Some months back I posted the William Rotsler sculpture seen on the table here. The photo here is from the installation of the 1989 exhibition at MoCA Los Angeles, Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses.
Carole Krohn and her husband made the table that was used in the exhibition. It's one of two they produced. She also provided objects for the timeline of consumer appliances section in the exhibition. Carole assisted with many other exhibitions through the years, like What Modern Was and Machine Age Design.
Photo: David Wasco
Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses was held in 1989 at the the Geffen Contemporary at MoCA Los Angeles. Specifically, it was at the "Temporary Contemporary" space designed by Frank Gehry.
The exhibition and accompanying book were and still are a big deal. It was the first museum show focused on the impact of the Arts & Architecture Case Study House program. It came just 23 years after the last house was completed in 1966.
The endeavor was spearheaded by MoCA curator Elizabeth Smith. Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung (
hplusf) were hired to oversee the exhibit. The art direction and set-design team of David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco supervised the exhibition production. They lived next door to Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung in the R.M. Schindler's 1939 Falk apartments at the time. The Wascos have worked on multiple films for Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson and many more.
This Sandy Reynolds-Wasco quote from an interview encapsulates the modern architecture rediscovery happening In LA at the time:
When we first moved to L.A. we spent all of our off-hours driving around the city with David Gebhardt’s guide to architecture in hand, ferreting out the work of the local greats like Neutra, Ain, Ellwood, and Soriano. We had both studied architecture back east and knew the names, so we toured L.A. like a giant architectural museum by car, a pretty perfect SoCal experience. On the practical side we were also hunting for potential apartments, since our first place, a half block off Hollywood Boulevard, turned out to be less glamorous than we’d expected—my ’64 Galaxy 500 was stolen the night I bought it. Read the full article,
here.
One of the two full-scale replicas, Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22, the Stahl House (1959) is seen here.
There was also the unbuilt IRL Case Study House #4 by Ralph Rapson, the Greenbelt House (1945).
Image: Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Both full scale replicas were built by Hollywood stage-set crews.
Ralph Rapson rocker, Eames IT and Kurt Versen lamps.
The exhibition also included scale models of 16 Case Study houses.
With the exception of a series posted by h plus f, photos of the installation are hard to find online. Andy Hackman made me aware of the photos and was able to get David Wasco's permission for me to post them. Andy and David were friends with Carole Krohn.
The Eames and Saarinen Organic Design high-back chair is a rare one. It's hard to tell the color in this photo, but there is a chance it belongs to MoMA and is
the one that was in the
Organic Design Competition in 1940-1941.
There's a nice terracotta peanut back there. Plus, the underrated Barwa lounge.
So back to the sculpture. It belonged to Carole Krohn, who as mentioned previously, supplied many of the objects in the exhibition. Andy Hackman and Carole were dear friends and many years ago she gave the sculpture to Andy. Then, I became the caretaker of it. Also on the table is Neurotica 6, with an Alvin Lustig cover and there are two issues of Trans/Formation (Transformation): Arts Communication Environment. A World Review.
Even though it's in the setup photos, it's unclear if the sculpture was on the Krohn table during the actual exhibition. What also wasn't known, was who made the sculpture.
I remembered seeing a similar example in this 1951 ad for the Chicago department store, Carson Pirie Scott. They were advertising an all California design collection.
Just a year earlier, Carson Pirie Scott invited Charles Eames, George Nelson, Edward Wormley, and Eero Saarinen to design a window display. I would say it's a Good Design.
Back to the ad. It lists the California designers... including some personal favorites like Stan Hawk, Eugene Weston La Gardo Tackett (misspelled in the ad), Alvin Lustig and even San Diego boy Barney Reid. There were a few names I had never heard of. Just before I started down the list to see who the sculpture might be by, my friend and iron aficionado, Jonathan Goldstein, sent me a message after seeing the photo I posted on Instagram. He knew instantly it was by William Rotsler, who is listed.
Rotsler had an interesting
career and is known for his NSFW films and photography. That certainly sheds some insight into some of his figurative sculptures, with couples in interesting positions. In addition to the ad, they can be seen in the background of a number of period photos.
From the Rotsler catalog.
It turns out I've had a pair of Rotsler fish for years.
Some months back I posted the William Rotsler sculpture seen on the table here. The photo here is from the installation of the 1989 exhibition at MoCA Los Angeles, Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses. 
Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses was held in 1989 at the the Geffen Contemporary at MoCA Los Angeles. Specifically, it was at the "Temporary Contemporary" space designed by Frank Gehry.
The endeavor was spearheaded by MoCA curator Elizabeth Smith. Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung (hplusf) were hired to oversee the exhibit. The art direction and set-design team of David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco supervised the exhibition production. They lived next door to Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung in the R.M. Schindler's 1939 Falk apartments at the time. The Wascos have worked on multiple films for Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson and many more.
One of the two full-scale replicas, Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22, the Stahl House (1959) is seen here. 
The exhibition also included scale models of 16 Case Study houses.
