Événement

Robert Landau Rock N' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip Talk

The City of West Hollywood through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission presents a photographic exhibition 'Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip' by photographer Robert Landau at the West Hollywood Library, located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069. The exhibit will be on view through mid-October during regular library operating hours. There will be an artist talk on Saturday August 10, 2013 at 5 pm at the West Hollywood Library.

On the Sunset Strip, circa 1967, Buffalo Springfield called it right: "There's something happening here...what it is ain't exactly clear." What was happening then is now absolutely clear. Rock 'n' roll and the kids who lived it were coming of age--right there on The Strip. And, as if to define the era, a few independent minds in the music industry posted giant, temporary monuments that said it all in the form of larger than life, hand-painted billboards. It seemed that billboards would chronicle rock forever.

In Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip, author/photographer Robert Landau showcased these signs of the time, a time when rock was the most important music ever recorded; when youth, politics, and art merged to turn counterculture into mainstream culture. Landau grew up on the Strip, a kid destined to be a professional photographer, shooting his first pictures. Decades later, he rediscovered his Kodachromes, the only extensive collection of photographs that document those iconic billboards. Impassioned, he interviewed the artists, record producers, and designers who shaped those placards, bringing fresh insight to the culture of the day and its lasting impact on the world. He tells it like it was, through the people who lived the music, the time, the energy...and the billboards.

Please visit www.weho.org/art for more info on the exhibit and talk.