Esoteric Survey

Also on the Tucson Modernism Week architecture tour was the Ball-Paylore house (1952) by Arthur T Brown.
The Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation recently purchased the house and it is such a great original example of Brown's architecture. It has only had two owners in its history. Two Librarians, Phyllis Ball and Patricia Paylore were the original clients. In 1990, Phyllis and Henry Koffler bought the house. Henry was the president of the University of Arizona and it was used as a guest house to host visiting scholars. Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation purchased the house and will be restoring it. At just over 1200 square feet, the house was in danger of redevelopment. 


The hexagonal structure utilizes moveable sun shade as a form of passive solar technology.
Source: Maynard Parker via The Huntington




The aluminum lounge in the back can be seen in the black and white photo above.
Yes, the backs are on upside down. It happens to the best of them.

All the George Nelson and…

Tucson Modernism Week 2019, presented by the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation was held this past weekend. A small group of San Diegans ventured out to join the fun.
The firs stop, as it usually is when I go to Tucson, was the Sunshine Shop. It is located in the historic Hirsh's building, where the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation is also located.
Sunshine often holds exhibitions related to Arizona artists and craftspeople. Leona Caldwell, from the Family Archives, was the focus of their modernism week exhibition.
Leona Caldwell was a noted figure in Arizona’s modernist craft movement. Based in Scottsdale, her work celebrated cultural themes and graphics of the southwest. Leona Caldwell Originals, her retail shop, was opened in the respected Kiva Craft Center on Fifth Avenue in Scottsdale. Leona Caldwell became a central figure in the Scottsdale modern craft movement - which included Lloyd Kiva, Charles Loloma, Paolo Soleri, and many others. She created ceramic jewelr…

Luther Conover and George Nelson
Maurice Grossman
Alexander Girard Braniff Airlines pin
Alexander Girard cup from La Fonda del Sol

I first heard of Richard Blow through Adam Edelsberg, who has been collecting the work for more than two decades. Adam is one of the top tier dealers in the country and this is how he describes his discovery...

I was lucky enough to find myself in the upstairs office of the Gansevoort Gallery in the late 1990s. So I had the fortunate experience of seeing some of the greatest design objects of the twentieth century - the rarest Noguchi furniture, Eames prototypes, Calder jewelry. That office felt like the epicenter of modern design. It was here that I first encountered a work by Richard Blow, a small plaque depicting a castle in the Tuscan countryside. A little trompe l‘oeil, a little surreal, modernist in its visual vernacular, yet executed in a traditional manner. I was unfamiliar with pietre dure, the Medici, or Tuscan stones.  Yet the work, handmade, honest, and charming, spoke to me. Little did I know that this small work of art with its mysterious origins would take me on a journ…