Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles
Opening May 30, 2026
Marilyn and Calvin Gross Gallery
About the Exhibition
Join us as we explore the meanings behind some of the most powerful words in the Declaration of Independence from the Autry’s signature perspective: “The View From Here.” Los Angeles, from its beginnings, has been a place of competing claims to life, liberty, and happiness. This exhibition shares the stories of diverse Angelenos and how their ideas of life, liberty, and happiness inspired the city’s growth and amplified the opportunities and contradictions expressed in the nation’s founding principles. Historical and contemporary objects, media, and art combine with community collaborations to bring this history to life. Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles invites you to step into a conversation that has been shaping Los Angeles for more than two hundred years and to see the United States—its past and its future—in a new way.
Highlights
Frank Romero. Carro con Corazon (Rojo), 1987. Paint and wood. Museum purchase; 2025.19.1
Original Undiluted Los Angeles Smog, 1970. Sold by the House of Hale, Los Angeles. Metal, paper, and air. Museum purchase; 2024.27.1
Sherman Indian High School students. The Creator [detail], 2002. Angel form designed by Tony Sheets. Acrylic paint, fiberglass, and cement. Loan courtesy of Sherman Indian High School
Union Pacific Railroad "California Calls You" brochure, early 1900s. Published by Poole Brothers, Chicago. Printed paper. Rosenstock Collection. Autry Museum; 90.253.95
Lapiztola Collective (Artists Roberto Vega and Rosario Mtz). El Nido—The Nest of Los Angeles, 2024. Silk screen print. Museum purchase; 2024.30.1
Hand-painted Mexican flag, Hermosillo, Mexico, mid 19th century. Canvas and wool cloth. Autry Museum; 1895.G.1
This flag was flown in Los Angeles as part of independence celebrations in the nineteenth century.
See Lee. Hmong story cloth, circa 1980. Cotton. Museum purchase; 91.42.1
The story cloth documents See Lee and her family's flight from Laos and arrival in Long Beach in the 1970s.
Exhibition Sponsors
Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles is supported by the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation.