OK/L.A.

Joe Goode led a stable of Okie artists who took the Los Angeles art world by storm in the 1960s and beyond

Consider Joe Goode. More than half a century ago, the Oklahoma City-born painter headed to the City of Angels like some artistic Tom Joad seeking inspiration instead of income, though some income would have been nice. He wasn’t alone.

Other Okie artists made the same pilgrimage including the much-celebrated painter Edward Ruscha and photographer Jerry McMillan. They all ended up students at L.A.’s Chouinard Art Institute not long before the school merged with Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to establish the California Institute of the Arts, more popularly known as CalArts. Keep in mind, late 50s L.A. was not a hotspot for art in America. New York had fought long and hard to steal the crown from Paris and at the height of Abstract Expressionism, there was no sign that it would be relinquishing the title any time soon. Then came Pop. More specifically, Andy Warhol’s first-ever solo exhibition at L.A.’s legendary Ferus Gallery in 1962. This show introduced the world to his famous Campbell’s soup cans. It was a shot across the bow. All of a sudden, the world was paying attention to the L.A. art scene.

Still in his early 20s, Goode had already started working on a series of paintings that would become his trademark. Like Ruscha’s depictions of gas stations and other everyday life subjects, Goode focused on an object familiar to eyes from Midwest City to Culver City and everywhere in between, the humble milk bottle. 

Thrown in with the other Pop artists of the day (Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, Wayne Thiebaud), Goode’s realistic portrayals of the objects, often sitting on a step, are more in line with the trompe l’oeil tradition. He would move on to more nebulous subjects like clouds. Now in his mid-70s, Goode continues to work and show around the world. To put it simply, Goode is great.

To go a little deeper I highly recommend reading the recent book, “Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s” by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp. The book is much more enjoyable than trying to pronounce the author’s name and there is an entire chapter (Chapter 5, “Okies”) on Goode and his cohorts. 

THE GOODE STUFF
 

In 1962 Goode takes part in the groundbreaking exhibition, “New Painting of Common Objects” at the Pasadena Art Museum. The show is curated by Walter Hopps, the man behind Warhol’s soup can show. At 24, Goode was the youngest artist featured in the exhibition.

Goode’s work can be found in museums throughout the country and around the world including The Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MoMA, The Smithsonian, The Whitney, and museums in Sweden, Israel, England and many more.

Okies stick together. After moving to Los Angeles, the various Oklahomans (Goode, Ruscha, McMillan) moved in together eventually adding more Oklahoma transplants to the mix.

Goode’s first group exhibition was in 1960 at the Oklahoma Art Center (now the Oklahoma City Museum of Art). The show was called “Four Oklahoma Artists.”  The original Oklahoma Art Center, located on the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds, was born in the 30s from the Oklahoma Federal Art Project, an extension of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The L.A. art scene Goode inhabited is explored in the can’t-miss 2008 documentary, “The Cool School.” The film is available to stream on Amazon or to check out through the Tulsa City-County Library.

Did you know that Oklahoma has an official “State Art Collection”? Included in the collection are works by Goode, Alexandre Hogue and Leon Polk Smith. Explore the collection online at arts.ok.gov.