From Global Protests to Local Archives in the Collections of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles

Abstract

The Getty Research Institute Library has been active not only in documenting the Los Angeles art of social transformation during the era of dissent, which was marked by the Civil Rights Movements, the Vietnam War, and Feminism, it has even helped define its dynamic history. Drawing primarily on the holdings of the Getty Research Institute Library, from photobooks, photographs, performance art, and artist books, this presentation discusses the visual language of different art media used for social activism and illustrates the role this institution has played in collecting these primary materials and making them increasingly available to the public, locally and globally, through collaborative initatiatives, exhibitions and publications.