Esoteric Survey

A Handbook of California Design, 1930-1965: Craftspeople, Designers, Manufacturers This new publication by LACMA is a compendium of 140 profiles of California designers and manufacturers. It serves as a companion piece to their PST exhibition catalog, California Design, 1930-1965: "Living in a Modern Way". Edited by LACMA curator Bobbye Tigerman with contributions by Staci Steinberger, Jennifer Munro Miller and Lacy Simkowitz.
The handbook is set up with a short biography and photo for each entry. Here is the one Doyle Lane.
Barney Reid's photo
The elusive Hawk House
A great photo of La Gardo Tackett
Olga Lee and Milo Baughman  This is one of my favorite images in the book. 
 Connections and Collaborations inforgraphic from the handbook.  
This chart illustrates the common institutions, organizations and publications the designers in the handbook were associated with.  The most common linkage is the Pasadena Art Museum's California Design exhibitions. This really does attest  to t…

“I don’t see anything but a bunch of junk thrown together. And he calls that art!... I think the man is sick" ... yeah me too : )
via: LACMA Unframed more: LACMA

Walter De Maria: The 2000 Sculpture

The Ken Price Sculpture exhibition is amazing!  Source: LACMA
Source: LACMA
Made in California, Ed Ruscha,  1971, part of the Ed Ruscha: Standard exhibition  Source: LACMA


Metropolis II, Chris Burden
It's good to see the 21st Century includes buildings made of Eames House of Cards
Levitated Mass, Michael Heizer 
...and just a block away from LACMA is the Rudolph Schindler Buck House from 1934. There should be red curbs along the entire front of all great architecture.  

JBL Paragon with some McIntosh tube equipment in Hideto Irikawa's house- Kamakura, Japan. Source: Selectism
This Paragon was in the PST California Design exhibition at LACMA. The Paragon was designed in Berkeley, CA by Arnold Wolf and made in Los Angeles, CA. It was produced from 1957- 1983. Photo: Darren Bardley
Image:  Audio Heritage 
Source: Lansing Heritage

There's a great post about Oscar Fischinger on LACMA's blog. Check it out: Oskar Fischinger and California Abstract Animation
Studie nr 8 (excerpt) by Oskar Fischinger from CVM on Vimeo.

 I was able to catch the last few presenters at LACMA's symposium, New Narratives for “Living in a Modern Way”: California Design at Mid-Century I'm bummed I missed the rest.
Staci Steinberger from LACMA did a presentation on African-American designers and craftspeople  in Los Angeles, which included information on Tony Hill, John Smith and Doyle Lane (slide above).   The ads for Tony Hill's ceramics are all over Arts & Architecture magazine. It was good to get some information on him.

Individualism vs. Capitalism
Craft geek guru Glenn Adamson from the Victoria & Albert Museum ended the symposium with a thought provoking presentation on California Design after 1965.
Adamson used this California Design 8 photo of a Sam Maloof executive chair, with its back to  the camera in a tree grove, to illustrate the uncomfortable position of the individual craftsman in a modern  capitalist society at mid-century.   An underlying theme throughout the presentation was the notion  that mid-c…

LACMA is conducting a two-day symposium on California Design, New Narratives for “Living in a Modern Way”: California Design at Mid-century Friday, February 24th and Saturday, February 25th


I like the sound of these two sessions: The Arts of Daily Living: Modernism and  the Los Angeles County Fair, 1954 by Monica Penick, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wake-up Call: California Design after 1965 Glenn Adamson, Victoria & Albert Museum
More information: LACMA The LAMA blog has better details on the specifics: LAMA Blog

There was a recent post on LACMA's blog "Unframed" that   includes this Luther Conover chair, videos of John Kapel and  Kay Sekimachi, and information on Sam Maloof. The author of the post bought the Conover chair for $80! Check it out: What Is It About Chairs? 

Victor Gruen Lamp from Barton's Bonbonniere at LACMA's  California Design, 1930-1965 "Living in a Modern Way" exhibit 
Barton's Bonbonniere Alvin Lustig is listed as the graphic design consultant 
Barton's Bonbonniere candy tin

Amazing recreation of the 1951 LA Times Home Magazine cover at LACMA
Wrong screws!

Charles and Ray Eames' living room makes an interim home at LACMASee video here: LA TIMES

What defines the California look? LA TIMES