California Video: Artists and Histories

Edited by Glenn Phillips
Essays by Meg Cranston, Rita Gonzalez, Kathy Rae Huffman, Robert R. Riley, Steve Seid, and Bruce Yonemoto

Published to accompany a landmark exhibition that was on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from March 15 through June 18, 2008, California Video presents the first comprehensive survey of the history of video art in California. Since the late 1960s, California artists have been at the forefront of an international movement that has expanded video into the realm of fine art. Whether designing complex video installations, devising lush projections, experimenting with electronic psychedelia, creating conceptual and performance art, generating guerilla video, or producing works that promote feminism and other social issues, these artists have utilized video technology to express revolutionary ideas.

This illustrated volume focuses on fifty-eight artists, from early video pioneers such as John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman, and William Wegman, to Martha Rosler, Diana Thater, Bill Viola, and other established and emerging talents. Thirty-seven recent interviews shed new light on these artists—their influences, creative processes, and impact. Together with commissioned essays, rare reprints, and previously unpublished video transcripts, California Video chronicles a distinctly West Coast aesthetic located within the broader history of video art.

Glenn Phillips is senior project specialist and consulting curator in the Department of Contemporary Programs and Research at the Getty Research Institute.