Hollywood Arensberg: Avant-Garde Collecting in Midcentury L.A.

About this book

This comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of Louise and Walter Arensbergs groundbreaking collection of modern and pre-Columbian art takes readers room by room wall by wall object by object through the couples 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 worlds largest private library of works by and about the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon. By the time Louise and Walter diedin 1953 and 1954 respectivelythey 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 Duchamps oeuvre and hundreds of pre-Columbian objects. These exceptional works filled nearly all available space in every room of their houseincluding 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 Hollywoods burgeoning artistic scene. This publication has been generously supported by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan fund.