Art students posing with an artists' model, ca

Art Students League of Los Angeles was a modernist painting school that operated in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

from 1906 to 1953. Among its students were painters

Mabel Alvarez Mabel Alvarez (November 28, 1891 – March 13, 1985) was an American painter. Her works, often introspective and spiritual in nature, and her style is considered a contributing factor to the Southern California Modernism and California Impressi ...

, Herman Cherry,

Stanton Macdonald-Wright Stanton Macdonald-Wright (July 8, 1890 – August 22, 1973), was a modern American artist. He was a co-founder of Synchromism, an early abstract, color-based mode of painting, which was the first American avant-garde art movement to receive int ...

and Rex Slinkard; illustrators

Conrad Buff Conrad Buff IV (born July 8, 1948) is an American film editor with more than 25 film credits since 1985. Buff is known for winning an Academy Award for Best Film Editing and an ACE Eddie Award for ''Titanic'' (1997); the awards were shared with hi ...

, Pruett Carter and Paul Sample; architects

Harwell Hamilton Harris Harwell Hamilton Harris, (July 2, 1903 – November 18, 1990) was a modernist American architect, noted for his work in Southern California that assimilated European and American influences. He lived and worked in North Carolina from 1962 until ...

and Chalfant Head; and artists who worked on

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

films, such as Carl Anderson,

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

and

Dorothy Jeakins Dorothy Jeakins (January 11, 1914 – November 21, 1995) was an American costume designer. Born in San Diego, California, she went to public school in Los Angeles from first grade through high school. When she was a senior at Fairfax High School ...

.Julia Armstrong-Totten, "The Legacy of the Art Student League," in Julia Armstrong-Totten, et al., ''A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906–1953'', exhibition catalogue, Pasadena Museum of California Art. 2008. The League had a pattern of hiring its own—many of its instructors and most of its directors were

alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

. It suspended classes during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and had a short-lived revival after the war.

History

The League grew out of the

life class A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...

es taught by landscape painter

Hanson Puthuff Hanson Duvall Puthuff (August 21, 1875 – May 12, 1972) was a landscape painter and muralist, born in Waverly, Missouri. Puthuff studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Colorado in 1889 to study at University of Denver Art Scho ...

in his L.A. studio.Will South, "The Art Student League of Los Angeles: A Brief History," in Julia Armstrong-Totten, et al., ''A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906–1953'', exhibition catalogue, Pasadena Museum of California Art. 2008. Puthuff and ''Los Angeles Times'' art critic Antony Anderson co-founded the League on April 18, 1906. The school offered three-day-a-week morning classes for women (taught by Anderson) and three-day-a-week evening classes for men (taught by Puthuff). By December, the League had outgrown Puthuff's studio, and rented space in the Blanchard Music Hall and Art Gallery, at 10th & Figueroa Streets.

"One of the most interesting of the art schools in Los Angeles is the Art Students League. Only a little over a year old, it is still in its beginnings. Yet its growth has been steady, and there can be no doubt, it seems to me, that it will someday be a great power for artistic good in our community." — Antony Anderson, ''The Los Angeles Times''

Walter Hedges bought out Puthuff's share in the League in 1907, and became the school's second director.Phil Kovinick, "The Art Student League of Los Angeles Chronology," in Julia Armstrong-Totten, et al., ''A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906–1953'', exhibition catalogue, Pasadena Museum of California Art. 2008. Hedges had been a student of painter

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

, and embraced Henri's philosophy that an artist should paint scenes of contemporary life, capturing its energy through the use of bold color and vigorous brushwork. This was in contrast to the more conservative aesthetic of Puthuff and the California Impressionists. Puthuff and Anderson also had been among the eleven founding members of

The Painters' Club of Los Angeles The Painters' Club of Los Angeles was a short-lived arts organization that existed from 1906 to 1909, and allowed only men as members. When the group disbanded a number of artists who had been members reorganized themselves as the California Art Cl ...

, a group of men artists that met every two weeks in each other's studios. In a diplomatic gesture, Hedges invited the Painters' Club to hold its meetings and exhibitions at the League. The Painters' Club reorganized as the

California Art Club The California Art Club (CAC) is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. Founded in December 1909, it celebrated its centennial in 2009 and into the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved out of The ...

in 1909, and (grudgingly) evolved into admitting women. One of the attractions of the League under Hedges was the regular availability of a nude model for the sketching and painting classes. Hedges hired champion bodybuilder and

Los Angeles Athletic Club Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) is a privately owned athletic club and social club in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1880, the club is today best known for its John R. Wooden Award presented to the outstanding men's and ...

trainer

Al Treloar Al Treloar (May 11, 1873 – February 28, 1960) was an American bodybuilder, athletic trainer, author and artist's model. He won the first international bodybuilding contest in 1904, appeared in early silent films, and toured the United States ...

as one of the models.

Slinkard

Rex Slinkard was an alumnus of the League, and had been the beneficiary of a 1908 League scholarship that enabled him to study under Robert Henri in New York City. Following Hedges's untimely death in January 1910, 23-year-old Slinkard was recruited to be the chief instructor at the League, and soon became the school's director.

Carl Sprinchorn Carl Sprinchorn (1887–1971) was a Swedish-born American artist who studied under Robert Henri and who adopted a style of realist modernism that admiring critics saw as both abstract and revolutionary. His oil paintings and works on paper sh ...

, another student of Henri, was hired to teach alongside Slinkard.

"For the present, instructors of the ASL of LA are pupils of Robert Henri of NY—and you know what that means! You know, at once, that they are strictly up-to-date in their artistic ideas, that they are the most modern of the moderns, and that they are smashing academic traditions with every vigorous stroke of charcoal stick or paintbrush." — Antony Anderson, ''The Los Angeles Times''

Slinkard was a dynamic teacher and extremely popular with the students. He taught at the League for fewer than three years, before "a hasty marriage to his pregnant model" led to his resignation in January 1913. Sprinchorn assumed the directorship following Slinkard's abrupt departure, but himself left after less than a year.

MacDonald-Wright

Following a period of slow decline, the League was re-invigorated in the 1920s under the leadership of

, yet another League alumnus. He moved the school to new quarters at the Lyceum Theatre, and professionalized its curriculum. MacDonald-Wright stayed for nine years, but the school suffered an even greater decline during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Two of his students, James Redmond and Don Totten, attempted to turn things around, but the school was eventually reduced to little more than evening sketch classes.

World War II

Japanese-American students Benji Okubo and Hideo Date sustained the League into 1942, when they were "evacuated" to

Heart Mountain Relocation Center The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody and Powell, was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted d ...

in Wyoming.Hideo Date
from Japanese American National Museum. They founded an Art Students League in the

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

, where Okubo taught until their release in September 1945.

Post-war revival

The Art Students League of Los Angeles was revived after the war under the directorship of alumnus

Fred Sexton Fred Sexton (June 3, 1907 – September 11, 1995) was an American artist and creator of the Maltese Falcon statuette prop for the 1941 Warner Bros. film production, '' The Maltese Falcon''. During the 1930s and 1940s, Sexton was champio ...

. He reopened the school in 1949, in the same space at the Lyceum Theatre that had been its home from 1924 to 1942. It was financially unsuccessful, even after he moved classes to his private studio, and the school closed in 1953.

Directors

* Hanson Duvall Puthuff, 1906–1907 * Warren Hedges, 1907–1910 * Charles C. Christadoro, 1910–1911 * Rex Slinkard, 1911–1913 * Carl Sprinchorn, 1913–1914 * Valentine J. Costello, 1914–1923 * Stanton Macdonald-Wright, 1923–1932 * James Redmond, 1932–1938 * Donald Totten, 1938–1940 * Benji Okubo, 1940–1942 *

, 1949–1953

Notable alumni

(1891-1985) * Carl Anderson (1903-1989) * Lauren Barton * Ben Berlin (1895-1989) * Nick Brigante (became a League instructor) *

(1890-1970, 1886-1975) * Pruett Carter (1891-1955) * Herman Cherry (1909-1992) * Mary Campbell Craig * Bert Cressey (1883-1944) * Hideo Date (1907-2005) (became a League instructor) * Boris Deutsch (1892-1978) (became a League instructor) * Helena Dunlap (1876-1955) * Louisa Etcheverry * Earl Freeman *

(1903-1990) * Sam Hyde Harris (1889-1977) * William von Herwig (1901-1947) *

(1906-1987) *

(1914-1995) * Albert Henry King (became a League instructor) *

(1890-1973) (became a League instructor and director) * Arthur Millier (1893-1975) * Lawrence Murphy (1872-1947) *

Archie Musick Archie Leroy Musick (1902–1978) was an American painter. He studied under Thomas Hart Benton, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, and Boardman Robinson. Early life and family Archie Musick was born on January 19, 1902, in Kirksville, Missouri, to par ...

(1902-1978) * Kinichi Nakanishi * Benji Okubo (1904-1975) (became a League instructor and director) * Edith H. Osborne * James Redmond (became a League instructor and director) * Everett Richardson (1876-1953) * Paul Sample (1896-1974) * Earnford Sconhoft (became a League instructor) * Margaret Scott (born 1947) *

(1907-1995) (became a League instructor and director) * Gwain Noot Sexton * Rex Slinkard (1887-1918) (became a League instructor and director) * Donald R. Smith (1909-?) * Carl Sprinchorn (1887-1971) (became a League instructor and director) * Frank L. Stevens * Donald Totten (1903-1967) (became a League instructor and director) * Carl Winter (1906-1966)

References

{{reflist Art in Greater Los Angeles Art in California Art schools in California American artist groups and collectives Educational institutions established in 1906 Educational institutions disestablished in 1953 Arts organizations established in 1906 1906 establishments in California Defunct private universities and colleges in California