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Ron Davis' Splatter Galaxy (1982) reflects his long-standing interest in the opening up of the two-dimensional world of the canvas to include the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Tension created by the dramatic illusion of depth on the manifestly flat surface of the canvas is the characteristic feature of his oeuvre.

Nancy Graves' Trace (1981) sums up her long involvement with the juxtaposition of organic and man-made forms, which are melded into exotic "growths," patinated and painted in bright—and distinctly "unnatural"—colors.

David Hockney, the British painter now resident in Los Angeles, has captured the essential color and look of this city perhaps more vividly than any native Angeleno. Mulholland Drive, the Road to the Studio (1980) displays the sun-washed Hollywood Hills and the geometric expanse of the San Fernando Valley beyond in the singing colors of Matisse.

Forest Scene (1980) recapitulates Roy Lichtenstein's technique of translating the work of modern masters (in this case, the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc) into a contemporary idiom of benday dots and primary colors. The poetry of Marc's inspirational work is preserved in Lichtenstein's thoroughly contemporary painting.

Robert Rauschenberg's contribution to the development of materials and techniques in contemporary art is almost incalculable, and in Dirt Shrine: South (1982) he has turned his inventiveness to a characteristic "combine" of painting, sculpture, and ceramic that records his recent journey to China.

St. Michael's Counterguard (1984), a part of Frank Stella's Malta series, reflects this artist's progression from shaped canvases to wall-bound, but fully three-dimensional works in metal. He combines contrasting textures and shapes—painted or anodized areas with smooth or etched bare metal, curvilinear with geometric elements, rough with refined surfaces—in a spectacular tour de force.

Jim Dine has created an immense two-part painting for this exhibition. In The Crommelynck Gate (The Sentinels); The Crommelynck Gate (First Watch on the Rue de Grenelle) (1983), his characteristic motifs—robes and tools—are combined in a romantic tribute to the French master printer Aldo Crommelynck, whose wrought iron gate provides the structure for the compositions.

Sol LeWitt was commissioned by the museum to create the soaring three-story, nine-panel painting, Nine Geometric Figures in Black and White and Color (1984), that looms in the Ahmanson Gallery Atrium. LeWitt's detached mechanical technique has inspired a generation of Minimalist artists.

Dine and LeWitt have created original posters to commemorate this exhibition, and a special poster of Hockney's Mulholland Drive, the Road to the Studio, in the collection of the museum, is also available at the museum shop.

The exhibition was organized by Maurice Tuchman, senior curator, Twentieth-Century Art. It is made possible with the support of the following Corporate Members at the Distinguished Patron level: American Medical International, Bank of America, Blue Cross of California, Pandick California, Inc., TICOR, and Times Mirror Foundation.

Ron Davis (United States, b. 1937)
Splatter Galaxy, 1982
Acrylic on canvas
114 x 184 3/4 in.
Sue and Steven Antebi

Jim Dine (United States, b. 1935)
The Crommelynck Gate (The Sentinels);
The Crommelynck Gate (First Watch on the Rue de Grenelle), 1983
Oil and acrylic on canvas with sand
Two paintings, each: 89 3/8 x 228 in.
Museum commission for this exhibition
Pace Gallery, New York

Nancy Graves (United States, b. 1940)
Trace, 1981
Corten steel, aluminum, and urethane paint
192 x 214 x 120 in.
Promised gift of Jaye and Joseph Haddad

David Hockney (England, b. 1937)
Mulholland Drive, the Road to the Studio, 1980
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 240 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Purchased with funds provided by the F. Patrick Burns Bequest
M.83.35

Sol LeWitt (United States, b. 1929)
Nine Geometric Figures in Black and White and Color, 1984
Colored ink on drywall panels
Six panels, each: 89 3/8 x 211 3/4 in.
Three panels, eachL 86 x 211 3/4 in.
Museum commission for this exhibition

Roy Lichtensteim (United States, b. 1923)
Forest Scene, 1980
Oil and magna on canvas
96 x 128 in.
Private collection

Robert Rauschenberg (United States, b. 1925)
Dirt Shrine: South, 1982
High-fired ceramic
120 x 179 1/2 x 75 in.
Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

Frank Stella (United States, b. 1936)
St. Michael's Counterguard, 1984
Aluminum and fiberglass
156 x 135 x 108 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Gift of Anna Bing Arnold