Isotta Poggi

The period of sustained dissent in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, associated particularly with the Civil Rights Movement, the rising opposition to the Vietnam War and second wave feminism, also proud forms of radical art. The Getty Research Institute Library, which was active in documenting this art in Los Angeles, helped to define this era. Drawing primarily on the holdings of the Library, such as photobooks, photographs, performance art, and art books, this presentation discusses the visual language of different types of art media used for social activism. It also illustrates the role the Getty Research Institute has played in collecting these primary materials and making them increasingly available to the public, both locally and globally, through collaborative initiatives, exhibitions and publications.