ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE: April 1949
Staff Photographer Julius Shulman's Copy
John Entenza [Editor]
John Entenza [Editor]: ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, Volume 66, number 4, April 1949. Slim folio. Stapled printed wrappers. 62 pp. Illustrated text and articles. Cover by “Connor.” Staff photographer Julius Shulman’s mailing label to rear panel with cancelled postage stamp. Wrappers lightly rubbed and worn, and the center signatures (8 pages) loose and laid in: a very good copy with an exceptional provenance.
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 62 pages of editorial content and advertisements from leading purveyors of West Coast mid-century modernism, circa 1949. This copy belonged to Staff photographer and subscriber Julius Shulman with his address label to rear panel. In terms of decor, there is none of that Chippendale jive here-- every residential interior is decked out in full midcentury glory.
Contents:
- Consider The Family by Josef Van Der Kar
- Minimum House (A Student Project) From Black Mountain College
- Studio by Pietro Belluschi
- House by Edward Weston III
- House by Douglas B. Snelling
- Laborers House Development by Horacio Acevedo
- House by A. Quincy Jones
- Case Study House For 1949 by Charles Eames. Each month in 1949, readers witnessed CSH No. 8 (the Eeames House) being built, month-by-month-- very cool indeed.
- The New General Petroleum Building by Wurdeman & Becket
- Murals —Scrolls by Calder, Matisse, Miro and Matta.
- Jewelry by Betty Cooke
- Art
- Music
- Notes In Passing
- Principal Materials Specified — The General Petroleum Building
- New Product Literature And Information
- Full-Page Advertisement for Herman Miller Furniture Company
- and more.
Editorial Associates for Arts and Architecture included Herbert Matter and Charles Eames. Julius Shulman was the staff photographer. The Editorial Advisory Board included William Wilson Wurster,Richard neutra, Isamu Noguchi, eero Saarinen, Gardner Dailey, Sumner Spaulding, Mario Corbett, Esther McCoy, John Funk, Gregory Ain, George Nelson, Gyorgy Kepes, marcel Breuer, Raphael Soriano, Ray Eames, Garret Eckbo, Edgar Kaufman, Jr. and others luminaries of the mid-century modern movement.
American photographer Julius Shulman's (1910 – 2009) images of Californian architecture have burned themselves into the retina of the 20th century. A book on modern architecture without Shulman is inconceivable. Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friend, Richard Neutra, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography.
The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.
Today, a great many of the buildings documented by Shulman have disappeared or been crudely converted, but the thirst for his pioneering images is stronger than ever before. This is a vivid journey across six decades of great architecture and classic photography through the famously incomparable eyes of Julius Shulman.
“Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friends, Richard Neutra and Raphael Soriano, was first brought to light by Shulman's photography. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building's surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs.” [Wikipedia]
In 1938, John Entenza joined California Arts and Architecture magazine as editor. By 1943, Entenza and his art director Alvin Lustig had completely overhauled the magazine and renamed it Arts and Architecture. Arts and Architecture championed all that was new in the arts, with special emphasis on emerging modernist architecture in Southern California.
One of the pivotal figures in the growth of modernism in California, Entenza's most lasting contribution was his sponsorship of the Case Study Houses project, which featured the works of architects Thornton Abell, Conrad Buff, Calvin Straub, Donald Hensman, Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, J. R. Davidson, A. Quincy Jones, Frederick Emmons, Don Knorr, Edward Killinsworth, Jules Brady, Waugh Smith, Pierre Koenig, Kemper Nomland, Kemper Nomland Jr., Richard Neutra, Ralph Rapson, Raphael Soriano, Whitney Smith, Sumner Spaulding, John Rex, Rodney Walker, William Wilson Wurster, Theodore Bernardi and Craig Ellwood. Arts and Architecture also ran articles and interviews on artists and designers such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, George Nakashima, George Nelson and many other groundbreakers.