1961 Booklet on Iconic Los Angeles Art Brut Sculpture The Watts Towers

Los Angeles Watts Towers

Pamphlets

[Art][Architecture] The Watts Towers. Los Angeles: Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, 1961. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs. 11 pages. Staple-bound in illustrated wrappers showing close-up textural details of the towers. An early booklet chronicling the visionary art environment known as the Watts Towers, constructed over a span of three decades by Italian American immigrant Simon Rodia in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts, Los Angeles. Built from salvaged materials including broken tiles, bottles, and seashells, and without formal scaffolding or assistance, Rodia’s towering sculptures stand as a testament to outsider art, immigrant labor, and self-taught genius. Rodia's work, like many outsider art pieces, deviates from established artistic norms and lacks formal architectural training or the use of conventional materials. His vision was entirely his own and not guided by any pre-existing architectural style. The sculptures' armatures are constructed from steel rebar and Rodia's own concoction of a type of concrete, wrapped with wire mesh. The main supports are embedded with pieces of porcelain, tile, and glass. They are decorated with found objects, including bottles, ceramic tiles, seashells, figurines, mirrors, and other items. Rodia called the Towers "Nuestro Pueblo" ("our town" in Spanish). He built them with no special equipment or predetermined design, working alone with hand tools.The booklet includes biographical sketches, striking photos of the towers in progress, and excerpts from Rodia’s own reflections: “I wanted to do something for the United States because there are nice people in this country.” His singular artistic achievement—executed “literally built in the air,” as the text notes—has become a symbol of perseverance, creativity, and cultural hybridity, especially within the landscape of 20th-century urban America. In 1954, Rodia suffered a stroke. Shortly after he fell off a tower and tired of battling with the City of Los Angeles for permits he moved to Martinez, California, to be with his sister, until his death in 1965. LA city tried to demolish the site, but tests conducted in 1959, found that the towers were structuraly sound and strong. This pamphlet dates from the following years and the battle still went on with the city. The Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers preserved the site independently until 1975 when, they partnered with the City of Los Angeles and then with the State of California in 1978. Light wear to spine. Overall very good condition. An evocative and uncommon document of one of the most iconic monuments of American vernacular art, and a deeply resonant artifact of labor, identity, and artistic autonomy.

Item #21837

Price: $225.00