decade

1950s

1957

Billy Al Bengston is part of a group exhibition at the Ferus Gallery.

late 1950s 1957

Barney’s Beanery, a popular West Hollywood bar, is an important source of community for Billy Al Bengston, Joe Goode, Jerry McMillan, and Ed Ruscha, as well as others who show at the Ferus Gallery.

1957–58 1957

Roy De Forest exhibits in two group shows at the Ferus Gallery with Billy Al Bengston.

1958–63 1958

Billy Al Bengston has solo exhibitions at the Ferus Gallery.

decade

1960s

1961–65 1961

Ed Ruscha has solo exhibitions at the Ferus Gallery.

1962

Bruce Conner has a solo exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in June.

1962–65 1962

Larry Bell has solo exhibitions at the Ferus Gallery.

1963

Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Ed Ruscha are included in a group show at the Ferus Gallery.

1964

Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, and Ken Price are included in the Ferus Gallery’s Studs exhibition.

1964

Dennis Hopper takes pictures of some of the “Ferus gang,” with whom he is friendly.

1964

Ed Ruscha has a solo exhibition at the Ferus Gallery. At the opening he meets actor Dennis Hopper, whose 1961 photograph Double Standard, taken on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Melrose Avenue through his car windshield, is used in the show’s announcement. Hopper buys Standard Station, Amarillo Texas (1963), which was featured in the exhibition. After the opening, Hopper and Ruscha become lifelong friends.

1965–69 1965

Under the pseudonym Eddie Russia, Ruscha assumes the role of art director for Artforum, which moves from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 1965 and rents a space above the Ferus Gallery. Ruscha remains the art director two years after the publication moves to New York from Los Angeles.

mid-1960s 1965

Judy Chicago watches Billy Al Bengston race motorcycles and hangs out with the “Ferus gang” at Barney’s Beanery, although she acknowledges the machismo of the crew.

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