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The Art World’s Response To The California Wildfires

January 17, 2025
A photograph of a house on fire at night

The Southern California wildfires have affected 12,000 structures

With some of the recent wildfires in California still blazing, many are now recognizing their devastating impact on the arts in the Los Angeles area.

Despite the devastating impact of the Southern California wildfires, the art community in the Los Angeles area has shown remarkable resilience. The fires have affected over 40,000 acres and led to the evacuation of over 200,000 people. Of the thirty fires that broke out last week in the Los Angeles area, only four remain, including the largest. AccuWeather has predicted that the fires have caused nearly $250 billion in damages, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in history. At the beginning of the fires, I wrote about how the Getty Villa, located in one of the areas greatest affected by the blaze, successfully took precautions to protect the buildings and their contents. Other Southern California cultural centers and significant buildings spared by the fires include the Eames House and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Newman House. However, the same cannot be said of about 12,000 structures in the area, including the Freedman House, the Will Rogers House, and other buildings designed by Robert Bridges, Ray Kappe, and Richard Neutra. Even the Zane Grey Estate, said to be completely fireproof when first built in 1907, was destroyed.

One of the most poignant losses was the personal library of the artist Gary Indiana. After his passing in October 2024, his books, which included signed copies and rare art books, were transported to Altadena, California, from his apartment in Manhattan’s East Village. They arrived on January 7th, the day the fires started. Indiana’s personal papers, however, are safe at the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University. The homes of several prominent collectors were also affected, destroying many artworks. Ron Rivlin, who had a collection of over two hundred works by Warhol, Haring, and Hirst, had his Pacific Palisades home burned to the ground.

On Wednesday, January 15th, several organizations announced the foundation of the L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund. These groups, including the J. Paul Getty Trust, Gagosian Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and the foundations of Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Joan Mitchell, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, have come together to support local artists affected by the fires. They aim to provide $12 million in grants, to be distributed by the Center for Cultural Innovation. Applications for these grants will open on January 20th. Other organizations are already appropriating funds to support artists in the area, including the Gottlieb Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Qatar Museums, and the Ford Foundation. Many Southern California artists have also started collecting donations through crowdfunding sites.

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