Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945–1980

Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980
© J. Paul Getty Trust / Julius Shulman Photography Archive

Richard Neutra, Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, Calif., 1946
In the realm of domestic architecture, Southern Californian tastes were often ahead of the more tradition-bound Eastern seaboard. The warm climate made it possible for a handful of advanced architects to design homes that were truly open to the elements — a longtime dream of European Modernists. The same Edgar Kaufmann who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build Fallingwater asked the Austrian emigré Richard Neutra to make him the light-filled glass-and-steel winter home captured in the above voluptuous picture by the great architectural photographer Julius Shulman.

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Get the Latest Photos from Time.com
Get TIME photos and pictures of the week delivered directly to your inbox.