Pop Art Pioneer: Tony Berlant dies at 85
The Santa Monica artist, known for metal collages and co-curating ancient pottery exhibits, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's.
By Giulia Donovan ·
Tony Berlant died Tuesday in Santa Monica at age 85. His death followed a prolonged battle with Alzheimer's disease. L.A. Louver, the gallery that represented him for many years, confirmed the news.
Berlant built his reputation in the 1960s as a central figure in the West Coast Pop Art movement. His work rejected traditional paper collages. Instead, he used shards of printed tin and vintage metal street signs. He secured these pieces with thousands of shiny nails rather than glue. In his later years, he printed personal photographs onto the metal surfaces. This shift gave his colorful assemblages an autobiographical quality.
He was a founding member of the Mimbres Foundation, an archaeological conservancy dedicated to preserving ancient Native American pottery. Berlant also co-curated two major museum exhibitions. One was 'First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone' at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. The other was 'Decoding Mimbres Painting: Ancient Ceramics of the American Southwest' at LACMA. His own metal cube sculptures, often described as quilt-like, added another dimension to his artistic output.
Berlant was a key figure in the Ferus Gallery scene in 1960s Los Angeles. This group, sometimes called the 'Cool School,' included artists such as Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, and the late Ed Moses. The gallery served as a hub for experimentation during a period of rapid change in the local art world. Berlant participated in 'Pop Art USA' at the Oakland Art Museum in 1963. He showed his work alongside Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Claes Oldenburg in one of the earliest museum exhibitions of the genre.
His work is held in the permanent collections of LACMA, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Berlant maintained a strong belief in the creative spirit of Los Angeles despite its growing commercial focus. In a 2018 interview, he noted that his New York friends viewed the 1960s as a lost golden age. 'But I think L.A. is [still that]. It never left,' he said. He added that he was constantly excited by new artists appearing in the city.
Berlant is survived by his wife, Helen; his daughter, comedian Kate Berlant; and his brother, Jeff Berlant.
