6/26/13

art | richard diebenkorn: the berkeley years

richard diebenkorn may be best known for his ocean park paintings and drawings...

 richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | ocean park #140 | oil on canvas | 1985
the last large scale painting in the ocean park cycle
deibenkorn created the ocean park cycle in santa monica CA from 1967-1988
photo credit art in the studio

or, for his cityscapes...

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | cityscape, landscape 1 | oil on canvas | 1963
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA

along with joan mitchell and helen frankenthaler, he is one of my favorite post-war american artists.

 so, of course we attended the preview of richard diebenkorn:  the berkeley years-1953-1966, an exhibition of over 130 works that opened at the de young museum in san francisco CA on 22 june 2013.

my husband, bob, and i enjoyed the exhibition so much that we are going to see it again before it closes on 29 september 2013.

diebenkorn's work is often grouped into periods according to where he lived because his location often inspired his work.  diebenkorn lived in berkeley CA from 1953 until 1966, when he moved to santa monica CA.

although diebenkorn's berkeley period paintings and drawings established him as an abstract artist, his berkeley period actually included two phases:  an abstract phase from 1953-1956, followed by a representational phase from 1955-1967.


richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #3 | oil on canvas | 1953
fine art museums of san francisco (famsf) | san francisco CA

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #5 | oil on canvas | 1953
private collection
photo credit christie's

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #7 | oil on canvas | 1953
mildred lane kemper art museum | washington university | st louis MO
photo credit kemper art museum
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966.
These transformations represent one of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing project now underway has brought to light many works from this period that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style, marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #8 | oil on canvas | 1954
north carolina museum of art (ncma) | raleigh NC
photo credit ncma

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #12 | oil on canvas | 1954
the phillips collection | washington DC

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #15 | oil on canvas | 1954
new mexico museum of art | santa fe NM

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #19 | oil on canvas | 1954
university of arizona museum of art (uama) | tuscon AZ
photo credit uama

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #22 | oil on canvas | 1954
hirshorn museum and sculpture garden | smithsonian institution | washington DC

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #33 | oil on canvas | 1954
private collection
photo credit wikipaintings

'what i was really up to in painting, 
what i enjoyed exclusively, was altering-
changing what was before me-
by way of subtracting 
or juxtaposition 
or superimposition 
of different ideas.'
-richard diebenkorn

diebenkorn composed berkeley #23 in 1954, and then reworked it in 1955.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #23 | oil on canvas | 1955
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA

in 1957, articles in ARTnews* and LIFE magazines expanded diebenkorn's national reputation as an abstract artist.

 

SWEEPING PATTERNS
FROM CALIFORNIA FIELDS
Brought up in San Francisco, Richard Dieben-
korn became a leading member of a group of 
West Coast painters working in the imported 
East Coast style of abstract-expressionism.  But 
when he moved away from the group 
to live in New Mexico, he began to create a 
less abstract art based on recollections of the 
California landscape he had left behind.  Now 
back in California and settled in Berkeley, the 
35-year-old artist has poured out a vigorous 
and colorful array of paintings like the 1955 
canvas below.  Painted with rough strokes, its 
broad forms recall the sweeping patterns of 
the fertile lands (left) north of San Francisco.

LIFE magazine | 'look of the west inspires new art' | november 4, 1957 | page 67
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #44 | oil on canvas | 1955
private collection

but, by then, his work was shifting from abstraction to representation.  diebenkorn described chabot valley, painted in 1955, as his first representational landscape painting.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | chabot valley | oil on canvas | 1955
collection of christopher diebenkorn
photo credit wikipaintings

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | coffee | oil on canvas | 1959
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | bottles | oil on canvas | 1960
norton simon museum | pasadena CA
photo credit norton simon museum | (c) 2008 estate of richard diebenkorn

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | interior with doorway | oil on canvas | 1962
pennsylvania academy of the fine arts (pafa) | philadelphia PA
photo credit pafa

interior with view of buildings combines the four major themes of diebenkorn's berkeley period representational work:  landscapes, figures, still life, and interiors.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | interior with view of buildings | oil on canvas | 1962
cincinnati art museum | cincinnati OH
photo credit cincinnati art museum

in 1964, the US state department invited diebenkorn to visit the soviet union on a cultural exchange grant.  while visiting the soviet union, he saw the extraordinary matisse collections at the pushkin state museum of fine arts in moscow and the state hermitage museum in leningrad, which were then inaccessible to most of the world.

even though this was not the artist's first exposure to the work of henri matisse,** this experience influenced his late berkeley period drawings and paintings, which incorporated matisse-like decorative patterns, saturated colors, flat picture planes, and geometric compositions.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | recollections of a visit to leningrad | oil on canvas | 1965
private collection

diebenkorn also saw the henri matisse. retrospective 1966. exhibition at the university of california, los angeles (ucla) art gallery.

henri matisse (1869-1954) | zulma | gouache and cut and pasted paper | 1950
statens museum for kunst (smk) | copenhagen, denmark
richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | untitled (yellow collage) | gouache and cut and pasted paper | 1966
collection of gretchen and richard grant

does diebenkorn's late berkeley period work seem like a transition from representation to abstraction?

 richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | ocean park #19 | oil on canvas | 1968
san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA
photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation

notes to myself on beginning a painting
1. attempt what is not certain. certainty may or may not come later. it may then be a valuable delusion.
2. the pretty, initial position, which falls short of completeness, is not to be valued-except as a stimulus for further moves.
3. do search. but in order to find other than what is searched for.
4. use and respond to the initial fresh qualities, but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. don't 'discover' a subject-of any kind.
6. somehow don't be bored-but if you must, use it in action. use its destructive potential.
7. mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position.
8. keep thinking about polyanna.
9. tolerate chaos.
10. be careful only in a perverse way. 
-richard diebenkorn 

*'diebenkorn paints a picture', ARTnews, volume 56 number 3, may 1957, pages 44-47, 54-55.
**in 1952, diebenkorn saw the matisse retrospective, organized by alfred barr for the museum of modern art in new york NY, at the municipal art gallery in los angeles CA.

click here to read my previous post about richard diebenkorn.
10/26/13 - 02/16/14
Annenberg Wing
Palm Springs Art Museum
Richard Diebenkorn, Seawall, 1957, oil on canvas, © 2013 The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Phyllis G. Diebenkorn 1995.96

Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966.
These transformations represent one of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing project now underway has brought to light many works from this period that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style, marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966.
These transformations represent one of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing project now underway has brought to light many works from this period that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style, marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966.
These transformations represent one of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing project now underway has brought to light many works from this period that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style, marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966. - See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.
Richard Diebenkorn achieved national and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966.
These transformations represent one of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing project now underway has brought to light many works from this period that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.
Early formative years as a student and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style, marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.
Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.
- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf
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6/17/13

travel | the gamble house | pasadena, CA

whenever i visit somewhere that i've been, i always try to visit somewhere new.

so, during a recent weekend getaway to los angeles, CA, i finally visited the gamble house, greene & greene's arts and crafts architectural masterpiece in pasadena, CA.

greene & greene | the gamble house | pasadena, CA | 1907-1909
photo credit lisa walsh | innerspace

several years ago, i collaborated with one of my interior design clients on a craftsman style renovation.  houses designed by charles rennie mackintosh, mackay hugh baillie-scott, frank lloyd wright, and charles & henry greene inspired the architecture and the interiors.

the gamble house is the most complete greene & greene residence still in existence, and the only one now open as a museum.  the original paneling, cabinetry, stained glass, fixtures, and furnishings, custom designed for the house by the greene brothers, still remain.*  the walls are still painted the original colors.  and, the furniture is still in the original location.
 
so of course, i booked the behind the velvet ropes tour of the gamble house to take advantage of the opportunity to closely examine the architecture and the interiors.

the gamble house | exterior
the architecture, the interiors, and the landscaping are fully integrated, which seems like a surprisingly modern concept, considering that the gamble house was built for david and mary gamble, of the proctor and gamble company (p&g), between 1907 and 1909.

the gamble house was built as a winter 'cottage'.  so, it was designed for indoor-outdoor living.  the gamble family used the terraces on the first floor and the sleeping porches on the second floor of the north and west wings of the house as exterior living spaces.  the broad, overhanging eaves were designed to shelter the porches from the sun.  and, the house was oriented towards the west to capture the breezes from the arroyo seco canyon.


the gamble house | northeast and north elevations

for the west terrace, the greene brothers used arroyo boulders and clinker bricks to build a retaining wall, which raised the elevation of the terrace from ground to floor level. 

the gamble house | northwest elevation
photo credit alexander vertikoff 

they planted creeping fig vines along the retaining wall to ground the foundation.  and, they designed the terrace around two trees, which are no longer standing, by notching out the eaves of the overhanging roof, and building a well around the trees.  they contoured the water lily and goldfish pond to fit the contour of the tree well.  and, they engineered an overflow drainage system for the pond by perforating the stone and brick retaining wall.



the gamble house | west terrace

greene & greene often used clinker bricks in combination with local stone for foundations, retaining walls, or chimneys.  clinker bricks could be considered wasters.  but, the imperfection of the distorted shapes and the irregular colors of the over fired bricks appealed to the wabi sabi aesthetics of arts and crafts architects and designers, like greene & greene.

in addition to wabi sabi, arts and crafts architecture incorporated other japanese design principles.  for example, the front door of the gamble house has an extra low header and an extra wide door.  not only the horizontal proportions, but also the double T shaped teak frame, are references to the torii gate outside the entrance to a shinto shrine.

the gamble house | front door
photo credit alexander vertikoff

torii gate | itsukushima shrine | miyajima island, japan 
photo credit unesco | g boccardi

the front door has stained glass panes in either a california live oak tree or a japanese black pine tree design.  the glass was designed by charles greene and crafted by emil lange, who previously worked for tiffany studios in new york.  lange used the copper foil fabrication technique, popularized by louis comfort tiffany, to join the the laminated layers of iridescent stained glass.


the gamble house | front door
photo credits alexander vertikoff and randell l. makinson & thomas a. heinz

the gamble house | interior | first floor
the gamble house | first floor plan
north>
photo credit library of congress

entry hall
the entry hall integrates the interior of the gamble house with the exterior.  if you look at the first floor plan, you will notice the asymmetrical alignment of the front and back doors.  the front door opens onto the porch on the east side of the house.  and, the back door opens onto the terrace on the west side of the house.  balanced, yet unbalanced...

the entry hall is paneled in teak with a hand rubbed finish.  the wall panels, frieze frames, and ceiling grids divide the surfaces into modular components.  the frieze and the ceiling are plastered, and covered in painted panels of stretched canvas.  on the south side of the entry hall, the wall panels conceal access to utilitarian spaces, such as the coat closet and the cellar stairs.

the gamble house | entry hall

more storage compartments are concealed beneath the seat of the settle, which is built into the stair alcove.

the gamble house | entry hall
stair alcove
photo credit ggva 

the teak staircase is a complex cascade of exposed joinery.

the gamble house | entry hall
staircase 
photo credit mark fiennes

in addition to emil lange, the greene brothers collaborated with other master craftsmen, including brothers peter and john hall.  peter hall built the stairs, the paneling, and the woodwork.  and, john hall built the custom furnishings that the greene brothers designed for the gamble house.

many of the furniture designs seem quite simple.  the materials, the construction, and the craftsmanship double as decoration.

but, many of the construction techniques are quite complex.  the honduras mahogany and ebony side table in the entry hall is finished on all four sides. the drawers, which hang from runners, push all the way through the apron of the table.  so, the drawers open from either the front or the back.

the gamble house | entry hall
side table | honduras mahogany|ebony | 1908
photo credit ggva

den
the entrance to the den is on the north side of the entry hall.  the den is paneled in oak, instead of teak, and has a pressed brick fireplace.  did you notice that one brick on the upper right side of the over mantle is set backwards to expose the 'II' maker's mark?  perfectly imperfect, like the clinker bricks...

the den, along with two bedrooms, were originally furnished with stickley furniture.  the den furniture included david gamble's rolltop desk, and his morris chair, plus the filing cabinets that he transported back and forth between p&g headquarters in cincinnati and the gamble house in pasadena.  

the harvey ellis cabinet in the den is the only piece of the original stickley furniture that remains.  the rest was donated by the friends of the gamble house.

the gamble house | den
fireplace
photo credit mark fiennes

living room
the entrance to the living room is also on the north side of the entry hall.  the inglenook fireplace in the living room backs up to the brick fireplace in the den.  grueby tile, inlaid in iridescent stained glass with a trailing vine pattern, surrounds the firebox, which is flanked by a pair of built in display cabinets with stained glass doors and a pair of built in settles.

the gamble house | living room
inglenook fireplace
photo credit mark fiennes

charles greene designed five tree of life patterned rugs for the living room, including one for the inglenook.  he thought that the tree of life pattern created a connection with the tree pattern on the front door.  the rugs were woven in bohemia, now the czech republic, by j. ginzkey, who also made rugs for arts and crafts and wiener werkstatte designers charles francis annesley voysey and josef hoffman.


the gamble house | living room
living room rug design | watercolor on paper | 1908
living room rug | wool pile|linen warp|cotton weft | 1908-1909

a pair of teak queen post trusses separates the living room from the inglenook fireplace and the seating alcove.  both the separations and the furnishings divide the large living room into intimate areas for multiple activities.

the gamble house | living room
seating alcove
photo credit mark fiennes

the custom furnishings include a mahogany and ebony library table, with drawers like the side table in the entry hall,  accompanied by two tall side chairs.  mary gamble brought the tiffany studios bronze reading lamp, which has a tulip lampshade and a moth eye shade, from cincinnati to pasadena in 1909.

the gamble house | living room
library table | honduras mahogany|ebony | 1908
tall side chair | honduras mahogany|ebony|oak|metal|wool | 1908
photo credits ggva and ggva

however, most of the lighting was custom designed for the gamble house by charles greene.  the ceiling light fixtures that he designed for the living room are multi-functional.  they not only function as down lights, but also as up lights.  leather straps, secured with wooden wedges, suspend the fixtures from the ceiling brackets.

the brackets and the canopy are shaped like tsuba, the hand guards on japanese swords.  charles greene, who loved japanese art, collected tsuba.  part of his tsuba collection is now exhibited on the third floor of the gamble house.

the gamble house | living room
ceiling light fixture | mahogany|ebony|cedar|leather|stained glass | 1908
photo credit tim street-porter

mokkogata tsuba | iron | signed hosinasi toshikage and kao | edo period | 19th c
christie's | south kensington | london, united kingdom | sale 7316 | lot 195 | 7 november 2012
photo credit christie's

even though most of the custom greene & greene furniture is quite simple, some of it is more decorated.  an inlaid letter box sits on top of a desk, which is located on the left side of the inglenook fireplace in the living room.  on the front, the letter box is inlaid in ebony, ivory, and silver with the crane and rose gamble family crest.  two four lobed mokkogata tsuba panels frame the crest.  did you notice that a 'gamble crane' is also suspended over the built in settle in the entry hall?


the gamble house | living room
letter box | mahogany|ebony|ivory|silver|oak | 1914
desk | mahogany|ebony | 1914
 
the side panels of the letter box, which have tree inlays, conceal triangular drawers. 

the gamble house | living room
letter box | side panel | mahogany|ebony|ivory|silver|oak | 1914  
letter box design | side panel | graphite on paper | c. 1914 
photo credits ggva and ggva 

the teak paneling in the living room is also inset with tree and mountain, bird and flower, or cloud and wave decorative panels.  the carved and brushed redwood panels have been compared to rama carvings, which are part of the frieze construction of a japanese house.  since i have studied asian art, i think that a stylistic comparison could also be made between the carvings and japanese screens.  interestingly, the greene & greene virtual archive (ggva) describes some of the scenes as seagulls, beaches, and waves.  could the carvings be california coastal scenes, instead?

the gamble house | living room
carved redwood frieze panel
photo credit mark fiennes


pair of six-fold paper screens | ink and color on a gold ground | japan | edo period | 18th c
gregg baker asian art | london, united kingdom
photo credit gregg baker asian art

dining room
the entrance to the dining room is on the southwest side of the entry hall.  i shouldn't have been surprised that the rose patterned stained glass screen above the built in mahogany sideboard in the dining room is illuminated by soffit lighting.  after all, the gamble house was built with all of the modern conveniences, including electricity, central heating, and ensuite bathrooms.

the gamble house | dining room
built in sideboard
photo credit tim street-porter

tsuba inspired decoration predominates the dining room.  lobed pendants subdivide the frieze above the sideboard, the windows, and the built in china cupboards that flank the fireplace, which has a motawi tile surround.  the canopy, brackets, and cap of the ceiling light fixture, custom designed by charles greene, also have re-entrant corners.  even the expandable base of dining room table, expertly engineered by henry greene, has lobed corners.



the gamble house | dining room
ceiling light fixture | mahogany|ebony|metal|leather|leaded art glass | 1908
dining room
base | dining room table | santo domingo mahogany|ebony | 1908
photo credits ggva tim street-porter and ggva

kitchen
the dining room connects to the kitchen through the butler's pantry.  in the butler's pantry, all of the upper cabinets have sliding doors.  and, one of the lower cabinets is equipped with an extra wide linen drawer, fitted with a roller for tablecloth storage.  both the butler's pantry and the kitchen, which connects to the cellar through the service porch or the stairs on the south side of the entry hall, are fitted with custom maple cabinets.

the gamble house | kitchen 
photo credit mark fiennes

guest bedroom
the entrance to the guest bedroom is on the south side of the entry hall.  this ensuite bedroom is where guests, who were not members of the gamble family, stayed.

 

 

 
the gamble house | guest bedroom
photo credits ggva tim street-porter and ggva

the furniture that charles greene designed for the guest bedroom is more embellished than the furniture that he designed for the public spaces of the gamble house.

the headboards and footboards of the nickel plated brass beds are engraved with trailing vines.  and, the maple furniture is inlaid with scrolling floral silver stringing.

   the gamble house | guest bedroom
footboard | nickel plated brass | 1908
crest | side chair | maple|figured maple|oak|ebony|silver | 1908
photo credits ggva and ggva

the legs of the desk and the dressing table have silver decorated stiles.  the front of the letter box on top of the desk, and the frame of the mirror on top of the dressing table are also inlaid with scrolling floral silver stringing.  and, all of the drawers have silver loop pulls.



the gamble house | guest bedroom
desk and letter box | maple|figured maple|oak|mahogany|ebony|silver | 1908  
dressing table and mirror | maple|figured maple|vermillion wood|oak|ebony|silver|glass | 1908
photo credits ggva and ggva

even the sconces are inlaid with silver stringing and have silver straps.
the gamble house | guest bedroom
sconce | honduras mahogany|silver|stained glass | 1908
photo credit ggva

the gamble house | interior | second floor
the gamble house | second floor plan
north>
photo credit library of congress

hall
the second floor of the gamble house is furnished with fewer precious materials.  the second floor hall is paneled in cedar, instead of teak.  and, the paneling is only chair rail height, instead of header height.  on the east wall, two built in display cabinets are separated by a window seat with concealed storage compartments.  on the south wall, the built in wardrobe has spring loaded handles on the doors.  the top of the wardrobe is even stepped like the stair railing.

if you look at the second floor plan, you will notice another interior-exterior connection.  the hall has a back door, which opens onto the sleeping porch on the west side of the house.

bedroom
the entrance to the bedroom used by one of david and mary gamble's three sons is on the north side of the hall.  amenities include a closet, a fireplace, and built in cabinets on the west wall, plus an ensuite bathroom, and a sleeping porch.  like the den, this bedroom originally had stickley furniture.

master bedroom
the entrance to the master bedroom is also on the north side of the hall.  amenities include an inglenook fireplace that backs up to the fireplace in the son's bedroom, an ensuite bathroom, a sleeping porch, a walk in closet, and a built in wardrobe.  like the hall wardrobe, the doors have spring loaded handles.  but, the master bedroom wardrobe also has drawers, concealed in the baseboard, that the gambles used for shoe storage.

the linear band of the carpet repeats the headband and the ceiling band that frame the frieze.  with a double banded frieze, the greene brothers often chose three graduated colors for the walls, the frieze, and the ceiling.  if the plaster walls weren't covered in painted canvas, they were sanded and washed with a transparent stain.

the gamble house | master bedroom
photo credit tim street-porter 

even though they are also decorated, the master bedroom furnishings seem more similar to the furnishings that charles greene designed for the public spaces than for the guest bedroom.  the master bedroom furniture is decorated with pierced or applied ebony tsuba that overlay inlaid birds and flowers.  the inlays include fruitwoods, metals, abalone shells, and minerals.  the tsuba overlays are even outlined with brass pins.

the gamble house | master bedroom
footboard | black walnut|ebony|oak|metal|minerals | 1908
photo credit ggva

but, like the furniture in the public spaces, the craftsmanship seems to outshine the decoration.  the construction is quite complex...

did you notice the cross pegged finger lap joints on the ceiling light fixture?

 

or, the finger lap joints and ebony pegs on the graduated drawers of the chiffonier? 


what about the varied sizes of the dresser drawers?

or, the compartmentalized interior of the fall front writing desk? 

the gamble house | master bedroom
ceiling light fixture | cedar|abalone|leather | 1908
chiffonier | black walnut|ebony|oak|glass|metal|minerals | 1908
dresser | black walnut|ebony|oak|glass|metal|minerals | 1908 
desk | black walnut|maple|ebony|oak|metal|minerals | 1908
photo credits ggva ggva ggva and ggva

bedroom
the entrance to the bedroom belonging to mary gamble's sister, julia huggins, is on the southwest side of the hall.  julia huggins had simpler tastes.  so, her bedroom has a sleeping porch, but not an ensuite bathroom.  and, a franklin stove, which was never installed,** but not a fireplace.  she moved her brass bed from cincinnati to pasadena, and commissioned charles greene to design the wicker furniture that she requested for her california bedroom. 


the gamble house | julia huggins' bedroom
photo credits ggva and ggva
 
hall bathroom
the entrance to the hall bathroom that julia huggins shared with one of her nephews is on the south side of the hall.  the hall bathroom is actually separated into two rooms, a water closet, and a shower room.  all of the gamble house bathrooms are white.  so, the water closet and shower room doors have iridescent stained glass on the exterior, and white stained glass on the interior.

bedroom
the entrance to the bedroom used by another one of david and mary gamble's three sons*** is on the south side of the hall.  like julia huggins' bedroom, this bedroom does not have an ensuite bathroom or a fireplace.  and, it does not have a sleeping porch.  the built in cabinets on the west wall include a chest of drawers and a wardrobe.  plus, a sink, concealed in one of the wardrobe compartments.  this bedroom also originally had stickley furniture.

service quarters
the service quarters include a linen room, adjacent to the hall bathroom, and two bedrooms, now occupied by students from the university of southern california (usc) school of architecture, who have been awarded scholar in residence fellowships by the friends of the gamble house.

the gamble house | interior | third floor
the gamble house | third floor plan
north>
photo credit library of congress

staircase
the staircase to the third floor is located on the south side of the hall.  the stained glass window at the base of the staircase is in outstanding condition because of the protected location.  originally, all of the stained glass must have been equally as iridescent.

the gamble house | staircase window
photo credit tim street-porter

billiard room
greene & greene designed a billiard room for the third floor of the gamble house.  but, the gamble family used it only for storage.

the gamble house | billiard room
photo credit mark fiennes

now, it is considered one of the most remarkable rooms in the house because of the king post truss construction.

if you look at the third floor plan, you will notice that the billiard room also has a 360 degree view.  

can you think of a better way to integrate the interior with the exterior?

*except for one chair, which will eventually be returned to gamble house by the gamble family.
**julia huggins was unsure about the reliability of central heating, so she requested a backup franklin stove. 
***their oldest son was already grown when gamble house was built.
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