Esoteric Survey

David Zwirner Gallery in Los Angeles has two really good exhibitions up at the moment. Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, organized by Shio Kusaka and Josef Albers, Duets.  Albers at Bauhaus Study for Tenayuca, c. 1942-1943 Luminous Day, 1947-1952 That's a lot of squares. Study for a Homage to the Square, c. 1970-1973 Three color studies for Homage to the Square Study for a Homage to the Square, 1964 One of the associates took me and a friend on a tour of the offices and viewing rooms upstairs. Magdalena rode her bike a lot around Venice. Magdalena on a classic Michael form. Josef and Magdalena at LACMA in 2024. This had to be the inspiration, right? More on that exhibition, here . Zwirner represents the John McCracken estate. They have another one on their back patio.

This weekend I went to the estate sale at the  Dr. Edgar and Allison Mauer  House by John Lautner (1947). It's  located on Mount Washington in Los Angeles.   It's in a state of disrepair after decades of deferred maintenance and a severe hoarding situation.  What must have been at least15 years ago, Scott from Ten10 took me on a tour of Mount Washington. This was one of the stops. It looked horrible then.  David, the grandson of the Mauer's inherited the house. Along with his partner, they are at the beginning stages of restoring the house, with plans to live there. Edgar F. Mauer House (1939) by Frank Lloyd Wright  Pre-WWII, the Mauer's were working with Frank Lloyd Wright on a house for the site. The plan was for a small one bedroom home that would have been by many accounts, the first Usonian. The war got in the way and it went unbuilt. Post-war, they had children and needed a larger house and it was too expensive for the couple to have Wright ...