Esoteric Survey

  Ben Seibel Jenfredware and a pair of lamps by Raymor. Coat rack

  A DARK, A LIGHT, A BRIGHT: THE DESIGNS OF DOROTHY LIEBES At Cooper Hewitt  A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes was curated by Susan Brown, Associate Curator and Acting Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, and Alexa Griffith Winton, Manager of Content and Interpretation at Cooper Hewitt. Dorothy Liebes was born in Santa Rosa, California. She studied the history of textiles and art education at university in New York and then continued her textile education in Europe. In 1930 she opened her first studio in San Francisco.   A Long Chair designed by Marcel Breuer was on display as a nod to the one exhibited at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. Dorothy was director of the Division of Decorative Arts. That role allowed her to make a number of connections across the country in the art and design field that would help launch her decades long successful career. The Liebes workshop in San Francisco.  A real crowd pleasing...

  Stan Bitters for Hans Sumpf Malcolm Leland for Architectural Pottery, from the Barney Reid estate Paolo Soleri, La Gardo Tackett, Ed Cromey

  Ellamarie Woolley enamel plaque. This was actually mine before and I sold it to a friend. Luckily I had the opportunity to buy it back. Once upon a time it belonged to Jean Balmer. I lent it to the Museum of California Design for their California's Designing Women exhibition and it made the cover.  Also, a huge coincidence that I picked up the exact Dorothy Liebes tiles that were in the exhibition and book. Bill Stern was a good guy.  More about that exhibition, here .  This Bob Stocksdale piece also has some good provenance. Pamela Weir-Quiton purchased it from Bob himself.  I rescued this DCM without a seat and the backrest on upside down. It had been inside a shabby chic mall for several months and then they moved to the back yard. It was left for dead under the elements and I just couldn't stand to see it that way. A real "chair"ity move, I know. 

This past weekend I was able to visit Pamela Weir-Quiton's studio.  Here she is laughing it up with Joel Chen , who will be showing a number of her pieces at his gallery. Born in Indiana to a military family, Pamela attended high school in Alaska and Reno. Since 1964 she has lived and works in Los Angeles. She was interested in fashion design, which is a thread that runs throughout her career, be it with her dolls, numerous commissions in shopping centers and even her marriage to fashion illustrator Gregory Weir-Quiton.    While a sophomore at Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), Pamela won a 1965 guest editorship position with Mademoiselle magazine in New York City. In addition to doing editorial work, she did some modeling (on the right). Source: Mademoiselle, 1965 She also met Andy Warhol and is seen here on the left waiting for a signed napkin. It doesn't get anymore New York than this.  Source: Mademoiselle, 1965 I love the mentio...