''Arts & Architecture'' (1929–1967) was an American
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
,
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
,
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
, and
arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
magazine. It was published and edited by
John Entenza
John Entenza (December 4, 1905 – April 27, 1984) was one of the pivotal figures in the growth of American modernism: in the fields of environmental, architectural, landscape, and product design; and fine arts, and artisan crafts; in post-w ...
from 1938–1962
and David Travers 1962–1967. ''Arts & Architecture'' played a significant role both in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
's cultural history and in the development of
West Coast modernism in general.
The magazine's significant cultural contributions include its sponsorship of the
Case Study Houses
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by ''Arts & Architecture'' magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Ea ...
design-build-publication program.
History
''Arts & Architecture'' (1940–1967), an American architecture magazine, began as ''California Arts & Architecture'' in 1929. It was redesigned under the leadership of Mark Daniels in 1936, and in 1940, John Entenza became publisher and editor; his views and leadership "put California on the cultural map",
creating a lasting impact on the cultural history of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
,
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
, the
West Coast, and the United States in the development of
American modernism. According to ''American Design in the Twentieth Century'', ''Arts & Architecture'' "treated taste as a subject of critical debate and maintained a high-minded concern for the elevation of standards".
When looking for examples of overseas art and design, the magazine looked to Mexico rather than Europe.
In 1962 Entenza resigned to direct the Graham Foundation, and the magazine was edited by David Travers until its closing in 1967. It was revived 1981-1985 under the editorship of Barbara Goldstein.
Designers published
''Arts & Architecture'' was the first American magazine to popularize the work of
Pierre Koenig
Pierre Francis Koenig (October 17, 1925 – April 4, 2004) was an American architect and a Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. He taught at the USC School of Architecture from 1964 until his death in 2004. ...
,
Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
,
Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood (April 22, 1922 – May 30, 1992) was an influential Los Angeles-based modernist architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. Although untrained as an architect, Ellwood fashioned a persona and career ...
,
Raphael Soriano
Raphael S. Soriano, FAIA, (August 1, 1904 – July 21, 1988) was an architect and educator, who helped define a period of 20th-century architecture that came to be known as Mid-century modern. He pioneered the use of modular prefabricated ...
, Margaret DePatta,
George Nakashima
George Katsutoshi Nakashima ( ja, 中島勝寿 ''Nakashima Katsutoshi'', May 24, 1905 – June 15, 1990) was an American woodworker, architect, and furniture maker who was one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a fathe ...
,
Bernard Rosenthal
Bernard J. Rosenthal (August 9, 1914 – July 28, 2009), also known as Tony Rosenthal, was an American abstract sculptor widely known for his monumental public art sculptures, created over seven decades.
Biography
Rosenthal was born August ...
,
Charles Eames
Charles Ormond Eames Jr. (June 17, 1907 – August 21, 1978) was an American designer, architect and filmmaker. In professional partnership with his spouse Ray Kaiser Eames, he was responsible for groundbreaking contributions in the field of a ...
,
Ray Eames
Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media.
In creative partnership with her husband Charles Eames and The Eames Office, she was ...
,
Thomas Church,
Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo (November 28, 1910 – May 14, 2000) was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book '' Landscape for Living''.
Youth
He was born in Cooperstown, New York to Axel Eckbo, a businessman, and Theodora Munn Eckbo ...
,
Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. (March 31, 1890 – May 31, 1978), commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American architect, active primarily in Los Angeles and Southern California. He was a landscape architect for various Los Angeles projects (192 ...
,
Konrad Wachsmann
Konrad Wachsmann (May 16, 1901 in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany – November 25, 1980 in Los Angeles, California) was a German modernist architect. He is notable for his contribution to the mass production of building components.
Originally appr ...
,
Robert Royston
Robert N. Royston (1918 – September 19, 2008) was one of America's most distinguished landscape architects, based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. His design work and university teaching in the years followi ...
,
Hans Hollein
Hans Hollein (30 March 1934 – 24 April 2014) was an Austrian architect and designer ,
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
His works are considere ...
and many others. It also embodied the highest standard of
graphic design attained by an American art magazine of its time, employing the talents of such designers as
Alvin Lustig
Alvin Lustig (February 8, 1915 - December 5, 1955) was an American book designer, graphic designer and typeface designer. Lustig has been honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame for his significan ...
,
Herbert Matter
Herbert Matter (April 25, 1907 – May 8, 1984) was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photomontage in commercial art. Matter's innovative and experimental work helped shape the vocabulary of 20 ...
, John Follis, and photographer
Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph " Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman' ...
. The magazine featured articles by writers such as architectural historian
Esther McCoy
Esther McCoy (November 18, 1904 in Horatio, Arkansas – December 30, 1989) was an American author and architectural historian who was instrumental in bringing the modern architecture of California to the attention of the world.
Early life an ...
,
Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.
Edgar Kaufmann Jr. (April 9, 1910 – July 31, 1989) was an American architect, lecturer, author, and an adjunct professor of architecture and art history at Columbia University.
Early years
He was the son of Edgar J. Kaufmann, a wealthy Pittsbur ...
,
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
,
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a w ...
and many more that were deeply involved in the modern movement.
Reprints
Book publisher Taschen
Taschen A&Ahas published a facsimile of all issues of the monthly magazine from 1945 to 1954 with an introduction by David Travers. Publication of issues 1955 to 1967 is planned.
See also
*
Case Study Houses
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by ''Arts & Architecture'' magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Ea ...
* List of defunct American periodicals
* Modernism
References
External links
artsandarchitecturemag.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arts and Architecture
Visual arts magazines published in the United States
Architecture magazines
Defunct magazines published in the United States
Design magazines
Environmental design
Magazines established in 1938
Magazines disestablished in 1967
Magazines published in Los Angeles
Modernist architecture in California