Art Behind Bars

Los Angeles County Jail Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 1935(?). UCLA Library Special Collections (Los Angeles Times photo). Shown is Assistant Jailer Charles A. Fitzgerald

Three decades before LACMA, the county had a dedicated art institution. The Los Angeles County Jail Art Museum displayed inmates' art and received a write-up in the Los Angeles Times in 1934. That predates Jean Dubuffet's "Art Brut," which mainstreamed appreciation of the art of the incarcerated and other marginalized creators.

I'm unable to determine what became of the county's museum and its collection. Today the Prison Arts Collective organizes shows at California galleries. An Autry Museum installation, "Behind Bars: Incarceration in the West," has a few examples of art making.