Southern California Architectural History: Edward Weston at Bullock's Downtown, December 1928

(Post Under Construction. Stay Tuned)

Delano and Morgan curate an exhibition for Galka Scheyer's Blue Four in 1926 and Edward Weston in 1927. Close friends from Kings Road and Freeman House salons.

Add Glaka Scheyer Daybook entry from January 1927.

Delano and Scheyer left for Europe in early June. Weston's June 7, 1928 Daybooks entry reads,

"Karl Howenstein gave a farewell party to Annita Delano, going to Europe. ... A Great bonfire followed supper, in which was burned a papier-mache figurine of ghastly form and mien, pillaged, as the story goes, from the Pot Boiler's theatre at that hour when life ebbs low." (Daybooks, pp. 60-61). (Note, Karl Howenstein and wife Edith were tenants in the Kings Road guest studio in 1922-23 after moving to Los Angeles from Chicago. Howenstein, soon became Director of the Otis Art Institute and hired Delano to teach on her off days at UCLA.)

Upon her return from Europe in the fall of 1928, Delano lectured widely to various educational and artist groups on her experiences at the conference and the latest trends in modern European art education. Eleanor Lemaire, hired in 1926 by Bullock's P. G. Winnett to modernize the downtown store and select for sale modern objects designed by local craftsmen, heard one of Delano's lectures and introduced herself. About this time Winnett had also commissioned Lemaire to coordinate the interior design for the new flagship store Bullock's Wilshire. Delano recalled,

"And they knew about a woman named Eleanor Lemaire because Mr. [Percy G.] Winnett, who was president of Bullock's, had traveled to New York and gotten Miss Lemaire to come out and do a job for Bullock's before 1929. That was to do with modern objects that might be sold in the store. I was hired in my off-time to help Miss Lemaire find things in Southern California because Bullock's had a policy of trying to utilize local talent. I spent all my extra days going about, taking Miss Lemaire in my car to visit modern architects and designers, and some of my own students included, who were doing things, to help them on the store. ... I found people for Miss Lemaire, like John Weber, who helped her do many of the rooms, [Jock] Peters for the entrance hall or lobby — whatever they called it there in the entrance. It's still good today. New carpets were designed, new draperies that went together, and new ideas where you could look through the store and look out through the windows. I really collaborated with Miss LeMaire for over a year in this work and really was a friend until she died [in 1975]."

Concurrent with the groundbreaking and initial phases of Bullock's Wilshire construction, Lemaire and Delano collaborated on a related exhibition "Decorative and Fine Arts of Today" (see announcement and catalog below) at the downtown store (see above) to help boost Christmas sales, promote the new store then under construction and keep up with Macy's and Barker Brothers "modern" marketing efforts. Delano collected and curated the work of local artists and designers from her coterie of friends in the California Art Club including, besides herself, Peter Krasnow, Henrietta Shore, Edward Weston, Edouard Vysekal, George Stanley, Jock Peters, Kem Weber, Richard Neutra, R. M. Schindler and Frederick Monhoff, many of whom were also working on Bullock's Wilshire interiors. Of the trend towards modernism in design L. A. Times art critic Arthur Millier wrote,

"Following the lead of similar exhibitions in New York and other large cities, this is in the nature of an experiment in which the local public's pulse will be felt. ... [including] fine art, craft work and architectural exhibits from those artists of Southern California who are working in the modern spirit of simple, sensitive design." (Millier, Arthur, "Decorative Art of Today," L.A. Times, December 9, 1928, p. III-13).

Exhibition announcement, L.A. Times, December 9, 1928, p. III-23. (Note: A follow-up "Modern Arts" exhibition sponsored by the Los Angeles Architectural Club, likely also curated by Delano, featured many of the same CAC members such as Kem Weber, Richard Neutra, R. M. Schindler, Conrad Buff, George Stanley, Feil & Paradise and J. R. Davidson and took place at the Architect's Building at 5th and Figueroa. ("Modern Design to be Architect's Subject," Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1929).

Delano included in the exhibition: 15 Edward Weston photographs, paintings, drawings and sculpture from Peter Krasnow, two or her own watercolors, eight lithographs and paintings from Henrietta Shore, Kem Weber designs for an entrance hall, dining room, bedroom and bathroom, sculpture by George Stanley, R. M. Schindler's Wolfe House on Catalina Island with Brett Weston photos, Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach with Edward Weston photos, and 3 other projects, five interiors designed by Jock Peters, drawings and watercolors by Edouard Vysekal, architectural designs by Fred Monhoff, Richard Neutra's Rush City railroad terminal, office and store building and Metropolitan Business District and more by others.

Decorative Arts of Today exhibition catalogue, Bullock's, December 1928. From Archives of American Art, Annita Delano Papers, 1909-1975, microfilm roll 3000.

Per Annita Delano's exhibition notes, when she queried Weston on his willingness to participate in the show,
"Weston - Response at once, willing to let the people see his work." (Annita Delano Papers).

The images Weston chose to display in this show were:

From Archives of American Art, Annita Delano Papers, 1909-1975, microfilm roll 3000.

Announcement for dance performance by Bertha Wardell, ca. 1927. (From The Letters From Tina Modotti to Edward Weston by Amy Stark, The Archive, Number 22, January 1986, p. 54).

"From My Day Book," by Edward Weston, Creative Art 3, (August 1928), p. xxix. (From The Letters From Tina Modotti to Edward Weston by Amy Stark, The Archive, Number 22, January 1986, p. 55).

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Friday, September 9, 2011

Edward Weston at Bullock's Downtown, December 1928