ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
August 1948
John Entenza [Editor]
John Entenza [Editor]: ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, Volume 65, number 8, August 1948. Slim folio. Stapled printed wrappers. 54 pp. Illustrated text and articles. Wrappers neatly split at spine and loose [but both present], textblock well-thumbed, otherwise a good copy. Cover by John Phillips.
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 54 pages of editorial content and advertisements from leading purveyors of West Coast mid-century modernism, circa 1948. 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.
- Form and Motion by Gyorgy Kepes
- Houses by Edward Barnes, Harry Weese, S. Robert Anshen, Wm. Stephen Allen; Paul Rudolph and Twitchell
- Commerical Spaces by Gregory Ain, Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day; Ralph Bowerman; Eckbo, Royston and Williams
- Wooden Shapes by James Prestini
- Sculpture by David Smith
- Textiles by Astrid Sampe-Hultberg
- Ad for the Eames folding plywood tables for Herman Miller 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.
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.