Esoteric Survey

Jeffrey Head, who has written a bunch of great articles on subjects like Luther Conover and Heifetz lamps, continues his list of great projects with a book on Airforms by architect Wallace Neff. No Nails, No Lumber: The Bubble Houses of Wallace Neff  Though, the construction cost were low and the uses were limitless, only 2,500 bubbles were built. How could people possibly like stucco tract housing better than living in bubbles?? Resort Housing in Turkey, 1950 1947 LA Times Home Magazine cover of the interior of Andrew Neff's (Wallace's brother) Airform in Pasadena.  Recognize that table? This is the Andrew Neff Airform today. I've been in this one.  A certain artist I know who has a pretty cool blog owns it. I have the feeling Roden might have come up with some of the ephemera in the book. He's that kind of guy. He's also the kind of guy that should be living in a house like this.  He's taking really good care of it and ...

The  Jack Rutberg Fine Arts  gallery in Los Angeles has an amazing Claire Falkenstein show up.  There is a 200 page book that's been published in conjunction with the show.   They had an advance copy at the gallery.  I can't wait to get my hands on one.   Grouping of copper and glass sculptures. The paintings are by her too.     The two early ceramic pieces are really special. It doesn't get much rarer than that. Why she didn't do more work in clay is a mystery to me. Damn Big Apple, 1948   Early Claire Falkenstein, 1936 Photo: Smithsonian

Hydrodynamica exhibit at  Space 4 Art .  The exhibition focuses  on surfboard pioneers Bob Simmons and Carl Ekstrom and the technology used   to develop the modern day surfboard.  Eames chairs, Eames quotes and surfboards.   The idea is that surfboard building and post-war modern California design were on similar paths.  Eames and boomerangs Surfboards Carl Ekstrom boards Svetozar Radakovich, in collaboration with Carl Ekstrom, did these foam, fiberglass, wood and resin doors. They were shown in California Design 10 and now they're at the Mingei.  Dave Hampton breaks it down better than i ever could: Surfing and the craft of shaping surfboards began to exert an influence on San Diego's design culture in the 1960s, when  local  surfers like Douglas Deeds and Carl Ekstrom started using polyurethane foam, fiberglass and res...

Sam Maloof Kay Sekimachi Bob Stocksdale John Kapel children's furniture Ruth Asawa June Schwarcz enamel I forgot who did this but it's super cool A museum isn't a museum without an Eames chair That screen looks like a newer one. Huge Voulkos ceramic sculpture Pete on TV Robert Arneson Voulkos and Prieto Bay Area Figurative: Richard Diebenkorn  Hassel Smith George Rickey, T wo Red Lines II, 1966 Barry McGee Peter Mason Bond

Space Light Structure, The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta at The Oakland Museum of California De Patta photogram, something she most likely learned as a student under Moholy-Nagy Ceramic salt and pepper shakers, 1960 Flatware Prototypes, 1959 Flatware Prototypes Photo: Exhibition Catalog:  Space Light Structure, The  Jewelry of Margaret  De Patta De Patta with the Asawa sculpture she got in a trade from Ruth in 1954.   Ruth got a pin.  It seems that Margaret got the better end of that trade. De Patta installation at the Pacific Shop in San Francisco, 1950 Photo: Exhibition Catalog:  Space Light Structure, The  Jewelry of Margaret  De Patta Photo: Exhibition Catalog:  Space Light Structure, The  Jewelry of Margaret  De Patta