READ THIS: Backyard Oasis The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982 Edited by Daniell Cornell, with texts by Robert Atkins, Daniell Cornell, Dick Hebdige, Tyler Stallings, Robert Stearns, and Jennifer A. Watts
Oh, to have a backyard pool in Manhattan!
We're not sure that even happens here in Gotham even for those who are not price-sensitive, so we turn to a sunnier shade of blue and explore the West Coast as we turn up our air conditioner in New York...Backyard Oasis is a tribute to one of our favorite activities: swimming! And, pool worship. There is nothing more exciting than jumping in a pristine pool on a hot day, and the next best thing is living it through this impressive book of stellar photography. Even Barbie has her own swimming pool (not in book) and that was one of the first things Peachy's Barbie had to have, after the pink Corvette bien sur!
This work begins with the post-world war two era, which we understand was quite a rosy and uplifting time though we of course do not have the age to personally comment. However, if Peachy was a 1950's homemaker, she certainly would have a bulldozer in her backyard plowing way for a pool. Page 11 states:
"California enjoyed a special status in the American national consciousness-the brightest national beacon of a better way of life."
As we look forward to this year's Olympic games, we also turn back to their reestablishment in 1896 for the emergence of the swimming pool as a more prevalent phenomenon in Western countries (so, we hope to see one in a Downton Abbey episode sometime upcoming!).
Though there are many fantastic black and white photographs, we think the ones in color bring an added coveted dimension that is necessary given the topic of a bright, blue, welcoming swimming pool. Among our favorite photos include:
*Bill Anderson's perspective and vantage point as well as the texture of the tree trunks and cactus (page 40)
*The pure moment of fun and ideal atmosphere captured by Lawrence Schiller in Paradise Cove (page 72)
*A beautiful design by Philip Isley-Hepatica by Loomis Dean (p. 88)
*Among the pools Peachy would most want to live in would be the Anderson Residence, Palos Verdes Estates, 1963 by Maynard L. Parker (p. 105)
*Another we would not mind would be the Donnell Pool for "House Beautiful", 1951 by Rondal Partridge, a lovely curve! And, a diving board. (p. 113)
*On page 163 you'll find our favorite photo in the whole book. We're not even going to tell you what it is because we want you to open the book to this page!
There is definitely some eye candy in this book for those that are Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield enthusiasts. If you are not into artistic nude photos be aware you'll find a few in these pages but they are a sideshow-not the main attraction which is of course pools. There also is humor included as we see some unfilled pools (page 74)...just fill it, silly! Pools are supposed to be WET. However, if you never knew where some skateboarders got their slopes from, look at some other unfilled pictures. This book is the perfect remedy to dissolve your city slicker Manhattan concrete jungle stress this summer. Just make yourself a cocktail, put your feet up, sit in front of the air conditioner, and open the pages.
Or just build a bar like on page 149. Best yet
, book the next flight to California, perhaps!
Whom You Know Highly Recommends Backyard Oasis!
It is the perfect remedy to your hot Manhattan summer.
Thanks Bob and Samantha!
***
256 pages with 256 illustrations, 93 in color
Hardcover
11 x 11 in.
$60.00
ISBN: 978-3-7913-5176-6
Publication Date: January 2012
DelMonico Books
Published in association with the
Palm Springs Art Museum.
Southern California’s pool culture is the subject of this unique and luscious collection of photographs that explore the parallel evolution of an iconic symbol and an artistic genre.
Since the end of World War II, southern California’s backyard pools—those blue-green oases in an otherwise often arid landscape—have symbolized any number of American ideals: optimism, wealth, consumerism, escape, physical beauty, and the triumph of man over nature. Simultaneously, the field of photography developed as a transformative method for recording the human condition. This exhibition catalog celebrates the nexus of these two phenomena in a one-of-a-kind collection that features more than two hundred works by more than forty postwar artists and photographers. It presents works by photographers and artists including Bill Anderson, John Baldessari, Ruth Bernhard, David Hockney, Herb Ritts, Ed Ruscha, Julius Shulman, and Larry Sultan. Thematically grouped into topics ranging from the rise of celebrity culture, suburbia and dystopia, avant-garde architectural landscape design, and the cult of the body, these images offer a rich study of the cultural connotations of the swimming pool. Six insightful essays provide a comprehensive overview of the development of the swimming pool and its attendant aesthetic and social culture.
About the Authors:
Daniell Cornell is Senior Curator and Deputy Director of Art at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California.
Robert Atkins is an independent critic and commentator who lives in San Francisco and Palm Springs.
Dick Hebdige is a professor in the departments of Art and Film & Media Studies at the University of Santa Barbara, California.
Tyler Stallings is Director of the Sweeney Art Gallery at the University of California, Riverside.
Robert Stearns is an independent curator and head of ArtsOasis: Creative California Desert in Palm Springs.
Jennifer A. Watts is Curator of Photographs at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
As part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980 regional initiative, Backyard Oasisexamines swimming pools in photographs from 1945 to 1982 as visual analogs of the ideals and expectations associated with Southern California. These images of individual water-based environs in the arid landscape are an integral part of the region’s identity, a microcosm of the hopes and disillusionments of the country’s post-World War II ethos. As a private setting, the backyard pool became a stage for sub-culture rituals and clandestine desires. As a medium, photography became the primary vehicle for embodying the polar emotions of consumer optimism and Cold War fears. Crossing the boundaries of popular and high culture, commercial merchandising, journalistic reporting, and vernacular memorabilia, photography conveyed the developing ideologies of the period. As such, its visual language forms a network of discursive topics that open onto each other, offering a rich study of physical and cultural geography. For the first time, this exhibition, its catalogue, and attendant programs trace the integrated histories of photography and the iconography of the swimming pool, bringing new light to aspects of this complex interaction.
Backyard Oasis will contain approximately 135 framed works of archival photography and significant exhibition prints along with selected ephemera and film clips presented through DVDs on flat-screen monitors. The exhibition, organized by Senior Curator Daniell Cornell, will trace the development of art and cultural history within the following thematic groups: California Architecture and Design, Hollywood and Celebrity Culture, The Shape of Desire and Dreams, The Utopian-Dystopian Topos of Suburbia, and The Pacific Ocean as Context.
Photographers and artists whose works are included in the exhibition:
Slim Aarons
Bill Anderson
Diane Arbus
Loretta Ayeroff
John Baldessari
Lewis Baltz
Bruce Bellas
Ruth Bernhard
Bob Gentry
Michael Childers
Eileen Cowin
Robert Cumming
Joe Deal
Roy Dean
John Divola
Garrett Eckbo
Jim French
Anthony Friedkin
David Hockney
Harold Jones
Sant Khalsa
Leland Lee
Bob Mizer
Kenda North
Jane O’Neal
Bill Owens
Maynard Parker
Rondal Partridge
Herb Ritts
Mel Roberts
Ed Ruscha
Lawrence Schiller
Julius Shulman
Larry Silver
Evan Slater
Craig Stecyk
Larry Sultan
George Tate
Edmund Teske
Garry Winogrand
Max Yavno
Lloyd Ziff
Symposium
A two-day symposium was held Saturday and Sunday, November 20-21, 2010, in Palm Springs to present the mid-point research findings of the five-member research team. Panel sessions offered a forum to expand their findings through discussions with seven to ten additional experts in the related fields of modernist design, media, popular culture, and the visual and photographic arts. The symposium included an introductory address and keynote speech.
Catalogue
The exhibition’s accompanying publication will contain an introductory essay providing an overview of the development of the swimming pool and its attendant aesthetic and social culture. Authored by the exhibition’s organizing curator and its contributing research team members, the catalogue’s five chapters are: Exposed Desires: Poolside Reflections on Celebrity, Daniell Cornell, Senior Curator and Deputy Director for Art, Palm Springs Art Museum; Dystopia and the Swimming Pool, Dick Hebdige, Professor of Art, University of California, Santa Barbara; From Beefcake to Skatecake: Subcultures and Masculinity, Tyler Stallings, Director, Sweeny Art Gallery, University of California, Riverside; Designing Nature: The Pool in the Garden, Robert Stearns, Independent Curator and Project Coordinator, Palm Springs; Swimming Alone: The Backyard Pool in Cold War California, Jennifer Watts, Curator of Photographs, Huntington Library, San Marino.
The catalogue provides an opportunity to extend the exhibition’s content with additional images drawn from print and other media. It will contain approximately 250 pages and include 150-200 images in color and black and white.
Additional Programs
During the exhibition in 2012, additional lectures will be presented along with educational programs designed for K-12 and college and university audiences including a panel discussion January 21st. A film program will survey the wealth of popular and vanguard cinematic creativity engendered during the period.
Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945 - 1980
Pacific Standard Time is a collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together for six months beginning in October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene and how it became a major new force in the art world. Each institution will make its own contribution to this grand-scale story of artistic innovation and social change, told through a multitude of simultaneous exhibitions and programs. Exploring and celebrating the significance of the crucial post-World War II years through the tumultuous period of the 1960s and 70s, Pacific Standard Time encompasses developments from modernist architecture and design to multi-media installations; from L.A. Pop to post-minimalist; from the films of the African American L.A. Rebellion to the feminist happenings of the Woman’s Building; from ceramics to Chicano performance art; and from Japanese American design to the pioneering works of artists’ collectives.
Initiated through $10 million in grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time involves cultural institutions of every size and character across Southern California, from Greater Los Angeles to San Diego and Santa Barbara to Palm Springs.
Backyard Oasis is just one of the many exhibitions and events organized by Pacific Standard Time. To view the Pacific Standard Time web site, go to www.pacificstandardtime.org
Exhibition Itinerary:
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California
January 21 – May 27, 2012
DelMonico Books, established in 2009 in partnership with Prestel, focuses on distinctive art books and museum co-publications. The imprint is headed by Mary DelMonico, a museum publishing consultant, book producer, and former director of publications and new media at the Whitney Museum of American Art, who has been producing illustrated books for more than twenty years.
