Jerry McMillan, Whimsical Chronicler of LA's Art Scene, Dies at 89

"Born on December 7, 1936, McMillan grew up in Oklahoma City, where he was childhood friends with Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode. In 1957, he drove to Los Angeles to attend the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of the Arts), joining Ruscha, Goode, and fellow Okie transplants Patrick Blackwell and Mason Williams. The group lived together in Hollywood, then Los Feliz, and dubbed themselves the "Students Five.""

"After graduating, McMillan emerged as one of the preeminent chroniclers of the emerging LA art world, photographing his friends and other artists, especially those in the orbit of seminal Ferus Gallery, including Ed Kienholz, Larry Bell, and Robert Irwin. "So much of what we know about the LA art scene in that era is from Jerry's photos," Andrew Perchuck, interim director of the Getty Research Institute (GRI), which acquired McMillan's photographic archives from the 1960s and '70s in 2015, told Hyperallergic."

Jerry McMillan was born on December 7, 1936, and grew up in Oklahoma City where he befriended Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode. He moved to Los Angeles in 1957 to attend the Chouinard Art Institute and joined fellow Okie transplants, living with them as the Students Five. McMillan became a leading chronicler of the emerging Los Angeles art scene, photographing artists associated with the Ferus Gallery, including Ed Kienholz, Larry Bell, and Robert Irwin. He shaped artists' public personas through whimsically staged role-playing and inventive portraits, notably photographing Ruscha in varied hyper-masculine guises. The Getty Research Institute acquired his 1960s–70s archives in 2015. McMillan died February 9 at age 89; his son cited "old age and a broken heart."

Read at Hyperallergic