BOOKS FROM OUR ARMENIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK COLLECTION - by Lori Dedeyan - till 11/23/2019
KENNARD PHOTOGRAPHY by Amy Zhou - through 11/16/2019
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J. Barry O'Rourke James Barry O’Rourke (known as Barry) was a former President of the American Photographic Artists. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in Cape Cod, O’ Rourke trained as a photographer in the Navy School of Photography in Florida. In 1959, he opened his first photography studio in Hollywood, where he focused his craft on architecture (cantilevered homes and Googie homes, according to the APA) before being employed by Playboy, for whom he shot 17 covers. In this photograph of the First Unitarian Church (of which Kennard was a member), O’Rourke captures a dramatic angle of the spire above the Hugh Hardyman extension of the Church. The First Unitarian Church continues to be active today as a “welcoming and progressive church in the Heart of Los Angeles”. |
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Joshua Freiwald Joshua Freiwald was a photographer based largely in California. He was most well-known for capturing the inside of the Clinton Correctional Facility in 1971, based in Dannemora, New York. The facility featured rows and rows of “plots”, or cordoned sections of the prison’s yard that were managed by inmates, for the inmates.
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| The Prince Hall Grand Lodge Apartments were affordable housing units built in 1968 and continue to be use to this day. KDG’s bright, open concept common space with a play area is reflective of the intentionally inclusive design that the firm brought to many of their projects, and Freiwald’s photography highlighting children playing on these structures reinforce these strong values even more. | KDG was involved with both the Central City Community Mental Health Center Master Plan (1966) and with the construction of the Central City Community Mental Health Center (1967). Freiwald’s photographs capture the firm’s wide open windows near some of the entrances to the building of the Center, creating an inviting presence. |
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Jay Jossman While little information is known about Jay Jossman, the Bank of America project was part of Kennard’s overall objective of contributing to the community of Watts following the 1965 Watts Rebellion, which saw a swell of violence in response to police brutality and continued disinvestment in the community. Constructed in 1969, the branch continues to be used today. In a graduate thesis on Kennard’s work, Jerome A. Robinson notes that this bank branch was the first to be built in the community sine 1917, and that it was built in a “fortress-like style” preferred by Le Corbusier known as brutalism. Jossman’s photograph, rendered in black and white, provides the viewer with a feel for the imposing nature of the bank branch’s architecture. Because the photography is not as crisp, the shadows are foreboding and accentuate the cold brutalist architecture of the branch.
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Julius Shulman Julius Shulman (1910 -2009) was a noteworthy Southern California photographer who specialized in modernist architecture. He captured works from Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, John Lautner, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and are collected in various institutions like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The City of Carson’s City Hall was one of KDG’s better known projects. The building was a collaboration between fellow architects Frank Sata and Robert Alexander, with Kennard contributing the schematic design that led the construction of the building. Shulman was best-known for his work on the Case Study Houses (an initiative by the Arts & Architecture magazine that had eight architects design housing prototypes to suit a post-war era) and domestic scenes at large: the New York Times obituary writes how Shulman carefully staged his photographs and sought to present idyllic visions of California living. While the Carson’s City Hall is a government facility, Shulman’s careful angles and use of light highlights a warm, inviting environment: a worthy aspiration for a government building. |
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Bruce Barnbaum Los Angeles High School after extensive damage from the 1971 earthquake. Bruce Barnbaum is a landscape and architectural photographer who has written numerous books and photographed projects like the Los Cerritos Mall, and Riverside City Hall. He graduated from UCLA with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Math before pursuing a career in photography. |
百鬼夜行絵卷. Hyakki yagyō emaki. The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons - Halloween 2019
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ACT UP Los Angeles Records by Dafne Luna - ends 10/5/2019
COATLAXOPEUH, TONANTZIN: Earth Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Virgen Maria & the Language of Objects. By Selina Portera and translated by Dafne Luna. On exhibit until 9/14/2019.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by Paloma Nicholas - On exhibit until 8/31/2019
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GENDERED EDUCATION by Devin Fitzgerald - On exhibit until 8/17/2019
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I AM Tia Blassingame, I am. Claremont, CA: Primrose Press, 2018. [LSC * N7433.4.B5588 I2 2018] In this artist’s book, Tia Blassingame engages with society’s hegemonic gaze and the creation of labels. Composed in response to US police violence and profiling, it forces the viewer to consider the violent collision of subjectivity and objectivity she has experienced as a black woman. As she notes, “Being black means I am a baby. I am a child. I am a teenager. I am an adult. I am a woman. I am a person. Too often suspect…” Tia Blassingame is currently Assistant Professor of Book Arts at Scripps. |
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VIRTUOUS MODELS Liu Xiang (77-6BC), A New Edition of Biographies of Virtuous Women (Xin Kan Gu Lie Nü zhuan 新刊古列女傳). Yangzhou, China: Ruan family, 1825. This late reprint of the first collection of biographies of women in China was one of the most important texts for outlining the moral and familial duties of Chinese women. The story above describes how the mother of Mencius moved three times in order to find the right environment to raise the future philosopher. This became a model for the efforts women should make in order to guarantee the success of their sons. |
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PRAISE THEM! Cristóbal Acosta (d. 1592), A Tract in Praise of Women (Tratado en loor de las mugeres y dela castidad, onestidad, constancia, silencio y iusticia…). Venice: Presso Giacomo Cornetti, 1592. Considered progressive for his time, Doctor Cristóbal Acosta argued in this text that women are entitled to equality in marriage. This equality, however, was not modern, but rather asserted that women in their proper places (married, chaste), should be venerated and respected. Their roles were thus clearly defined, but they were roles which Acosta controversially asserted to be as important as the roles performed by men. |
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TRUE WOMANHOOD Anon. The Young Lady's book : a manual of elegant recreations, exercies, and pursuits. |
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BURN IT DOWN Gibson Rich, Firegirl. Old Westbury, N.Y. : Feminist Press, [1972] Firegirl, published by the famous Feminist Press (see typescript letter), illustrates the centrality of children’s books to encourage female-positive development. As Bell Hooks famously noted, "Children's literature is one of the most crucial sites for feminist education for critical consciousness precisely because beliefs and identities are still being formed." |
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BEST BEHAVE Eliza Fenwick, Presents for Good Girls. N.Y.: Wm. B. Gilley, 1814. The educator Eliza Fenwick wrote a large number of graduated stories to aid in teaching reading to children. While her works come across as moralistic, Fenwick has been labeled as an early feminist by several scholars. In the 1790s, as part of Mary Wollstonecraft’s circle, she wrote controversial essays. After she left her abusive spouse, she wrote children’s literature to support her family. Fenwick later moved Barbados and became a critic of slavery in the British Colonies. |
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MUSIC CENTER RECORDS, Collection 3261 6/25 to 7/6/2019
Music Center Records (Collection 3261, in process)
