The exhibit of Richard Munsell ย oil and water color paintings was proclaimed, “Years outstanding local one-man painting show”, by Arthur Millier, Los Angeles Times art critic. Richard Munsell was a California Art Club exhibiting Member, 1935 – 1938. He taught at the Chouinard Art Institute.
Wayne Long is known widely through out California for his ceramic work.ย He is president of the Whittier Art Association.
The Whittier Art Association begins their annual Membership Drive, remembering their first year in the gallery
they built on Painter Ave.
Sam Hyde Harris wins award in Whittier Art Associationโs Competitive Memberโs Exhibit.
Camera Club members remember the origin of the club’s name, “Circle of Confusion.”
Architect William Harrison exhibits his drawings and photographs.ย It was W.H. Harrison that donated the plans
for the Whittier Art Gallery in 1938.
Ejnar Hanson exhibits oil paintings and watercolors. He is president of theย California Water Color Society, and has been represented in both the New York and San Francisco World Fairs.
Architect William Harrison, who donated the plans for the Whittier Art Gallery in 1938, is praised by the
๐๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ป๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ.
Paintings by Millard Sheets, Edgar Payne, Marian Kavanagh Wachtel, Anna Hills, and Paul Lauritz have been
loaned for the galleryโs exhibit of โArt Gemsโ. Mabel Haig is chairman of the committee in charge.
Marion Kavanagh Wachtel
๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ด, 1904
Oil painting
Loan exhibit opens with 35 oil and water color paintings by American, Canadian, and European artists.
Sueo Serisawa, Japanese-American artist, exhibits paintings at the gallery. Click article twice to enlarge.
Pruett Carter, illustrator, exhibits illustrations from such magazines as ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ค ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ด, and ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ.
He is considered as โone of the top ranking Illustrators for popular magazinesโ.
Pruett Carter
Illustration, Ladies Home Journal
Ceramic artist, Wayne Long, will visit major cities to give ceramics demonstrations. Wayne Long served as
Whittier Art Association president 1939-1940.
A Proclamation of the Mayor of Whittier urges all citizens to enroll as members of the Whittier Art Association.
This article appeared on the newspaper’s front page, five weeks before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Millard Sheets attends a dinner party before his evening as a guest speaker at the Whittier Art Gallery.
Mabel Haig studied with Millard Sheets in 1930.
An exhibit of work by the late Eleanor Colburn features her Modern Madonna paintings. The exhibit was
scheduled to open on Sunday, December 7th, at 3:00 pm. Pearl Harbor was bombed at 10:00 am that morning,
and the whole town of Whittier was locked down.
Elanor Ruth Colburn
๐๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ, 1937
Oil on canvas
Paul Lauritz, Los Angeles artist, famous throughout the United States, exhibits at the gallery.
Note:ย Paul Lauritz is a member of The Society of Sanity in Art. He is elected California Art Club President,
June, 1942.
Orpha Klinker, prominent Los Angeles artist exhibits paintings and etchings. One of her etchings is currently exhibited at the National Academy in New York.
Orpha Klinker
๐๐ช๐ฐ ๐๐ช๐ค๐ฐ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ
Watercolor
Orpha Klinker
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐บ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ
Oil on canvas, 25 X 30 in.
Edgar Payne, a conservative painter, is internationally known for his landscape and marine paintings.
Edgar Alwin Payne
๐๐ข๐จ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ข ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ, 1921
Oil painting
Edgar Payne exhibits oil paintings. He is the author of ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ต, and ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ต๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ
(published 1941). He is โone of the best known American artistsโฆโ.
Edgar Alwin Payne
๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ต๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ
Edgar Payne attends his reception at the Whittier Art Gallery where his large paintings of Arizona scenes, studies
of the High Sierras, and Mediterranean seascapes are exhibited.
Edgar Alwin Payne
๐๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด, before 1947
Oil painting
Art Association provides pot luck dinner with bargain cafeteria price of only five cents per serving.ย
The association will furnish coffee, strawberries and sugar (These would be welcomed words during this time of
war rationing of sugar).
Ten nationally-known artists exhibited during the galleryโs 1941-1942 year. There were two memberโs competitive exhibits.
Chouinard Art Institute exhibits the artwork of 14 advanced students in the main gallery. Mabel George Haig
exhibits water colors in the small gallery, reserved for Whittier Art Association members.ย In her paintings
Petunias, The Pink Boat, and Not a Throughfare are among her paintings on display.
Mabel Haig exhibits water colors in group exhibit. She has exhibited at the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles.
Note: The Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles were located in the elegant Ambassador Hotel.
c. 1925
This postcard shows the area that made up the Ambassador Hotel grounds in Los Angeles. The Ambassador Hotel was a gathering place for Hollywood legends and famous personalities. This postcard was likely created from a glass slide. Color photography was not invented until the late 1930s.
Note: The massive 500 room Ambassador Hotel opened in Los Angeles in 1921. The Dalzell Hatfield Galleries were located inside the hotel from 1925 ย – ย 1963.
Lt. Arthur Beaumont exhibits his paintings at the Whittier Art Gallery through August, 1942. He speaks at an open meeting, giving a โwitty and entertaining account of painting the โgreat flying fortresses, or B-17sโ.
Sam Hyde Harris exhibits 14 paintings during January. He will give a demonstration of โhow to paint an
oil paintingโฆproceeding through each stepโ.
Clyde Forsythe โone of Americaโs great desert painters, spoke on โthe qualities which make a picture greatโ.ย
He is a personal friend of American illustrator, Norman Rockwell.
Victor Clyde Forsythe
Illustration, 1920
Leslieโs Photographic Review of the Great War
The Whittier Art Galleryโs exhibit announcements appeared in the Los Angeles Times, and throughout 1942, the gallery had shown monthly exhibits of the work of 10 nationally-known artists.ย Whatever her reasons, Ida OโKeeffe came, โan artist from the Eastโ, moving to Whittier during the frightening years of Word War II.ย She found employment as a draughtsman at the Douglas plant in Long Beach.
Ida first settled in an apartment at 205 Earlham Drive, just across the street from Whittier College. ย Her apartment was within walking distance of the Whittier Art Gallery.
By May 10, 1943, Ida OโKeeffe was established with the members of the Whittier Art Association & Gallery, and her signature appears in the registry as โIda OโKeeffe in chargeโ. She was taking a turn working at the desk, and helping with the galleryโs management.
Clyde Forsythe works to complete a series of five paintings depicting the history of a desert town.
E. Roscoe Shrader, Dean of Otis Art Institute, will speak at the gallery. โAn additional attraction will be the showing
of a colored film of art students at work at Otisโ. The current exhibit is student work from Otis.
Otis Art Institute opened in Los Angeles in 1918. Otis, located on Wilshire Boulevard in Westchester, Los Angeles, was the first independent, professional school of art in Southern California. A new campus facility replaced the original building in 1957.
Otis Art Institute sends Traveling Exhibitions to Army bases and provides art kits to young artists in the service. Excerpts of servicemenโs letters were read at the galleryโs open meeting.
Clyde Forsythe, famous desert painter, exhibits through September at the Whittier Art Gallery. Plans are made for Mr. Forsythe to speak at the galleryโs open meeting with his friend, muralist Dean Cornwall.
Victor Clyde Forsythe
๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต ๐๐ช๐ง๐ฆ
Oil on board, 12 X 16 in.
The Art Associationโฆwill present to the public, โtwo internationally famous artists, Clyde Forsythe and Dean Cornwallโ, who will speak at the open meeting. Dean Cornwall recently finished the murals in the Los Angeles
Public Library. While living in LA, Dean Cornwall shares Clyde Forsytheโs studio.
Clyde Forsythe and Dean Cornwall use โhumor, wit, and gay banterโ as they engage in an impromptu debate on commercial art verses pure art.
630 W. 5th St. Downtown Los Angeles
Dean Cornwall was awarded the contract to paint murals for the rotunda of the Los Angeles Central Library in 1927.
Dean Cornwallโs murals can be viewed in the rotunda at the Los Angeles Central Library. The mosaic work in the rotunda is the work of Daniel L. Lu.
It took Dean Cornwall five years of research and work to complete the murals in the Los Angeles Central Library rotunda.
Dean Cornwall (1892-1960) was a celebrated and well-known during his lifetime. From 1920 through the mid-1950s, his art appeared regularly in magazines, illustrated books, and posters advertising hundreds of products. In this photo, Dean Cornwall is standing at the top of the stairs.
This mural is one of 12 murals depicting four great eras of California history.
Dean Cornwall completed the murals in 1932.
Clyde Forsythe, Dean Cornwall, and Ralph Holmes served as judges for the October, 1943ย memberโsย competitive exhibit. Ralph Holmes served as president of the California Art Clubย from 1939 to 1941.
Art Landyโs painting, ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ณ, receives first place in water colors. โThe Red Carโ creator must have hunted diligently through all California to find the ugliest combination of hill, houses, fence and vegetation, and then stuck a sadly drawn electric car with a gigantic power pole thrust up its middle smack in the center of the hill of horrorsโฆโ
Sam Hyde Harris exhibits 17 of his oil paintings. At the open meeting, he painted a Demonstration picture of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Ida OโKeeffe attended the presentation and helped serve refreshments.
Hanson Puthuff exhibits landscape paintings in oil. The artistโs friend, Sam Hyde Harris will speak on the โLife and Works of Hanson Puthuff at the open meeting.
Note:ย ย Hanson Puthuff painted the mural backgrounds for the animal dioramas in the Los Angeles
County Museum of History, Science, and Art.ย He is a member of the California Art Club.
Paul Lauritz exhibits 13 large oil paintings in the main floor gallery. He will demonstrate Charcoal drawing at an upcoming open meeting.
Paul Lauritz
๐๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ
Oil on board, 25 X 30 in.
An exhibit of paintings of New Guinea by Whittier Art Association Past President Wayne Long, is planned.
Katherine Leighton exhibits her Indian portraits. Her canvases have hung in the Biltmore Salon.
Katheryn Leightonโs oil paintings are reviewed by Sam Hyde Harris at the Galleryโs open meeting. He comments on her drawing skill and her use of color and value. She has painted over 700 paintings of Indians, showing the esteem
of her Indian friends. โShe has been made an honorary member of the Blackfoot Tribe of Montanaโ.
The Whittier Art Association formed in 1934 during the depths of the Great Depression. The Art Association opened its first Whittier Art Gallery in the middle of Whittier’s business district, featuring exhibits by professional artists from Los Angeles to the art colony in Laguna Beach.
Mabel George Haig, well educated and accomplished Whittier artist, became close friends with Anna Hills, a co-founder of the Laguna Beach Art Association. Mabel exhibited at the Laguna Beach Art Gallery throughout the 1920s, developing friendships with the artists that lived in Laguna Beach.
Whittier Art Association Past President, Wayne Long, and Whittier artists Forrest Randall, Roger Hollenbeck, and Larken Vaught ย exhibit their artwork at the gallery.
More than 600 visitors from 16 cities visited the Servicemen Art Exhibit in January.
Ejner Hansen exhibits paintings. He was born in Denmark, and studied painting and sculpture in Copenhagen.
He praised the Whittier Art Gallery, which he said, โpossesses great charmโ. He is an instructor at Otis Art Institute, and a member of the California Art Club.
Conrad Buff exhibits paintings and lithographs at the Whittier Art Gallery. His paintings hang in the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles Museum, and the San Diego Museum.
Conrad Buff
Oil on thin paperboard, 11 1/2 x 15 1/2
Conrad Buff
๐๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐บ, c. 1940
Oil on Masonite
The Whittier Art Association celebrated the end of their gallery’s mortgage debt on May 14, 1945. The Whittier News article shared the following:
“Perhaps more than any one other person responsible for the [Art] Associationย was Mrs. Myron J. Haig whose untiring efforts to have all debts paid this year were broughtย to a successful close when Mr. Fries held a match to the mortgage last evening”.
WAA Memberโs exhibit Jury of Selection:ย Ida OโKeeffe, Larken Vaught, Richard Harris and Glen Nelson.ย Judges:ย John Hubbard Rich, Ejnar Hansen, Roscoe Shrader, Dean of Otis Art Institute.
Click on the Pluto’s Blue Note image to watch this wonderful cartoon. The backgrounds were created by Art Landy.
The Circle of Confusion, Whittierโs Camera Club, holds their 9th International Salon of Photography.
The Whittier Art Gallery walls were filled with 157 prints from England, Canada, Mexico, India, and the US.
โColor transparenciesโ (color slides), were also entered into this exhibit, and were shown for the first time.
Ben Messick, Disney artist and nationally recognized painter exhibits at the gallery. His work had been shown at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Carnegie Institute. His work is handled by the Francis Taylor Gallery in Beverly Hills.
Harry Muir Kurtzworth
๐๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ, 1946
West Lake Park, Los Angeles
Pastel, 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Ida OโKeeffe exhibits realistic and abstract oil paintings in the main floor (large) gallery. Water colors and oils by Phillipa Mansur are shown in the โannexโ, a small gallery space usually reserved for the artwork of local, emerging artists.
Ida O’Keeffe’s oil paintings,ย ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ด, andย ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, were painted in 1946.ย They are part of private collections in Whittier. ย Sue Canterbury, a curator from the Dallas Museum of Art, visited Whittier in preparation for the exhibitionย ๐๐ฅ๐ข ๐’๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ, ๐๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ณ๐จ๐ช๐ข’๐ด ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ.ย
Nelbert Chouinard, director and founder of the Chouinard Art Institute, came to speak at the Whittier Art Gallery. She โpredicted tremendous strides for art in the Post-War world.”
Millard Sheets, Dan Lutz, Etinne Ret, Clarence Hinkle, Russell Clowels, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Grigory Gluckman, and *Rubin exhibit paintings loaned by the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries. The paintings in the exhibit are valued at $200,000.
*[Believed to be Reuven (Zelicovici) Rubin (1893-1974)]
Walt Disney gets โdoctor of fine artsโ degree. Nelbert Chouinard (1879-1969), is the Director of the Chouinard Art Institute that she founded in 1921.
Millard Sheets
๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ด, 1933 – 1934
Oil on canvas, 401/4 in. X 501/4 in.
Ralph Hulett exhibits California landscapes and marines. He studied four years at Chouinard Art Institute. S. McDonald Wright, Script Magazine writer, wrote:
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย โRalph Hulettโs watercolors exemplify the best pictorial methods of what has now come
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย to be called the California School.โ
Ralph Hulett
๐๐ช๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ
Watercolor, 22 X 30 in.
Tyrus Wong exhibits watercolors at the gallery during September, 1947. He was Production illustrator for Walt Disneyโs Bambi, working at the Disney Studios from 1938-1941.ย He was an illustrator for Warner Brothers Studios during World War II. By 1947, Tyrus Wong was devoting all of his time to painting.
This movie theater ad appeared in the Whittier News on August 9, 1943
Note: Bambi was Walt Disneyโs fifth animated feature film. It is interesting to remember that this film would have only been viewed in movie theaters. Whittier had three movie theaters in town, which was a major form of entertainment. It was the early 1950s when it became more common to have a black and white television In your home. Bambi was not released on color video tape until 1989.
c. 1942
The Artistโs Guild of Southern California, Traveling Exhibit exhibited the paintings of artists with club affiliations
with the California Art Club, the California Water Color Society, The American Artistโs Professional League, the Laguna Beach Art Association, and the Whittier Art Association. The โoils and water colors exhibited in both
modern and conservative styles of technique are shownโ.