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Showing posts from 2023

High Life Textile Factory / Félix Candela

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Félix Candela: High Life Textile Factory, Coyoacan, Mexico City 1955 The facility made suits for a retail men's store called High Life. The store is still in existence but the building was later Cavalier Fashion and now appears to be vacant. The building made the cover of Arts & Architecture in May 1956. There is an article on Candela but this building isn't discussed. During construction. I was able to poke my phone through one of the few sections of window that wasn't covered by a board.  It's very nondescript from the exterior.  It's located near Frida's Casa Azul.

Antonio Attolini Lack / Parroquia de la Santa Cruz

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Parroquia de la Santa Cruz by Antonio Attolini Lack (1960-1968) I took another trip out to Jardines del Pedregal, the master planned community developed by Luis Barragan. This incredible church was initially designed by José Villagrán but Attolini took the project over and made substantial changes to the original design. Thorny David y David I'm not sure who designed this chair. Antonio Attolini Lack designed this one.  The crypt So many good details. Source: Una Vida Moderna Source:  Una Vida Moderna The wall lining the plaza in front of the church. Antonio Attolini Lack was obviously proud of this project. Rightfully so.

Weekend / Stuff

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  Back to regular scheduled programming. Stuff from the past few weekends. VKG Souvenirs from Mexico City Eames, Martz and Stan Bitters Josef Frank Good Design

Balmer, Boyd & Stewart / LAMA

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Lot 123 Jean Balmer, Untitled Balmer, Boyd & Stewart By Dave Hampton Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the work of June Schwarcz, Kay Whitcomb and the Woolleys was exhibited repeatedly in the Pasadena Museum of Art's exhibition series California Design .  Jean Balmer Terrace Bottle, California Design 9 Pacific Beach-based potter Jean Balmer exhibited ceramics in California Design 9 . For California Design 10 , held in 1968, the prolific San Diego potter David Stewart contributed an elaborate handmade chess set. Described as a "limited production" item, it had ceramic pieces rendered in green and white animal forms on a tile surface playing board. David Stewart Chess Set, California Design 10 Stewart was studying sculpture at San Diego State in 1959 on the GI Bill when he saw a show of Marguerite Wildenhain's pottery organized by Martha Longenecker in the campus art department. He chanced upon Wildenhain in the parking lot and chatted with the Bauhaus master potter b

San Diego Enamel Scene / LAMA

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Lot 107 Kay Whitcomb, Enamel Sculpture San Diego Enamel Scene by Dave Hampton During the mid to late 1950s, the Art Center in La Jolla was becoming an important hub for area artists and designer-craftsmen, including those working with enamels. When Ellamarie and Jackson Woolley began to focus on the medium in 1948-49 they lived in a unit at Rudolf Schindler's El Pueblo Ribera (above), (along with other Allied Craftsmen group member Harry Bertoia) and their important groundwork helped inspire a whole community of San Diego artists, including Barney Reid, Phyllis Wallen, Joann Tanzer, James Parker, Margaret Price and even the young sculptor Jack Boyd , all of whom eventually did significant work with enamel on copper.  Jackson and  Ellamarie  Woolley Certainly, the Woolleys defined and propelled this wave of enameling by San Diego artists, however, within just a couple of years of each other (1955 and 1957 respectively), Kay Whitcomb and June Schwarcz arrived in La Jolla to infuse t