More than 60 institutions from across Southern California came together in 2011-2012 for Art in L.A. 1945-1980, the Getty’s first Pacific Standard Time (PST) initiative, and the cultural impact was immediate and intense. When museums and galleries from Santa Barbara to San Diego all offered simultaneous, coordinated exhibitions about the rise of Los Angeles as an art center, the international art world took notice. Less than a year later, it seemed as though every major museum in New York City had a show by one of the L.A. artists from PST. Although many of these exhibitions had been in the works for several years, visiting New York when it was so thoroughly besotted with California art made the first Pacific Standard Time collaboration appear in retrospect to have been the fulcrum of a massive paradigm shift.
This week, the Getty and a colossal array of California art institutions launch Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an even more ambitious effort that has the potential to once again destabilize the historical narratives and upend the conventional wisdom of the art world. The two instances of “LA” in the subtitle refer to Los Angeles and Latin American/Latinx art. This time around, Santa Barbara will have a significantly larger presence in the project, as all of the city’s art museums, along with the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and the Community Arts Workshop, are collaborating to bring four substantial shows and dozens of events and activities to our city over the next four months. What’s more, all of these exhibits and events focus on the impact of Latin American and Latinx art on Southern California, a subject that could not possibly be more relevant to our current historical moment.