Stephani Stephenson on mon 1 oct 01
Just spent a wonderful weekend in LA
Saturday I participated in an antique and contemporary tile sale on the
grounds of the California Heritage Museum, 2612 Main street, Santa
Monica
(310)-392-8537.
Through December 30 the museum has a wonderful exhibit entitled
"California Tile: The Golden Era 1910-1940", with examples of the many
early California Tile makers and Tile companies. The museum is small but
the show is quite comprehensive, well organized and has many beautiful
pieces.
Also in Santa Monica is a place called Bergamot Station. There are
galleries there . I have not been there but have heard it spoken of as a
thriving place to see art. Do not know what kind of ceramic work might
be there.
Sunday , I visited the Watts towers, something I have wanted to do for a
long time. The towers had been closed to visitors for repairs stemming
from the Northridge earthquake and this past weekend was a grand
reopening coinciding with the Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz festival on
the Park grounds surrounding the property.
The Watts towers are hard to describe. Italian Immigrant Sabato (Simon)
Rodia built them, working alone, starting at age 42, in 1921. For 33
years he labored, building lacy towers 100 feet tall, slender
latticework with internal steel , tied with wire ,wrapped with mesh and
covered by hand with cement.
(using no rivets, welds, bolts, etc.). He often labored during the day
as a tilesetter and tilemaker and worked on his towers during the
evenings and in all his spare time. He used pieces of pottery ,china,
tile, stones, shells, and glass collected from anywhere and everywhere
in his environment. He used the towers themselves as scaffolding to
build higher and higher, and on the ground are gazebos, a 'ship of
Marco polo', small fountains, etc.
Embedded in the cement are pieces of tile and glass and impressions of
patterns. Wildly yet sensitively composed , it is a small though
completely enveloping environment. The scale is uplifting and airy and
the details are fascinating and absorbing. Actually the scale is both
intimate and contained as well as monumental and soaring
Someone recently posted, asking where to find 'cutting edge' work in
LA. Though this was completed from the 1920s to the 1950s by Rodia, it
looks as fresh and cutting edge as anything I have seen.
They say that his artistic imagery may have stemmed from his youth in
the town of Nola , near Naples Italy, where the guilds built ceremonial
towers six stories tall, which were paraded during the June Giglio
festival. One cant help but connect the work visually to the towers of
Gaudi's Sagrada Familia and the assemblage tile benches in Park Guell(
thank you to Marcia Selsor for showing me THOSE wonders).
ROdia walked away from his home and the Towers in 1955, but lived to
1965 and was 're discovered there' by an appreciative audience. He did
receive recognition near the end of his life for the work he had done.
there is also a small Watts Towers arts center next to the Towers,
located at 1727 E 107th street, (213)-847-4646
The Getty Museum has a book on the towers written by Bud goldstone and
Arloa Paquin Goldstone. I purchased it from the Friend of Watts Towers.
Next weekend, (first weekend October) if you are an 'arts and crafts
era' afficionado.... the Pasadena"Craftsman weekend " is a big event.
Many vendors, tours, etc.
ALso, I would recommend the LA County museum (LACMA) and for a side
trip, the town of Ojai. The studio of Otto Heino is there, and Ojai was
Beatrice Wood's town, and there are many artists and potters there.
Stephani Stephenson
Carlsbad CA
http://www.alchemiestudio.com
| |
|
