News on the foundation and on John Lautner
The newest documentary on John Lautner, Infinite Space, was shown on a major television channel (ABC) July 18, 2010. You can read the description on the station’s website. The entire film can be seen online at http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/597430, but only by persons in Australia, and only until July 23.
Thanks to Dujon Zivic from Australia for this information, and thanks to the many people who wrote to the Foundation after seeing the film there.
Come see Infinite Space at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco) on August 15 at 2:00 p.m., part of the Center’s summer festival of films on design and architecture. Get the details.
Later, on September 15, the San Francisco AIA will screen the film. It isn’t on their website yet. Keep an eye on the calendar.
On July 31 the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, will screen Bette Cohen’s The Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner, and present a panel discussion about the film. The panel will include Cohen, film co-writer Tom Marble, co-producer Evelyn Wendell, architectural historian Alan Hess, and Lautner scholar Jon Yoder.
Read about the presentation and the panel members on the SAH-SCC website. Tickets will be free for students, $15 for SAH-SCC members, and $30 for non-members.
John Crosse, retired environmental engineer, has a penchant for research and a gift for doing it well. Because of his interest in architectural history, particularly in southern California, he offered to create an annotated bibliography of publications on the work of John Lautner. And now he is sharing it with all of us.
Crosse’s bibliography includes many photographs from the publications he includes, as well as significant events in the life of John Lautner, so that one can track projects, clients, and other events along with the publicity given to his work.
Read Crosse’s introduction on his website and download the bibliography yourself:
http://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2010/04/introduction-2008-hammer-exhibition.html
You might also want to visit his facebook page (the link is on his site) and add him as a friend to keep track of his many activities.
Bette Cohen’s documentary on John Lautner, The Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner, will screen at the Southern California Institute of Architecture on July 31, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. This remarkable work features John Lautner walking around and through his buildings, talking about them, as well as comments by clients, notable architects and historians, some of whom are no longer alive. The video (VHS and PAL) is available from this website, but a fully remastered DVD is not yet available. Thus the opportunity to see it on the big screen is not one to be missed.
Following the screening Bette Jane C0hen and co-producer Evelyn Wendel will be joined by Alan Hess, Jon Yoder, Tom Marble, and John Ellis for a panel discussion. Don’t miss this all-star cast!
For up-to-date information, join the Facebook Page on the film.
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| From Palm Springs Exhibit |
The Hammer museum exhibit, Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner, is ending its travels in the Palm Springs Art Museum. Because the exhibit space and lighting is different from what was available at the Hammer the exhibit is laid out differently.
There is an entrance area showing early influences on Lautner, as at the Hammer, then a spiral-shaped path winds its way through the center room, where many plans, sketches, and working models are displayed. The models are in glass cases, allowing close viewing. Finally, an outer ring contains the large-scale exhibit models with their photographic scenic backdrops. Film loops are shown on transparent screens rather than on the wall. Very little material from the original exhibit has been excluded from this smaller-sized version.
The exhibit continues through May 30, 2010. Get an idea of how the exhibit looks through the Foundation’s picasaweb album:
updated March 12, 2010: info on Portland screenings added
updated January 28, 2010: more info on Deventer screening, addition of another Netherlands screening
updated January 27, 2010: more info on Aspen screening
Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner continues to make the rounds at theaters around the world. Upcoming dates:
Tuesday, February 16
Arthouse Cinema
Deventer,
The Netherlands
More information: http://www.filmhuisdekeizer.nl/programma/p_event.php?eventid=3379
Saturday, February 27, 3:30 pm
The Center for Architecture
536 La Guardia Place
NYC, NY
Free, but need to register:
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=1422
Sunday, February 28, 2010, 6 p.m. CET
60-minute version screens on Dutch television
Station Nederland 2, program Close Up
After the show it will be viewable online for some weeks through www.uitzendinggemist.nl (don’t know if viewable from beyond The Netherlands)
Monday, March 1st
Wheeler Opera House
Aspen, CO
5:30 pm, FREE
contractors who built Turner house will be present.
For more info contact: Amy Guthrie
City of Aspen Historic Preservation Officer
130 S. Galena Street
Aspen, CO 81611
Amy.Guthrie@ci.aspen.co.us
(p)970-429-2758 (f) 970-920-5439
Thursday, March 18th
Triangle Modernist Houses (fundraiser)
Galaxy Cinema
Carey, North Carolina
$7.95 advance tickets, $9 at the door
http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com
Sunday, March 28 and Wednesday, March 31
nwFilmCenter
Portland Art Museum
$8 General
$7 PAM Members, Students, Seniors
$5 Friends of the Film Center
Sunday, April 18
Palm Springs Museum
http://www.psmuseum.org
Producers Anna Thomas and Sara Sackner will be at this screening
More information will be posted here when available.
Today’s Los Angeles Times features an article on Luisa Lambri, Italian photographer who tries to evoke a sense of “being there” in her photographs of buildings. The article discusses how she works, what she has done, and notes that most of her pictures of the Sheats-Goldstein residence are of the sky and perhaps a few lines of the building.
Read the article in this pdf version.
CA-Modern, a magazine that partners with the Los Angeles Conservancy, is featuring a photograph of the Elrod residence taken by architectural photographer Leland Lee many years ago. The article is about Lee and the tragic loss of most of Lee’s negatives and other photographic materials in a flood in the 1980s, and the loss of the remaining materials in a fire in 2002. Lee, now 91, is trying to resurrect his archive. Additional photographs of Lee and of the Elrod house are included in the article.
See the article in CA-Modern in a flip-book version online (requires Flash). Scroll down this page from the LA Conservancy to find the Elrod photograph and link to the flip-book.
KPSP, Palm Springs area’s local CBS station, will feature the upcoming exhibit on John Lautner on its “Eye on the Desert” segment Monday, February 15, from 6:45 to 7:00 p.m. Exhibit Co-Curator Frank Escher and Palm Springs Museum Curator Sidney Williams were both interviewed for the segment.
The exhibit, titled “Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner”, was produced by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. It has traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, and now to Palm Springs, where it opens February 20. Because of the fragile nature of the original materials in the exhibit, no more traveling is planned. The Palm Springs exhibit will close May 23.