The following decade of the timeline traces Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG)’s history at Barnsdall Art Park alongside moments of local civil unrest, the emergence of new art institutions, and key U.S. historical events that shaped Los Angeles’s evolving cultural landscape. During this period, the gallery’s exhibitions increasingly emphasized inclusivity, foregrounding underrepresented artistic communities and marking several important milestones. These include one of the first exhibitions of its kind at LAMAG, the Sister Mary Corita Retrospective, marking an early solo exhibition by a woman at the institution, and Chicanarte, one of the first major Chicanx group exhibitions presented at the gallery.
At the same time, pivotal events in Los Angeles history, such as the Watts Riots, which contributed to the establishment of the Watts Towers Arts Center, and the Black Cat Tavern protests, brought longstanding social inequities into public view. While the years between 1965 and 1975 encompass a vast and complex history, this timeline focuses on a selective narrative, tracing how the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) civic art story intersects with the broader challenges and transformations of the era.
LAMAG Exhibition History
1965
Arts of New Guinea, January 5 – January 31, 1965
California Watercolor Society, February 9 – March 7, 1965
Pacific Heritage, March 17 – April 11, 1965
Phelan Awards, April 21 – May 16, 1965
Three for the Show II, May 25 – June 20, 1965
13th All City Outdoor Art Festival, July 10 – July 18, 1965
Arts of Peru, July 27 – August 22, 1965
Sculpture/Los Angeles/1965, September 1 – October 3, 1965
Young in Art, October 14 – November 7, 1965
David E. Bright Collection, November 16 – December 12, 1965
1966
Norman Rockwell, January 4 – February 6, 1966
Palette and Camera at the Zoo, February 19 – March 13, 1966
Robert Cremean, March 29 – May 1, 1966
Andrew Dashburg, May 10 – June 5, 1966
California Printmakers Exhibition, June 14 – July 3, 1966
14th All City Outdoor Art Festival, July 16 – July 24, 1966
The Persistent Academy: A Review of Contemporary Conservative Painting in Southern California, August 3 – September 4, 1966
Art Israel, September 13 – October 16, 1966
Sister Corita Retrospective, October 25 – November 27, 1966
Christmas from Many Lands, December 10 – December 20, 1966
1967
California Watercolor Society, January 10 – February 12, 1967
Hurschler Collection: Contemporary European Tapestries, February 21 – March 26, 1967
Pop and Op in Graphics, April 4 – May 7, 1967
Youth Expresses Through Art, May 16 – June 18, 1967
Arts in the Mirror, June 27 – July 23, 1967
Cubism: Its Impact in the USA 1910 – 1930, August 1 – August 27, 1967
15th All City Outdoor Festival, August 5 – August 13, 1967
Drawings USA/66, September 5 – October 8, 1967
Maxfield Parrish, October 17 – November 27, 1967
Christmas from Many Lands, December 9 – December 17, 1967
1968
Our Thing, January 5 – January 21, 1968
Meador and Wolfson, March 6 – March 31, 1968
Jules Berman Kahlua Mexican Pre-Columbian, April 9 – May 12, 1968
Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, May 21 – June 9, 1968
Section I All City Art Festival, June 18 – July 14, 1968
Section II All City Art Festival, July 27 – August 4, 1968
West Coast Now (Patrons), August 27 – September 22, 1968
48th Annual Exhibition: California Watercolor Society, October 1 – October 27, 1968
L.A. Schools Exhibition, November 6 – December 22, 1968
Christmas from Many Lands, December 14 – December 22, 1968
1969
Harvey Leepa Exhibition, February 4 – February 23, 1969
Julius Shulman Photographs, March 5 – March 30, 1969
101 American Primitive Watercolors, April 8 – May 4, 1969
L.A. Annual Art Exhibition, May 20 – June 22, 1969
Colonial Art of Mexico, July 1 – August 3, 1969
18th All City Outdoor Art Festival, August 23 – August 24, 1969
Film and Modern Art, October 7 – October 26, 1969
1970
LAMAG construction
1971 *LAMAG’s new and current building opens to the public*
Sonja Henie-Niels Onstad Collection, March 31 – May 9, 1971
Drawing Society National Exhibition, May 11 – May 30, 1971
Edward Biberman Retrospective, May 11 – June 13, 1971
19th All City Outdoor Art Festival, July 2 – July 4, 1971
Tony Duquette, November 30, 1971 – February 6, 1972
1972
Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient Times and Today, March 10 – April 5, 1972
Naïve Art from Abroad, April 26 – May 28, 1972
20th All City Outdoor Art Festival, June 23 – June 25, 1972
Arthur Miller and Texana, July 11 – August 6, 1972
Lorser Feitelson, August 15 – September 17, 1972
1973
Quartet (Hansen, Robbins, Wagner and Prentiss), January 24 – February 18, 1973
Youth Art Expo 1973, March 3 – March 11, 1973
Leonardo Nierman and Movie Posters, March 30 – April 22, 1973
Perkins Harley: I Remember That and Picasso, May 8 – June 3, 1973
Don Bachardy and George Kolbe, July 11 – August 5, 1973
1st Annual National Print Exhibit and Art and Landscape of Italy, August 15 – September 9, 1973
Separate Realities, September 19 – October 21, 1973
June Wayne, October 31 – December 2, 1973
Hans Hoffman, December 6 – December 30, 1973
Fred Duncan and Everett Greenbaum, December 12 – December 30, 1973
‘1974
Huichol Indian Yarn Paintings, January 16 – February 10, 1974
Edgar Ewing: Athens Paintings, January 30 – March 3, 1974
Beyond Illustration (Playboy Collection), March 27 – April 28, 1974
Eliot Porter, May 8 – June 9, 1974
22nd All City Outdoor Art Festival, June 28 – June 30, 1974
Forsaken Icons, July 10 – August 4, 1974
Graphic Work of Kandinsky, August 14 – September 8, 1974
Levis Denim Art Contest and Edmund Teske Photos, September 18 – October 20, 1974
24 from Los Angeles: New Works by Emerging Artists, October 30 – December 1, 1974
Christmas Show, December 11, 1974 – January 12, 1975
1975
William Reigh’s Los Angeles, January 22 – February 16, 1975
West Coast ’74: The Black Image, January 22 – February 16, 1975
Peter Krasnow, February 26 – March 23, 1975
Winners 1974, May 7 – June 1, 1975
23rd All City Outdoor Art Festival, June 27 – June 29, 1975
6 Austrian Photographers, July 9 – August 3, 1975
Neon, July 9 – August 18, 1975
Ron Davis/Tom Holland, August 13 – September 9, 1975
Chicanarte, September 14 – October 12, 1975
Impetus: The Creative Process, October 28 – November 30, 1975
Of Puppets and Shadows and Strings, December 10, 1975 – January 12, 1976
Trains, Trains, December 11, 1975 – January 12, 1976
