Snapshots: Birth of the Cool Opening Gala at The Blanton
The Blanton's latest special exhibit, Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, opened this weekend and will be on display through May 17th. The show covers the diverse cultural advances and innovations in design that came out of the West Coast around the late 50s and early 60s. Birth of the Cool focuses at first on the visual art and architectural styles that typify mid-century modern design. The bright and bold oil paintings by Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, and Frederick Hammersley are juxtaposed with the curvy, fluid lines of a period birdhouse within a modern patio-scape. As you progress through the show, the photographs of Julius Shulman expose scenes from the Case Study Houses that were designed and built in LA. Shulman, who started taking architectural photos before he graduated high school, had the foresight to stage the houses with models and create scenes that linked actual people to the architecture and design, which might have appeared sparse or uninviting otherwise.
Shulman's photography is followed by a timeline of the period that provides context for the diverse elements that appear later in the show. The post-war industrial period and the influence of the Space Race is clearly reflected in the simple materials used in much of the period's furniture design; metal brackets, wire mesh supports, and exposed screws are accents to the often colorful and always smooth pieces designed by Charles and Ray Eames. Motown and Rock and Roll were at the height of popularity, and experimentation with more classic forms of jazz and blues are exemplified by the photography of William Claxton. His intimate shots of jazz soirées show living rooms come alive with dancing and impromptu music. Claxton's portraits of these musical greats, including Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, and Ella Fitzgerald, were compiled in the book Jazzlife. Birth of the Cool also recognizes the importance that television played in the lives of so many mid-century homes. Animators, including Disney's Ward Kimball, are celebrated in the show with stills of their work that are mounted next to video screens playing some of their short vignettes. It's hard to leave Birth of the Cool and not be envious of at least one aspect of the mid-century life, as for us, we'd like the Eames furniture for the office, please.
Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury runs through May 17th at the Blanton.
Photographs by Andrew Stalick.
