CALIFORNIA ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
November 1943
John Entenza [Editor], Ray Eames [Cover Artist]
John Entenza [Editor]: CALIFORNIA ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. Los Angeles: John D. Entenza, Volume 60, number 10, November 1943. Original edition. Slim folio. Stapled printed wrappers. 48 pp. Illustrated text and articles. Original cover by Ray Eames. Mailing address typed to front panel [as issued]. Wrappers lightly rubbed and edgeworn, but a very good copy.
9.75 x 12.75 vintage magazine with 48 pages of editorial content and advertisements from leading purveyors of West Coast midcentury modernism, circa 1943. Staff photography by Julis Shulman. Layout and typography by Robin Park.
articles
• Los Angeles Inventory: Richard J. Neutra
• Crafts Project—Housing Activity: Ceramicist Glen Lukens teaches Negro residents in the Pueblo el Rio housing projects.
• A Housewife Talks About Architecture
• Photograph—Drying Splints: full page photograph by Charles Eames of the “Eames process.”
architecture
• A Fabric House: Ralph Rapson & David Runnells
• House: Theodore Luderowski
• Tacoma War Housing Projects
special features
• Art
• Books
• Music
• Cinema
• New Developments
• Notes in Passing
• Products and Practices
• And more.
From the Eames Office via Daniel Ostroff: “ Ray Kaiser Eames (California, 1912 – 1988) was born in Sacramento, California. She studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen in preparing designs for the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Furniture Competition. Charles and Eero’s designs, created by molding plywood into complex curves, won them the two first prizes.
Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. During World War II they were commissioned by the United States Navy to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers, and experimental glider shells. [At this time] Charles and Ray established a strong connection to the influential design magazine, Arts & Architecture and its Editor/Publisher John Entenza. Charles wrote numerous articles for the publication, and Ray wrote two articles and designed 27 covers for the magazine over the span of six years. In many respects, the covers are as eloquent as the texts.
“Ray’s designs for Arts & Architecture are more than creative graphic expressions. They are unique works of art that reflect the times in which they were produced. In the May and November 1942 issues made during America’s first year in the war, Ray incorporated military design elements and emphasized the color khaki, reflecting the uniforms of U.S. Armed Forces personnel. There were notes inside both issues that provide insights on the covers.
“At the time Ray was creating these covers, she and Charles were working on military applications of molded plywood, including experiments in airplane seating and airplane bodies. Of all their contributions to the war effort, their most successful one was the design and production of the Eames Leg Splint.”
“In 1946, Evans Products began producing the Eameses’ molded plywood furniture. Their molded plywood chair was called “the chair of the century” by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. Soon production was taken over by Herman Miller, Inc., who continues to produce the furniture in the United States today.
“In 1949, Charles and Ray designed and built their own home in Pacific Palisades, California, as part of the Case Study House Program sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine. Their design and innovative use of materials made the House a mecca for architects and designers from both near and far. Today, it is considered one of the most important post-war residences anywhere in the world.”
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 Killingsworth, 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.