not so l.a. famous views of€¦ · western exterminator, it turns out, is the first of the 100...

1BARBARA THOMASON

100NOT SO

L.A.FAMOUS VIEWS OF

2 100 Not So Famous Views of L.A. 3

Editor’s Note

The moment I laid eyes on Barbara Thomason’s paintings of Los Angeles, I fell

in love. I’m a sixth-generation Southern Californian. My great-grandfather on my

mother’s side, Albert C. Martin, designed many significant L.A. buildings, and the

men on my father’s side—great-grandfather Matt Conway, grandfather Charlie

Dunn, father Joe Dunn, and uncle Dick Dunn—were commercial real estate brokers

who helped shape the city. I was raised in the heart of the city and learned from

infancy to love its light, its hills, its concrete, its wildlife, its architecture, its

beaches, its history, and its crazy-quilt beauty.

Barbara’s sharp eye, skillful hand, creative genius, and admiration for her city

combined to result in an extraordinary series of paintings that celebrate “my” Los

Angeles—and, no doubt, your Los Angeles, too.

It is a great honor to publish this collection of 100 not so famous views of my

city, with commentary by the artist. And I am grateful to the great L.A. writer David

Ulin for contributing a foreword. He, too, has fallen in love with Barbara’s paintings.

This little booklet is but a sample of what’s to come. All of us at Prospect

Park Books look forward to releasing the hardcover book in September. And don’t

miss the show of all 100 paintings that will be hung in the gallery space at Angel

City Brewery in the historic Arranaga building at Traction and Alameda in late

September, with a publication party on September 20th from 4 to 6 p.m. We hope to

see you there.

Colleen Dunn Bates

Prospect Park Books


FOrEwOrd

100 Not So Famous Views of L.A.By David L. Ulin

I used to keep a list of sacred sites in Los Angeles. By sacred, I don’t mean religious

or even (necessarily) significant, but rather places, buildings, street corners that

held resonance for me. First was the Western Exterminator Company, with its 1931

logo of the “little man,” wagging his finger at a rodent as if he were a slimmer

cousin of Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly. I don’t know why that image so

attracted me; I did not then, and do not now, live in Silverlake. But every time I

drove east on Silverlake Boulevard and passed beneath the Temple Street overpass,

I felt as if I were unwinding L.A.’s history. I was a grudging transplant to California,

and I felt cut loose from the urban textures of the east. I missed the grit,

the ordinariness—as a newcomer, what I mostly saw was spectacle.

How was I to know that Los Angeles was a city just like any other, that it

was built out of families and neighborhoods? Western Exterminator was

my first clue that there was more to the place than its surfaces, that there

were layers, nuance, heritage.

Western Exterminator, it turns out, is the first of the 100 images in

Barbara Thomason’s 100 Not So Famous Views of L.A., an homage to the

nineteenth-century Japanese artist Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views

of Edo that becomes a celebration of the most mundane (and, thus, most

moving) landscapes of Southern California life. D.J. Waldie would have a

field day with these paintings, which capture a set of glimpses in which

Los Angeles is revealed as its essential self. There’s the Yugura Tower in Little

Tokyo, seen from across First Street, as if it were a snapshot, or a memory. Or the

glorious Eastern Building—I always think of Edmund Wilson when I see it; “the

blue Avocado Building,” he sniffed, “bawdy as the peacock’s tail”—rising behind a

parking lot and a clutter of other, more anonymous downtown structures, partially

obscured. A dragonfly floats beyond a chain link fence at the Silverlake Reservoir;

El Coyote’s neon sign glimmers red beneath the shadow of a misty night. On another

evening (or, perhaps, the same one), the Wiltern evokes the stillness of Western

Avenue like something out of Edward Hopper, empty in the city’s solitary glow.

What I love about these paintings is that they are recognizable; I have seen,

have walked through, nearly every location they portray. What I love about these

paintings is that they are commonplace; there is nothing special about their scenes,

about the vistas they animate. Did I say nothing special? What I mean is: They

bestow their own sort of specialness, the specialness of the everyday. Thomason

paints as a native, capturing Los Angeles at the level of its streets. Here is the L.A.

we know, the L.A. we navigate, on foot, in cars, by public transportation, a city, as

Raymond Chandler observed in The Long Goodbye, “no worse than others, a city

rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city lost and beaten and full of emptiness.”

There is no glitz, no glamour, and (more important) no need for it, since the whole

point is to peel back those myths and those misunderstandings, to expose what

has been waiting all along. The 110 north at the 105, the Jim Henson Studio on

La Brea (built, in another era, for Charlie Chaplin), the Capitol Records

Building from across an empty stretch of the 101, opossum scurrying in

the foreground—this is Los Angeles without its history of forgetting, no

longer rootless, placeless, but instead, through Thomason’s transforming

imagination, the embodiment of place.

And yet, there is also an edge, an unexpected tension, for nowhere

in 100 Not So Famous Views of L.A. do we encounter a human being. It’s

not just Western Avenue outside the Wiltern; Thomason gives us the city

deconstructed, depopulated, a shadow of the floating world. It’s a subtle

move, one that sneaks up on us as we move through the series, and it

reinforces the sense we often have in Los Angeles of being alone when

we are on the street. Even more, it suggests something of Thomason’s

intentions, which are to showcase the city on its terms. “The photo archives of

vernacular Los Angeles are indeed gigantic, running into millions of images,”

Norman Klein has written. “However, these cannot compete with hundreds of

movie melodramas where downtown is a backdrop.… Indeed, Los Angeles remains

the most photographed and least remembered city in the world, and will most

likely stay that way.” What Klein is suggesting is that we tend to understand, and

move through, L.A. as a background, against which we play out the action of our

lives. 100 Not So Famous Views of L.A. insists on the opposite: It requires us to

recognize the city as it is. Through Thomason’s eye, in other words, her assiduous

attention to the here and now, Los Angeles finally plays itself.

DAVID L. ULIN is the author, most recently, of the novella Labyrinth. His other books include The Lost Art of

Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time and the Library of America’s Writing Los Angeles: A Literary

Anthology, which won a California Book Award. He is book critic of the Los Angeles Times.


4. Felix

The Felix the Cat sign has sat atop the Chevrolet car dealership on the northeast

corner of Figueroa and Jefferson, next to the University of Southern California,

since 1959. Winslow Felix, the dealership’s owner back then, got permission from

the creator of Felix the Cat, a popular cartoon character dating back to the silent-

movie era, to use him as his mascot. This landmark sign is a marker of Southern

California’s car culture and recalls an era when people still had a sense of humor

about cityscape. Efforts to make the sign an historic landmark have failed, but Felix

is still hanging on—although neon purists were outraged when the current owner

replaced the original neon with more economical LED lighting in 2012, citing a

monthly bill of $3,000 just to keep neon Felix smiling over Figueroa travelers.


5. Echo Park Lake

Created in the 1860s as a drinking-water reservoir, the lake is next to the Angelus

Temple, which was established in the ’20s by charismatic preacher Aimee Semple

McPherson. She imported giant lotus plants from China to plant in the lake,

and they flourished until succumbing to pollution in 2009. The lotus festival, a

celebration of Pacific Rim cultures, lost its namesake for several years, but in 2013

a restoration project was completed, new lotuses arrived, and the paddleboats

were back in operation. The lake supports a population of ducks and balloon sellers,

who wander around looking like giant colored-egg colonies with legs. The view of

downtown L.A. is excellent from the lake; the view in this painting is from the north

end of the lake looking south.

This is the only painting in the series that includes a person—and only because

you can see nothing but his legs.

Echo Park Lake is located between Glendale Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue,

north of the 101 Freeway.


17. 2 Freeway

The 2 Freeway, which runs from Echo Park to La Cañada Flintridge, is also officially

called the Lanterman Freeway. It was named for former state assemblyman Frank

D. Lanterman, who authored the 1971 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which ended

the involuntary commitment of the mentally ill, and the Lanterman Developmental

Disabilities Act, which expanded protections for the developmentally disabled. A

seemingly rare legislator with a social conscience, he accomplished much during his

tenure.

I always see red-tailed hawks when passing through the chaparral-covered

Verdugo hills while driving the 2. One of L.A.’s native species, the red-tailed hawk

has a wing span of 47 to 52 inches and is always fun to watch soaring overhead,

especially when pairs are flying as a duet, looking for prey.

This view is looking south from the 2 toward downtown L.A.


36. Tommy’s

The original Tommy’s, founded in 1946 by Tommy Koulax, is open 24 hours a day

and is famous for a chili cheeseburger that is sloppy, disgusting, and wonderful.

After this first burger shack became an essential late-night stop for Angelenos, the

company grew and added branches all over town, but I contend that the only place

to get a Tommy’s burger is right here. There’s nothing quite like eating a Tommy’s

burger at 3 a.m. after a long night on the town. I know former Angelenos who now

live far away and dream of returning for a Tommy’s burger.

Tommy’s is located at 2575 Beverly Boulevard, on the northeast corner of

Beverly and Rampart.


46. Crossroads of the world

Crossroads of the World was built in 1936 in the streamline moderne style,

fashioned in the shape of an ocean liner surrounded by cottages in a typically quirky

1930s L.A. mix of English, Spanish, Cape Cod, and Italianate. It was developed by

Ella Crawford, the widow of notorious underworld titan Charles Crawford, who

was gunned down in his office on this very site in 1931; she apparently wanted

to erase the bad memories and tore the building down to build Crossroads. Her

architect was Robert V. Derrah, who also designed the famed art deco Coca Cola

building (see painting 28). Claiming rather dubiously to be L.A.’s first outdoor

mall, it was once a busy shopping center, then went into terrible decline in the

1970s and ’80s, and is now restored, occupied mostly by offices for writers, music

publishers, costume designers, and other entertainment-related businesses. This

iconic building is a hugely popular filming location, having been seen in everything

from L.A. Confidential to old episodes of Dragnet. There’s even a replica of it inside

Disney World.

You’ll find it in the heart of Hollywood at 6671 West Sunset Boulevard, at Las

Palmas Avenue.


71. Bullocks

Designed by Los Angeles architects John and Donald Parkinson, this art deco

masterpiece was constructed in 1929 as a luxury department store for owner John

G. Bullock. A green copper tower tops the building; at one time, its peak held a

light that could be seen for miles. Bullocks Wilshire was one of the first department

stores in Los Angeles to cater to the larval automobile culture; the main entrance

was placed at the rear, under the city’s first department-store porte cochere, with

valets in livery parking patron’s cars. Designers Eleanor Lemaire and Jock Peters

created a magnificently elegant interior, with travertine floors, a vaulted, naturally

lit Perfume Hall, resplendent details in nickel and brass, designer showrooms, and

a desert-themed tea room where all the right sort of L.A. ladies had lunch, often

accompanied by a fashion show. All the stars shopped there, from Greta Garbo to

Clark Gable. A teenaged Angela Lansbury worked here as a sales clerk, and future

First Lady Patricia Ryan Nixon also did time on the sales floor.

Bullocks Wilshire remained a swank destination until the late 1980s, when it

went through a rather dramatic decline, which new owner Macy’s did little to stop.

The final insult was the severe damage it suffered during the 1992 riots, and it

closed in 1993. Macy’s stripped the store of its original furnishings and fixtures in an

act of remarkable insensitivity. Finally bowing to pressure and a lawsuit, it returned

almost everything, and in 1994, the Southwestern Law School bought the building,

restored it, and moved in. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and is an

official city historic-cultural monument.

The former Bullocks Wilshire is at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard.


100. The End

The 2nd Stage Theatre building in Hollywood is the home of the Blank Theatre

Company, and it also serves as the base for the backwards “The End” sign. The

large, old-fashioned script sign is striking both visually and because of its ironic

sentiment. It is the perfect sign for Hollywood, and I chose it for number 100

because of the appropriate title. I thought at the time that it would be the last

painting in this series… but then I kept painting.

The sign is found at 6500 Santa Monica Boulevard, on Theatre Row in

Hollywood, at the corner of Wilcox Avenue.

100 NOT SO FAMOUS VIEWS OF L.A.

For four years, artist Barbara Thomason roamed her beloved

Los Angeles, seeking the vistas, nooks, bridges, signs,

streets, and landmarks that most captivated her. Inspired by

Hiroshige’s acclaimed print series One Hundred Famous

Views of Edo, this grand project resulted in the 100 paintings

reproduced within. Intimate, often recognizable, and some-

times unexpected, Thomason’s paintings capture the vibrant

L.A., the quirky L.A., the beautiful L.A.—the essential L.A.

With commentary and history from the artist, and a foreword

by David L. Ulin.

Barbara Thomason is a Los Angeles–based artist whose paint-

ings, prints, and drawings have been exhibited widely. She

was a master printer at Gemini G.E.L., printing for such artists

as Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenberg, and Ed Ruscha, and she

has been a professor of art at several leading California insti-

tutions, including Otis College of Art & Design and California

Polytechnic University, Pomona.

David L. Ulin is book critic for the Los Angeles Times,

the editor of Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, and

the author of many books.

ADVANCE SAMPLE BOOKLET

Publication date: September 20, 2014

ISBN 978-1-938849-35-0 | $30

208 pages, hardcover, with 100 color paintings

Published by Prospect Park Books,

prospectparkbooks.com

Distributed by Consortium, cbsd.com

not so l.a. famous views of€¦ · western exterminator, it turns out, is the first of the 100...

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