Esoteric Survey

Archie Kaplan ( 1917- 2008) Archie was born in Connecticut, but spent his adult life in New York. He had no formal design training. He dropped out of Brooklyn College to open his own school school. During high school and college he taught drafting, math, and similar subjects at trade schools -- "night tutoring schools" in his words – and that's the kind of school he opened. The school closed while he was in the Army. He was stationed on Okinawa during the war, and said he was influenced by Japanese architecture and landscaping. When he returned home after the war he opened another school, but decided to close it and go in a different direction.   Designed for Moderns was his next venture.  The company's name was changed to New Dimensions. Sol Bloom also designed for the company. Although it's sometimes unclear who designed what for the company, all the photos in this post are by Archie Kaplan.   This is...

Alexander Girard paper A. Quincy Jones, Builder's Homes for Better Living and an LTR that was once belonged to him. LTRs in "The Barn". The Textile & Objects posters in the top picture also came from the Jones estate, via LAMA. Source:  Julius Shulman,  Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles Reading material Raymor, Tom Tramel, Rupert Desse, Brent Bennet,

Bowl by Mingei Museum founder, Martha Longenecker  Sori Yanagi wooden figures, from Martha Longenecker's  estate More Yanagi and Japanese craft from the  Longenecker esate More of Martha's stuff Martha's Design Quarterly Actually, I think  this one belonged to her friend, Ilse Ruocco Ilse Ruocco and Martha Longeneker, 1957 Source:  San Diego's Craft Revolution From Post-War Modern to California Design , by Dave Hampton Not Martha's stuff. La Gardo Tackett, Kenji Fujita, Heino, Laura Andreson, and Doug Ayers George Nelson for Howard Miller...Old In Box  Fragile Bubble  Hammer by Koyo Sangyo

The Fulton Pedestrian Mall is no more. The backwards plan to turn the mall back over to the automobile is being implemented.  The George Tsutakawa sculptural fountain and Garrett Eckbo designed pool are gone. The Jan de Swart clock tower will be removed from the center of the mall and pushed to the corner. No More Claire Falkenstein. Stan Bitters, in jail. This Bitters is gone. Not that they were being taken care of when they were still there. Peter Voulkos, caged and gone.  Gordon Newell, suffocating

Kay Sekimachi Wood by Jerry Glaser, mostly Bowl by Jerry Glaser It sure looks a lot like one of the Glaser bowls shown in California Design 8 (1962) at the Pasadena Museum of Art.  Check  Panelcarve Iron, including VKG Dieter Rams