“The Co Founder of the Word O.K.,” Hollywood
Ger van Elk Dutch
Not on view
Van Elk was a key figure in introducing Los Angeles-based artists of the 1960s and early 1970s to European galleries and vice versa. A witty triptych called "The Co-Founder of the Word O.K.—Hollywood", it commemorates the transatlantic exchange between European and American artists that he so greatly facilitated.
The artist arrived in Los Angeles in the late 1950s, accompanying his father who had been hired by Hanna Barbera studios as an animator. For this 1971 work of what he described as "touristic expressionism", Van Elk turned himself into a temporary sculptural monument, posing as the letter "K" in various Hollywood locations next to a cartoonish framed print of showing the letter "O" (He then proceeded to make a separate but complementary triptych in his home country, showing himself at spots around the Sturbridge Village-esque Dutch fishing village of Marken, again posing as the letter "K" and now using a sausage link to make the letter “O”.)
As is often the case with art
