Ellen Hoobler

Ancient and modern craftspeople shaped jade, gold, feathers, and clay into exquisite artworks, but the meanings of those objects are intertwined with the living essence of the raw materials themselves. Thirty-five highlights, ancient to contemporary, provide a window into the spiritual and intellectual context in which these objects were understood by the Indigenous people who made and used them. Al igual que lo hacian los artesanos de la antiguedad, los de hoy dan forma al jade, al oro, a las plumas o a la arcilla para crear exquisitas obras de arte, cuyo significado en tanto objetos esta entrelazado tambien con la esencia viva de las propias materias primas. 35 piezas destacadas de la coleccion de las Americas, tanto antiguas como contemporaneas, las que permiten apreciar el contexto espiritual e intelectual en el que eran concebidos estos objetos por los pueblos indigenas que los fabricaban y empleaban..

This comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of Louise and Walter Arensberg's groundbreaking collection of modern and pre-Columbian art takes readers room by room, wall by wall, object by object through the couple's Los Angeles home in which their collection was displayed. Following the Armory Show of 1913, Louise and Walter Arensberg began assembling one of the most important private collections of art in the United States, as well as the world's largest private library of works by and about the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon. By the time Louise and Walter died--in 1953 and 1954, respectively--they had acquired some four thousand rare books and manuscripts and nearly one thousand works of art, including world-class specimens of Cubism, Surrealism, and Primitivism, the bulk of Marcel Duchamp's oeuvre, and hundreds of pre-Columbian objects. These exceptional works filled nearly all available space in every room of their house--including the bathrooms. The Arensbergs have long had a central role in the histories of Modernism and collecting, but images of their collection in situ have never been assembled or examined comprehensively until now. Presenting new research on how the Arensbergs acquired pre-Columbian art and featuring never-before-seen images, Hollywood Arensberg demonstrates the value of seeing the Arensbergs' collection as part of a single vision, framed by a unique domestic space at the heart of Hollywood's burgeoning artistic scene.