Curator’s tour: J.R. Davidson: A European Contribution to California Modernism with Lilian Pfaff
**Events may have been canceled or postponed. Please contact the venue to confirm the event.
Date & Time
Sat, Nov 16 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Address (map)
Art, Design & Architecture Museum, 552 University Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Join architectural historian, curator, and SAH/SCC Member Lilian Pfaff at UC Santa Barbaras Art, Design, and Architecture Museum (AD&A Museum) for a behind-the-scenes tour of “J.R. Davidson: A European Contribution to California Modernism.” Davidson was one of the most important émigré architects to have practiced in Southern California. The architect of the Thomas Mann House (1941) and three prototypes for the Case Study House Program (1946-48), he was featured in Esther McCoy’s book The Second Generation (Gibbs, Smith, 1984).
Davidson remains an understudied figure in the history of modern architecture. This exhibition, organized with materials from the architect’s archive at the Architecture and Design Collection of the AD&A Museum, fills this gap by highlighting those aspects of Davidson’s trajectory that were unique to his way of understanding architecture and its practice. These include how Davidson conceived architecture from the inside out, and the integration of the outside in through large-scale windows. Photos, notebooks, manuscripts, and drawings document the prolific career of this German émigré, bringing it to a new standing and recognition.