ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
November 1949
John Entenza [Editor], Hans Hofmann [Cover Designer]
John Entenza [Editor]: ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, Volume 66, number 11, November 1949. A very good magazine with lightly worn wrappers. Interior unmarked and clean. Original cover designs by Hans Hofmann.
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 50 pages of editorial content and advertisements from leading purveyors of West Coast modernism, circa 1949. 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.
- An Exhibition for Modern Living at the Detroit Institute of Arts (designed by Alexander Girard): 10 pages of coverage from the landmark exhibition from September 11 to November 20, 1949. This exhibition has achieved legendary status in the pantheon of American Modernism, due to Girard's stewardship and the site-specific custom room installations by Alvar Aalto, Bruno Mathsson, Jens Risom, Florence Knoll (ably assisted by Eero Saarinen, Franco Albini, Pierre Jeanneret, Abel Sorensen, Andre Dupres and Hans Bellmann), Van-Keppel Green, George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and others.
- Hans Hoffmann
- The Mechandising Of Furniture by Fred Dilg
- The Dinosaur Lays An Egg by Herbert Kornfeld
- Full-Page Advertisement for Century Lighting by Paul Rand; Herman Miller Furniture Company Eames Chair ad and more.
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.