Kenneth D. Allan: Radio-Mastery of the Ether - Wallace Berman and Materiality in 1960s Los Angeles

Kenneth D. Allan’s research focuses on the rise of the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s and has included the work and influence of Wallace Berman. A central figure in development of the postwar Los Angeles art world as the editor of the journal Semina, Berman’s work spanned the media of photography, collage, assemblage sculpture, and film. This talk will consider how his interest in the history of radio technology, Jewish mysticism and ideas of transmission and reception come together in his later work with stones and Hebrew lettering inspired by a prized 1923 book in his library, The Story of Modern Science Vol. IX: Radio-Mastery of the Ether. Kenneth Allan is Assistant Professor of Art History at Seattle University and received his MA and PhD from University of Chicago. His recent publications include essays for the Getty Museum catalog, Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980.