Cover for Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California
A definitive resource on California’s Light and Space and Finish Fetish movements of the 1960s and ’70s.
Edited with text by Carol S. Eliel. Text by Kim Conaty, Michael Govan, Lawrence Weschler, Melinda Wortz, Katia Zavistovski. Photographic portfolio by Luisa Lambri.
Designed by Katherine Go and David Karwan
Published 2021 | ISBN: 9781942884996

This volume explores the art of Light and Space and related “finish fetish” pieces with highly polished surfaces. In the 1960s and 1970s, various artists in Southern California began to create works that investigate perceptual phenomena: how we come to understand form, volume, presence and absence through light, whether seen directly through other materials, reflected, or refracted. Many artists used newly developed industrial materials—including sheet acrylic, fiberglass and polyester resin—in their work. Light, Space, Surface draws on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s deep holdings of this material, revealing the vibrancy and diversity of this slice of American art history.