Pacific Standard Time: Kunst in Los Angeles 1945–1980 presents a focused examination of visual art produced in Southern California from the late mid-forties to 1980. Drawing from extensive collections acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum and sources that have again become accessible as a result of this initiative, the publication offers a fundamental reappraisal and reinterpretation of postwar art in Los Angeles.

It features nearly fifty artists and includes multiple works from each, on loan from preeminent national and international collections, allowing viewers to develop a sense of the nature of individual practices as well as the importance of Southern Californian artists within art history.