fish and Robert Scheer on February 13, 7:30 to 9:30PM. There will be an Artist’s Panel on March 31 from 3-5PM, and the program Dissent 451: Art & Activism Now—in which artists and activists will discuss the role of art in contemporary movements for social change—on April 21, 3-5PM. Decade of Dissent is funded in part by The City of West Hollywood and the California Council for the Humanities.
While Decade of Dissent is not an official Pacific Standard Time offering, works from CSPG’s collection are also featured in six other exhibitions that are official (details available on CSPG’s website). CSPG's posters document the contributions of Los Angeles activists and artists to diverse peace, justice and national liberation movements including Anti-War, African-American, Chicano, Native American, Lesbian and Gay, Women, Prisoner Rights, Labor, Anti-Nuclear and Ecology.
The City of West Hollywood is proud to feature Decade of Dissent as part of PST...It All Started Here—West Hollywood Celebrates Pacific Standard Time (www.weho.org/PST) –events and exhibits exploring WeHo’s significant role in shaping the era highlighted by the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time. In addition to Decade of Dissent, highlights include LAXART’s re-staging of Mark di Suvero's Artists' Tower of Protest on the Sunset Strip, LAND and Corazon del Sol’s Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler, and ONE's Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles 1945-1980.
