{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/2f7jq0v38v/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Larry Bell, 5/29/2022"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Larry Bell is a renowned Venice-associated artist of the Light and Space Movement."]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["4/19/23 at 4:40 PM"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["Name of interviewee, date; The Venice Heritage Museum Oral Histories Project; Venice Heritage Museum, Los Angeles, CA."]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["OH_046"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Beach"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_public"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Larry Bell is a renowned Venice-associated artist of the Light and Space Movement."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/225/758/small/Larry_Bell.jpg?1713989381","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Larry_Bell.mp4"]},"duration":667.86133,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/225/758/small/Larry_Bell.jpg?1713989381","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-veniceheritagemuseum.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/225/758/original/Larry_Bell.mp4?1713556098","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":667.86133,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758/transcript/67694","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Larry Bell Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758/transcript/67694/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"00:00:05:05 - 00:00:07:18\nMy name is Larry Bell and I was born\n\n00:00:07:18 - 00:00:10:22\nDecember the 6th, 1939.\n\n00:00:10:22 - 00:00:14:20\nYeah, when I was a little kid\rmy folks used to come from the San\n\n00:00:14:20 - 00:00:16:23\nFernando Valley and bring us to the beach.\n\n00:00:16:23 - 00:00:19:15\nAnd Venice was...\n\n00:00:19:23 - 00:00:21:19\nthe beach we came to.\n\n00:00:21:19 - 00:00:24:15\nThere was hardly ever anybody out there.\n\n00:00:24:15 - 00:00:26:03\nIt was pretty funky.\n\n00:00:26:03 - 00:00:31:19\nUh, the further south,\ryou get there, it was, uh, the, the\n\n00:00:31:19 - 00:00:34:22\nthe canals were all filled with cars\n\n00:00:34:22 - 00:00:37:19\nand washing machines, and, uh...\n\n00:00:37:19 - 00:00:42:04\noily water, and it smelled bad, too.\n\n00:00:42:04 - 00:00:46:08\nIt was totally different\rthan the Sherman Oaks where I lived.\n\n00:00:46:08 - 00:00:50:20\nAnd, uh, Venice was just different,\rdifferent people down here.\n\n00:00:50:20 - 00:00:56:13\nThere were Black people there.\rBlack people and Spanish people and, uh,\n\n00:00:56:13 - 00:00:58:16\nAsian people, Mexican people.\n\n00:00:58:16 - 00:01:01:13\nAnd uh, where I lived\rit was all white and Jews.\n\n00:01:01:13 - 00:01:03:18\nVenice Beach was fantastic.\n\n00:01:03:18 - 00:01:06:09\nIt was hardly anybody there on the beach.\n\n00:01:06:09 - 00:01:09:01\nEverybody was up in Santa Monica or\n\n00:01:09:01 - 00:01:12:02\nor down in Hermosa Beach\ror someplace like that.\n\n00:01:12:02 - 00:01:13:21\n“So, it was fantastic. Why?”\n\n00:01:13:21 - 00:01:16:13\nJust because it was vacant. \n\n00:01:16:13 - 00:01:18:03\nYeah, vacant.\n\n00:01:18:03 - 00:01:22:06\nAnd, uh, there was no\rbusiness either, no commerce, really.\n\n00:01:22:06 - 00:01:23:10\nA few stores.\n\n00:01:23:10 - 00:01:25:22\nAnd, uh... \n\n00:01:26:09 - 00:01:28:14\nThere was a drugstore on Windward\n\n00:01:28:14 - 00:01:30:19\nand Pacific...\n\n00:01:30:19 - 00:01:32:20\nVals Drugs.\n\n00:01:32:20 - 00:01:35:02\nThat was sort of the only business around.\n\n00:01:35:02 - 00:01:37:10\nThere was no markets, there was no, nothing.\n\n00:01:37:10 - 00:01:38:18\nIt was dangerous down there.\n\n00:01:38:18 - 00:01:44:17\nThere was a lot of gangs\rand motorcycle guys and a lot of\n\n00:01:44:17 - 00:01:47:01\nnot that the bikers were that dangerous,\n\n00:01:47:01 - 00:01:50:11\nbut they as a group,\rthey were sort of scary.\n\n00:01:50:11 - 00:01:54:16\nThere was a place\rcalled the Venture Inn on Washington\n\n00:01:54:16 - 00:01:58:05\nBoulevard,\rwhich is now, uh, James Beach. \n\n00:01:58:05 - 00:02:01:19\nand, uh, the...\n\n00:02:01:19 - 00:02:06:07\nthe, the clientele \rwere all bikers and wrestlers\n\n00:02:06:07 - 00:02:10:00\nand, uh, and at least once a week\n\n00:02:10:00 - 00:02:14:17\nsomebody’d get thrown through the plate\rglass window of the place, you know.\n\n00:02:14:17 - 00:02:17:00\nI like the guys, the wrestler guys.\n\n00:02:17:00 - 00:02:18:17\nThey were really funny people.\n\n00:02:18:17 - 00:02:22:15\nBikers I wasn't so sure of,\rbut the wrestlers were a kick in the ass\n\n00:02:22:17 - 00:02:26:04\n“Once you move past your teen years,\ryou became an artist yourself\n\n00:02:26:06 - 00:02:27:11\nand you talked about that\n\n00:02:27:11 - 00:02:30:16\nthis was when you got \ryour first studio in Venice.”\n\n00:02:30:16 - 00:02:35:04\nWell, I was just thrilled to have \ra place, a big, empty store right\n\n00:02:35:04 - 00:02:36:13\nnext to the beach.\n\n00:02:36:13 - 00:02:41:10\nYou know, for, I think, 70 bucks a month\ror something like that.\n\n00:02:41:10 - 00:02:45:21\nMy landlord was a guy named Stan Flinkman,\rand he owned, the family \n\n00:02:45:21 - 00:02:50:12\nowned a bunch of property around here,\rincluding that, that big apartment\n\n00:02:50:12 - 00:02:54:05\non, on Main Street, that big building\n\n00:02:54:05 - 00:02:59:12\nthat is so interesting inside\rand so totally boring outside.\n\n00:02:59:12 - 00:03:03:18\nUh, it's a little bit like the Bradbury\rBuilding in downtown L.A.,\n\n00:03:03:18 - 00:03:04:21\nbut it's right here.\n\n00:03:04:21 - 00:03:07:02\nNobody wanted to come down to Venice.\n\n00:03:07:02 - 00:03:08:10\nIt was too dangerous.\n\n00:03:08:10 - 00:03:12:06\nAnd so, uh, there were\rold Jewish people that lived over there.\n\n00:03:12:06 - 00:03:17:08\nThere were synagogues on the boardwalk,\rand, and, uh, and a couple of, uh,\n\n00:03:17:08 - 00:03:19:19\none or two delis on the boardwalk.\n\n00:03:19:19 - 00:03:23:01\nMurray's Deli was a...\n\n00:03:23:01 - 00:03:25:00\nplace I used to go.\n\n00:03:25:00 - 00:03:26:04\nYeah.\n\n00:03:26:04 - 00:03:30:03\nYou weren't allowed to live in a\rin a commercial building in those days.\n\n00:03:30:03 - 00:03:34:17\nAt least that's what the law was,\ryou know, and, and uh,\n\n00:03:34:17 - 00:03:39:22\nso we were always very careful\rabout not letting strangers come in\n\n00:03:39:22 - 00:03:44:04\n‘cause they might be city inspectors\rwho’ll tell you to get out, you know.\n\n00:03:44:04 - 00:03:48:04\n124 Marine Street\rThat's what, where the address was.\n\n00:03:48:04 - 00:03:51:09\n“Having your first studio in Venice\rand beginning your art career\n\n00:03:51:09 - 00:03:54:19\nat that time, how did that influence\rthe art that you were making?\n\n00:03:54:19 - 00:03:58:22\nBeing down in Venice and living in\rthat environment that you're describing?”\n\n00:03:59:00 - 00:04:01:09\nWell, that's a great question because,\n\n00:04:01:09 - 00:04:05:03\nI would tend to say\rit doesn’t, didn't affect anything.\n\n00:04:05:03 - 00:04:06:18\nBut in fact it did.\n\n00:04:06:18 - 00:04:12:19\nI moved into a, a, what had been\ra, some kind of a commercial store.\n\n00:04:12:19 - 00:04:16:10\nHad a big, uh, like a skylight\n\n00:04:16:10 - 00:04:20:08\nover the central part of this,\n\n00:04:20:08 - 00:04:23:00\num, rectangular room,\n\n00:04:23:00 - 00:04:27:13\nwhich was roughly 3000 square feet and, um...\n\n00:04:27:13 - 00:04:30:05\nuh, so there was\n\n00:04:30:05 - 00:04:34:14\nthe architecture of the space\rwas quite clean and empty and,\n\n00:04:34:14 - 00:04:39:18\nand it had a, uh, a rectangular shaped,\n\n00:04:39:18 - 00:04:44:21\nsomething on the ceiling,\rwhich was, which covered a, a skylight.\n\n00:04:44:21 - 00:04:48:21\nAnd I didn't realize it\runtil months after I had moved in there\n\n00:04:48:21 - 00:04:53:22\nthat, that, that, whatever that was\rwas actually the covering of a skylight.\n\n00:04:53:22 - 00:04:57:23\nAnd I poked a couple of holes\rin it, on, from a ladder\n\n00:04:57:23 - 00:05:02:00\nand light came through\rand I realized geez there’s a skylight in here.\n\n00:05:02:00 - 00:05:06:03\nWe took away the, the \rwhat we called beaver board\n\n00:05:06:03 - 00:05:09:19\nat the time that was covering this thing.\n\n00:05:09:19 - 00:05:13:21\nAnd it profoundly changed\n\n00:05:13:21 - 00:05:16:23\nthe way, uh, I work.\n\n00:05:16:23 - 00:05:20:16\nWith nothing in the studio... \n\n00:05:21:02 - 00:05:24:08\nit was full... of light.\n\n00:05:24:10 - 00:05:27:17\nAnd uh, that was, uh...\n\n00:05:27:19 - 00:05:29:01\nthat ended up\n\n00:05:29:01 - 00:05:33:08\nbeing my media, the interface\rof light and surface.\n\n00:05:33:10 - 00:05:38:13\nAnd um, I started working\n\n00:05:38:15 - 00:05:41:13\nin this big room...\n\n00:05:41:13 - 00:05:45:04\nout of the corners of the space\r‘cause I didn't want to...\n\n00:05:45:04 - 00:05:47:02\nI loved the emptiness of it.\n\n00:05:47:02 - 00:05:51:13\nSo I stuck to the walls and the corners\rand so on and ended up\n\n00:05:51:13 - 00:05:55:14\nmaking things that \rwere walls and corners and, uh, uh...\n\n00:05:55:14 - 00:05:58:05\nand I’m still doing that.\n\n00:05:58:05 - 00:06:00:01\nThere was talk of uh, the, \n\n00:06:00:01 - 00:06:02:13\nMarine Street being developed, redeveloped.\n\n00:06:02:13 - 00:06:05:15\nAs soon as that happened,\rthe rents went up.\n\n00:06:05:15 - 00:06:09:05\nAnd I moved out because the rent got,\ryou know, I was only paying\n\n00:06:09:05 - 00:06:13:07\nabout 80 bucks a month\rfor the, my studio that I lived in.\n\n00:06:13:07 - 00:06:14:17\nAlso.\n\n00:06:14:17 - 00:06:16:14\nUh, and so I moved.\n\n00:06:16:14 - 00:06:18:18\nI found a little a house.\n\n00:06:18:18 - 00:06:21:12\nI had the upstairs of the house\n\n00:06:21:12 - 00:06:25:04\nand the little garage,\rand that's where I started making,\n\n00:06:25:06 - 00:06:28:12\nuh, my first sculptures really was\n\n00:06:28:14 - 00:06:31:00\nin that little brick garage.\n\n00:06:31:00 - 00:06:34:17\nPeople were becoming aware\rof the simple fact\n\n00:06:34:19 - 00:06:38:01\nthat there was no more beachfront stuff.\n\n00:06:38:01 - 00:06:38:20\nYou couldn't just\n\n00:06:38:20 - 00:06:41:22\ngo out and buy yourself\ran old ruin of a house\n\n00:06:41:22 - 00:06:45:10\nin Venice canals.\rWhen I first moved here,\n\n00:06:45:10 - 00:06:49:22\nyou could buy a house on a lot\rin the canals for 2000 bucks.\n\n00:06:49:22 - 00:06:52:18\nThe, the canal was full of washing machines\n\n00:06:52:18 - 00:06:55:23\nand oil, and, you know, it was terrible.\n\n00:06:55:23 - 00:07:01:05\nBut, that changed, you know, I mean,\n\n00:07:01:05 - 00:07:04:05\nall of a sudden\reverybody realized, ‘My God,\n\n00:07:04:05 - 00:07:07:23\nthis is the last beach of the city of Los Angeles.\n\n00:07:07:23 - 00:07:12:14\nThis is Los Angeles City's official beach.\n\n00:07:12:16 - 00:07:17:07\nAnd, and you could buy it up\r for nothing, you know.\n\n00:07:17:07 - 00:07:23:04\nAnd so well, fortunately,\ra lot of small people bought up property.\n\n00:07:23:04 - 00:07:25:04\n“Will you talk a little bit\rabout some of the people\n\n00:07:25:04 - 00:07:27:08\nthat you were starting to work with,\rlike Erwin Sokol?”  \n\n00:07:27:08 - 00:07:28:18\n I got to know Irwin\n\n00:07:28:18 - 00:07:33:05\nabout 20 years\rafter I started staying in that hotel.\n\n00:07:33:05 - 00:07:37:08\nI came back to Venice, I can't remember\rwhat the reason was, from New Mexico.\n\n00:07:37:08 - 00:07:42:02\nI came back.  This was around 1974\n\n00:07:42:06 - 00:07:47:23\nand the hotel had just opened\rcalled the Marina Pacific, and that was\n\n00:07:47:23 - 00:07:49:06\nErwin's hotel.\n\n00:07:49:06 - 00:07:53:05\nAnd he, uh, he and his wife,\n\n00:07:53:05 - 00:07:56:12\nhe was he designed it\rand built it with his own hands and\n\n00:07:56:12 - 00:08:00:15\nand was a contractor\rand the designer and the whole thing and,\n\n00:08:00:15 - 00:08:04:21\nand one day...\n\n00:08:05:03 - 00:08:06:21\nuh, this fella walks up to me,\n\n00:08:06:21 - 00:08:10:07\nwho I'd seen around. He wanted some help\n\n00:08:10:07 - 00:08:14:11\ndesigning the new facade\rfor the hotel and all that stuff.\n\n00:08:14:11 - 00:08:18:22\nIt, in fact, all they wanted\rwas the,  all they planned to do\n\n00:08:18:22 - 00:08:22:14\nwas paint everything\rand put new carpeting in\n\n00:08:22:14 - 00:08:27:11\nand put new furniture in\rthe rooms and stuff like that.\n\n00:08:27:11 - 00:08:30:11\nAnd uh, you know, I didn't,\rI didn't know who he was,\n\n00:08:30:11 - 00:08:32:14\nthis guy who came up.  I'd seen him around.\n\n00:08:32:14 - 00:08:35:13\nI didn't know it was the owner\rand the guy who built the place.\n\n00:08:35:13 - 00:08:38:15\nI suggested what color\rto paint the building, what color,\n\n00:08:38:15 - 00:08:42:13\nwhat color\rthe floors should be, and so on, and, uh,\n\n00:08:42:13 - 00:08:47:01\nor approved what they were, what they had\rdesigned and stuff like that.\n\n00:08:47:01 - 00:08:47:16\nAnd I.\n\n00:08:47:16 - 00:08:51:17\nAnd I also gave him a bunch of work\rto hang in the rooms,\n\n00:08:51:17 - 00:08:55:19\nuh, thinking maybe I'd sell something\rout of the hotel, you know?\n\n00:08:55:19 - 00:09:00:18\nSo, uh, so there's a piece of mine\rin every room in the hotel still.\n\n00:09:00:18 - 00:09:06:16\nAnd, uh, and there's a, one of the rooms,\rhe named one of the rooms\n\n00:09:06:16 - 00:09:08:20\nLarry's Loft, \n\n00:09:08:20 - 00:09:12:14\nwhich is a meeting room up on the fifth floor.\n\n00:09:12:14 - 00:09:17:14\nAnd, uh,  I have a sort of an ongoing exhibition.\n\n00:09:17:14 - 00:09:19:14\nWhenever they want to change it he calls me\n\n00:09:19:14 - 00:09:23:14\nand said, “What can you put up there\rthat's different than what's up now?”\n\n00:09:23:14 - 00:09:25:06\n“And still today.”\rYeah.\n\n00:09:25:06 - 00:09:27:05\nSo I take stuff up.\n\n00:09:27:05 - 00:09:30:02\n“So you've continued that relationship\rwith that, with your art?”\n\n00:09:30:02 - 00:09:36:00\nWell, it was hard to avoid, to stop\rcharging me.  I come to the hotel\n\n00:09:36:00 - 00:09:41:18\nand that's where I stay and they park\rmy car and, you know, and, and\n\n00:09:41:18 - 00:09:44:03\nI got to know everybody who works there.\n\n00:09:44:03 - 00:09:48:14\nI felt it was like family,\ryou know, It was it was\n\n00:09:48:14 - 00:09:53:18\nall of a sudden I've been adopted\rinto a Jewish family and, uh,\n\n00:09:53:18 - 00:09:57:14\nuh, that owns the hotel that I live in.\n\n00:09:57:14 - 00:10:02:20\n“Who are some of those artists that you were close to\ror that you celebrated during that time?”\n\n00:10:02:20 - 00:10:08:00\nBilly Al Bengston, uh, Ken Price,\n\n00:10:08:00 - 00:10:12:07\nuh, Robert Irwin, John Altoon, uh.\n\n00:10:12:07 - 00:10:15:18\n“How do you think you were influenced by\rthose other artists that were around you?”\n\n00:10:15:18 - 00:10:17:11\nHumor.\n\n00:10:17:11 - 00:10:21:02\nThe one thing everybody had in\rcommon was an incredible sense of humor.\n\n00:10:21:02 - 00:10:26:13\nIt’s the physical properties\rof the place, the air...\n\n00:10:26:13 - 00:10:28:23\nthe ocean...\n\n00:10:28:23 - 00:10:30:17\nare probably\n\n00:10:30:17 - 00:10:34:00\nthe reasons that Venice is fantastic.\n\n00:10:34:00 - 00:10:35:02\nNothing else.\n\n00:10:35:02 - 00:10:40:07\nThe rest of the stuff comes and goes,\rbut that stays.\n\n00:10:40:07 - 00:10:43:05\nI never met anybody that\n\n00:10:43:05 - 00:10:47:04\nleft Venice\rbecause they didn't like the weather.\n\n00:10:47:04 - 00:10:48:15\n(laughs)","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/119598/file/225758#t=0.0,667.86133"}]}]}]}