La Cienega, seen
RE Charles Koppelman’s article on Lyn Kienholz in Sunday’s Calendar [“L.A.’s So Aujourd’hui,” Feb. 26]: La Cienega was the center of L.A.’s art scene in the late ‘50s and ‘60s.
In those days, at least 36 galleries did business along the stretch of La Cienega between Santa Monica Boulevard at the north end, and Melrose on the south end. It was the largest concentration of galleries west of Chicago.
On Monday evenings -- especially on those Mondays when exhibits opened -- it wasn’t unusual to see 1,000 people walking up and down the boulevard.
Often it was necessary to wait in line to get into a gallery. The Monday night “art walks” as they came to be called, made La Cienega’s Art Gallery Row internationally famous and helped call attention to L.A.’s importance as one of the nation’s leading art centers.
CAROLYN STRICKLER
Pasadena
Strickler was the archivist-historian for the Los Angeles Times and Times Mirror Co., 1979-90.
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