1943 September 2, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Clyde Forsythe, famous desert painter, exhibits through September at the Whittier Art Gallery. Plans are made for Mr. Forsythe to speak at the gallery’s open meeting with his friend, muralist Dean Cornwall.
1943 September 10, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The Art Association…will present to the public, “two internationally famous artists, Clyde Forsythe and Dean Cornwall”, 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 Forsythe’s studio.
1943 September 16, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Clyde Forsythe and Dean Cornwall use “humor, wit, and gay banter” as they engage in an impromptu debate on commercial art verses pure art.
1943 October 2, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Clyde Forsythe, Dean Cornwall, and Ralph Holmes served as judges for the October, 1943 member’s competitive exhibit. Ralph Holmes served as president of the California Art Club from 1939 to 1941.
1943 October 8, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Art Landy’s painting, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘊𝘢𝘳, receives first place in water colors. “The Red Car” 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 horrors…”
1943 December 9, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Sam Hyde Harris exhibits 17 of his oil paintings. At the open meeting, he painted a Demonstration picture of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Ida O’Keeffe attended the presentation and helped serve refreshments.
1944 March 13, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Hanson Puthuff exhibits landscape paintings in oil. The artist’s friend, Sam Hyde Harris will speak on the “Life and Works of Hanson Puthuff at the open meeting.
Note: Hanson Puthuff painted the mural backgrounds for the animal dioramas in the Los Angeles
County Museum of History, Science, and Art. He is a member of the California Art Club.
1944 June 19, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Paul Lauritz exhibits 13 large oil paintings in the main floor gallery. He will demonstrate Charcoal drawing at an upcoming open meeting.
1944 July 17, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
An exhibit of paintings of New Guinea by Whittier Art Association Past President Wayne Long, is planned.
1944 September 12, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Katheryn Leighton’s oil paintings are reviewed by Sam Hyde Harris at the Gallery’s 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. “She has been made an honorary member of the Blackfoot Tribe of Montana”.
1945 January 8, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Whittier Art Association Past President, Wayne Long, and Whittier artists Forrest Randall, Roger Hollenbeck, and Larken Vaught exhibit their artwork at the gallery.
1945 January 29, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
More than 600 visitors from 16 cities visited the Servicemen Art Exhibit in January.
1945 March 26, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
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, “possesses great charm”. He is an instructor at Otis Art Institute, and a member of the California Art Club.
1945 April 7, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
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.
1945 May 15, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
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] Association was Mrs. Myron J. Haig whose untiring efforts to have all debts paid this year were brought to a successful close when Mr. Fries held a match to the mortgage last evening”.
1945 November 15, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
WAA Member’s exhibit Jury of Selection: Ida O’Keeffe, Larken Vaught, Richard Harris and Glen Nelson. Judges: John Hubbard Rich, Ejnar Hansen, Roscoe Shrader, Dean of Otis Art Institute.
1946 May 30, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
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.
1946 March 8, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Ida O’Keeffe exhibits realistic and abstract oil paintings in the main floor (large) gallery. Water colors and oils by Phillipa Mansur are shown in the “annex”, a small gallery space usually reserved for the artwork of local, emerging artists.
1947 January 15, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Nelbert Chouinard, director and founder of the Chouinard Art Institute, came to speak at the Whittier Art Gallery. She “predicted tremendous strides for art in the Post-War world.”
1947 May 29, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
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)]
1947 July 3, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Ralph Hulett exhibits California landscapes and marines. He studied four years at Chouinard Art Institute. S. McDonald Wright, Script Magazine writer, wrote:
“Ralph Hulett’s watercolors exemplify the best pictorial methods of what has now come
to be called the California School.”
1947 September 13, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Tyrus Wong exhibits watercolors at the gallery during September, 1947. He was Production illustrator for Walt Disney’s Bambi, working at the Disney Studios from 1938-1941. He was an illustrator for Warner Brothers Studios during World War II. By 1947, Tyrus Wong was devoting all of his time to painting.
1947 October 4, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The Artist’s 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 Artist’s Professional League, the Laguna Beach Art Association, and the Whittier Art Association. The “oils and water colors exhibited in both
modern and conservative styles of technique are shown”.
1947 October 31, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Tyrus Wong, Ralph Hulett, and Davis Miller are selected for the Whittier Art Association Member’s Show jury. The Whittier Art Gallery showed the artwork of Whittier Art Association members in a competitive exhibit twice each year. The Exhibits were juried by a group of three know as “the Jury of Selection”, and the “Jury of Awards”, a group
of three professional artists, chose the award winners. Most of the Jury of Awards judges had previously had solo shows at the gallery.
1947 November 27, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨 :
Loren Barton, nationally known artist and art instructor faculty member, teaches oil and water color painting
at the Whittier Art Gallery. Her paintings are represented by the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in L.A.’s
Ambassador Hotel.
1948 February 13, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
The Circle of Confusion, Whittier’s Camera Club, received over 1300 entries for their Eleventh Annual Salon of Photography exhibit at the Whittier Art Gallery. Black and white prints and color slides were submitted. Entries
were received from Sweden, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, and India.
1948 March 1, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The California Water Color Society exhibits 30 paintings at the gallery in March of 1948. The exhibit, is unit of the California Water Color Society’s Traveling Show. Some of the exhibiting artists are, Milford Zornes, Tyrus Wong, Robert Kennicott, and Phil Dike. Phil Dike speaks at the opening reception. His talk is titled,
“California Water Color Painting”.
1948 March 8, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
The Circle of Confusion Camera Club exhibited their 11th Annual International Salon of Photography in February,
of 1948. The two week record of 2,875 visitors, attended the exhibit of prints at the Whittier Art Gallery and the display of color slides at the Jonathan Bailey School.
1948 April 12, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Edgar Starr exhibits water color and tempora paintings at the gallery through April. He was a color stylist and
artist for the Disney Studios, illustrating a children’s book [the Disney Big Golden Book, Bongo, in 1947].
1948 December 2, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
The Whittier Art Gallery provides its first Jr. Art Exhibit, December 5 through January 2 of 1948. It was a
competitive exhibit of student artwork from the Whittier City Schools.
1949 January 2, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Originals of Currier and Ives prints, are shown at the gallery. There are 21 original prints in the valuable collection. The collection, used on the Travelers calendars since 1936, has been “on circuit among outstanding museums in the nation, and comes to Whittier from Aurora Illinois”.
1949 February 17, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
The Circle of Confusion 12th Annual International Photo Salon exhibits 133 prints and 236 color slides selected
from nearly 1400 entries. Photographs were submitted from Canada, England, India, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Hungry.
1949 April 5, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Milford Zornes exhibits oils, tempera and water color paintings in his one-man show at the Whittier Art Gallery.
He will be the guest speaker at the gallery’s open meeting.
Milford Zornes was Water Color Society President, 1941 – 1942.
1949 May 10, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Art Landy and other prominent Southern California artists will be teaching art classes for children free of charge. More than 400 children are signed up for the art classes.
1949 May 15, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
1950 January 5, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Emil Kosa Jr. returns for his second solo exhibit at the gallery. He serves as a judge for the Whittier Art Association’s competitive exhibit in May, 1950. Non-member, professional artists always judged WAA member exhibits, for which there were cash awards.
1950 March 9, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Paul Landacre shows his wood engravings during his March exhibit at the gallery. His prints are in permanent collections at the Library of Congress and in major museums and libraries in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco,
and Seattle. He teaches at the Kann Institute of Art in Los Angeles.
1950 April 1, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Norman Rockwell’s drawings and paintings are shown in the small gallery, and the paintings of Joseph Mugnaini
are shown in the main floor gallery. Mugnaini, is an instructor at Otis Art Institute, and a good friend of
Norman Rockwell.
Note: The Whittier Art Association & Gallery Archives holds the inventory sheet of Norman Rockwell’s artwork
that hung in this April, 1950 exhibit.
1950 May 8, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The Whittier Art Associations Art Fair was held under the trees behind the gallery building. Artist members demonstrated several media including water color painting, by Mabel Haig, woodcarving by Cloudsley French,
and weaving by Glen Nelson. Ida O’Keeffe visited the event, and can be seen in the center of the newspaper photo.
1950 May 9, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The Art Fair was held on the gallery grounds, and the member’s competitive exhibit was featured inside the
Whittier Art Gallery in the main floor exhibit space.
1951 January 8, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
James Couper Wright exhibits water color in a one-man show at the gallery.
Note: James Couper Wright earned 48 awards during the 1930s for his still life paintings and landscapes that
were considered “bold and modern”. He was a member of the California Water Color Society from 1931 to 1956.
1951 April 7, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Jean Charlot, internationally famed muralist, show his lithographs in a solo exhibit at the Whittier Art Gallery.
He has also authored books including 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘺.
Note: Jean Charlot, worked in the true fresco technique during the early 1920s. He befriended Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco.
1951 October 11, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Mabel Haig steps in as “Guest Speaker” when a case of measles and other problems prevent the exhibiting Laguna artists from attending their exhibit’s open meeting. Mabel tells the history of the Laguna Beach Art Association
with “humorous whimsy and dramatic suspense”.
1952 September 19, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The Whittier Art Association’s first Bohemian Night featured a “Bohemian” theme with humorous skits and an
old-fashioned vaudeville show by Axel Christensen, a well-known comedian. Proceeds from the show were to
benefit the gallery’s Building Fund.
1953 January 2, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Milford Zornes and Art Landy exhibit with the Artists Guild of Southern California at the Whittier Art Gallery.
1953 October 3, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Ralph Hulett exhibits at the gallery. Arthur Miller considers Hulett to be a “a consistently good watercolorist”.
1953 October 27, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Bohemian Night’s second year featured a hilarious melodrama entitled “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter”, the “clever farce” was written and narrated by Mabel George Haig. The evening’s live music was played on piano and accordion. Mrs. Paul Van Cleave, Paul Gardiner, Dick Squires, and Blanch Hutchison, performed Mabel Haig’s melodrama, “The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter”.
1953 October 29, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The second annual Bohemian Night was produced by the gallery’s artists. Placed in the setting of “Café Bohemia”,
was the proprietor and other “employees” of the café. Art Association artists became writers, musicians, and actors
in this effort to raise money for the Gallery’s Building Fund.
1957 January 6, 𝙇𝙤𝙨 𝘼𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨:
Bohemian Night, with a Left Bank theme, featured a Parisian sidewalk café setting, complete with can-can dancers. The show was a collaboration between the Whittier Art Association and the Whittier Civic Light Opera.
The proceeds benefitted both groups.
1957 June 18, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Milford Zornes one-man show at the Whittier Art Gallery features a collection of his watercolors, temperas, and
oil paintings. Milford Zornes is a nationally recognized watercolor painter, a member of the American Watercolor Society and art director of the Padua Institute at Padua Hills. At his artist’s talk, he spoke of his experiences in
Thule, Greenland.
1957 December 1, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧:
Rex Brandt, an associate of the National Academy of Design, exhibits his watercolor paintings in December.
During his artist’s talk, he showed three films, “Watercolor Landscape”, “Watercolor and Printers Ink”, and
“Oil Painting Methods”.
1958 January 12, 𝙇𝙤𝙨 𝘼𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨:
A Bohemian Night titled “Traveling Light”, is a Parisian fling, set in a Left Bank café. The evenings are planned with
a longer intermission “to permit patrons to sit for individual portraits sketched by a sidewalk artist”.
Note: This Bohemian Night, “Traveling Light”, written by Natalie Stone, told the musical story of a “cereal-contest winning couple, who won a trip around the world”. The show played “to a sold-out house” for four performances.
1959 January 22 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Milford Zornes teaches evening beginning and advance drawing classes at the Whittier Art Gallery.
1959 February 11, 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
Construction is underway on an addition that will increase the Whittier Art Gallery’s exhibition space. The $10,500 addition will have a “basement workshop” room. The addition is being built by Raymond Hunnicutt, the contractor who built the original gallery building in 1938-1939.
1959 May 2 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨:
The Whittier Art Gallery plans opening of its new addition. The event will honor Mrs. Mabel Haig, a charter director of the Association, founders, life members and past presidents of the Art Association.