La Cienega Story

June 2008 In the Air

Get Thee to the Getty

The Ring and the Bling

Damsels in Demand

Andy Warhol Edward Ruscha Lynn Foulkes Robert Irwin Frank Gehry Dispatch: Elmgreen & Dragset Camp Out at the Old Vic The Color of Money Despite Economic Gloom, Sotheby’s and Christie’s Guarantee Top Lots

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Cary Grant, Cary Grant, Cary Grant—that’s how collectors and artists describe the young Irving Blum in The Cool School, a documentary about the Los Angeles art scene in the 1950s and ’60s airing this month on PBS. Architect Frank Gehry and assemblage artist Llyn Foulkes are among those who testify that Blum resembled the movie star in looks, voice and manner. Perpetually attired in a blazer and natty tie, Blum was, in fact, an aspiring actor in New York before moving in 1957 to L.A., where he bought into the Ferus Gallery, which not only launched the careers of Ed Ruscha and Robert Irwin but was also the first dealer to gamble on Andy Warhol. “Irving gave [the gallery] a bit of class,” Don Factor, one of L.A.’s first major collectors, tells the filmmakers. “Wealthy people felt comfortable walking into that situation.” As for the impetus behind Blum’s polished persona, the man himself says: “You don’t want people to know you’re hungry.”

"La Cienega Story" originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2008 Table of Contents.