ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
May 1947
John Entenza [Editor], Harry Bertoia [Cover Designer]
John Entenza [Editor]: ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, Volume 64, number 5, May 1947. A very good or better original magazine with uniform, light wear overall. Interior unmarked and clean. Cancelled stamp and subscriber mailing label on back panel. Cover by Harry Bertoia (who was employed by the Eames Office in Venice at the time).
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 46 pages of editiorial content and advertisments from leading purveyors of West Coast midcentury modernism, circa 1947. Staff photography by Julius Shulman. In terms of decor, there is none of that Chippendale jive here -- every residential interior is decked out in full midcentury glory.
- New Theatre Forms for Art and Education: Arch Lauterer
- Project for a Small Office Building by Gregory Ain, AIA
- Small House by Wayne Pippin -- Henry Lagorio, Designers
- Case Study House 21 by Richard Neutra
- Residence for Dr. Philip Neff by Sumner Spaulding -- John Rex, Architects
- House for a Hillside by Fred Langhorst, AIA
- Perle Fine: Benjamin Baldwin
- Henry Moore: Bernard Rosenthal
- Gyorgy Kepes on planning man's physical environment
- Art
- Books
- Cinema
- Music
- Prooducts and practices
- Notes in Passing
Editorial Associates for Arts and Architecture included Charles Eames and Benjamin Baldwin. Julius Shulman was the staff photographer. The Editorial Advisory Board included William Wilson Wurster, Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, Sumner Spaulding, Gregory Ain, Ray Eames, Garrett Eckbo, Herbert Matter and others luminaries of the midcentury modern movement.
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, Raphale Soriano, Whitney Smith, Sumner Sapulding, John Rex, Rodney Walker, William Wilson Wurster, Theordore 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 ground-breakers.
Italian artist and furniture designer, Harry Bertoia (1916-1978) was thirty-seven years old when he designed the patented Diamond chair for Knoll in 1952. An unusually beautiful piece of furniture, it was strong yet delicate in appearance, and an immediate commercial success in spite of being made almost entirely by hand. With the Diamond chair, Bertoia created an icon of modern design and introduced a new material, industrial wire mesh to the world of furniture design.Bertoia's career began in the 1930.s as a student at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where he re-established the metal-working studio and, as head of that department, taught from 1939 until 1943 when it was closed due to wartime restrictions on materials. During the war, Bertoia moved to Venice, California, and worked with Charles and Ray Eames at the Evans Products Company, developing new techniques for molding plywood.
1946 was a pivotal year for Bertoia. He became an American citizen, moved to Bally, Pennsylvania, near the Knoll factory and established his own design and sculpting studio where he produced numerous successful designs for Knoll. As a sculptor, Bertoia created abstract freestanding metal works, some of which resonated with sound when touched or had moving elements that chimed in the wind.
As a furniture designer, Bertoia is best known for the Diamond chair and the Bird chair, a high-backed model developed from the Diamond chair that looks like a bird with spread wings. Its organic, human-friendly form helped to create a new look for modernism. Bertoia received awards from the American Institute of Architects in 1973 and the American Academy of Letters in 1975. All of his work bears the hallmarks of a highly skilled and imaginative sculptor, as well as an inventive designer, deeply engaged with the relationship between form and space.