The Slow Decline (1967-1978)

     Recorded in the minutes of the Board meeting on June 19, 1968 was this note:
     "The Coordinating Council has suggested that a name other than 'Psychedelic Party' might be more appropriate for the Auction. 'Hallucination '68' or 'Allusions '68' have been suggested."
     On July 17, 1968 the Board tried to rebuild the Guild:
     "Art Guild members who dropped their memberships since 1966 may re-qualify as a new member, or be re-instated by paying the past dues for the intervening years."

     La Jolla Light Journal had this article written on October 24, 1968 previewing the "Illusions 68" auction:

Art Auction Planned At Fine Arts

     "The San Diego Art Guild will sponsor 'Illusion - 68' a psychedelic party silent art auction Nov. 9 at the West Wing of the Fine Arts Gallery at 7:30 p.m.
The painting, sculpture, graphics, and crafts will be bid by silent auction and these will be on exhibit beginning Nov. 7 until their bidding cut-off time the evening of Nov. 9.
     The 'psychedelic party' is an outgrowth of an idea seen at the International Design Conference at Aspen, Colo., 1967, attended by La Jollan Whitcomb Keith and Dr. and Mrs. Jacob Bronowski when Dr. Bronowski was the keynote speaker at the conference.
     The 'Psychedelic Party' promises to be one of the liveliest parties of the season, chairmaned by Mrs. Bronowski. Mrs. William King, also known as the artist Dorothy Stratton, is in charge of runners for the auction. Frank Papworth will be working that evening in the projection part of the program.
     The party will feature besides the auction, body painting by 10 leading Art Guild members including Ethel Greene, Carlo Becker, chairman of the fashion show by 'Paraphernalia' of la Jolla, several films and also slides including some of the late Lynn Fayman's work. A craft booth including graphics and a no-host bar will be available.
     Optical illusions peep boxes and painting machines are being developed by students of Jim Gibbs at City College. Posters are being developed by students of Earl Saunders.
     Early pieces promised for the auction are by Paul Lingren, famed for his intaglios, on leave from San Diego State College."

     Neil Morgan wrote this brief note for the Evening Tribune on November 8, 1968:
"The S.D. Art Guild will auction 60 paintings tomorrow night at the Fine Arts Gallery during a psychedelic evening which will include body painting demonstrations, showings of Beatles cartoon and films by the late Lynn Fayman and by Harry Crosby and Grace Luten…"

     At this auction, a cybernetic light show and music was provided. Admission was $2.50/person. Mrs. Mary Porter was chairman of the auction assisted by Lilli Hill. The artists established minimum bids.

     The La Jolla Light reviewed the event on November 14, 1968:
     "Many La Jollans attended the San Diego Art Guild's 'Illusion '68' Saturday, at the Fine Arts Museum… The 'psychedelic party' and art auction was held in the West wing of the museum…. In darkened room, six projectors presented different entertainments, ranging from excerpts from the Beatle's 'Yellow Submarine' to home movies of the twenties, plus wild explosions of design and movement and Eskimo documentaries… The most difficult tasks for guests was to know where to look, as both body painting ($1 a face, $1 a back or leg) by leading artists of the guild, the sale of delightful pottery by David Stewart and decorations by Kay Whitcomb Keith, vied for the attention… Mind-blowing music accompanied the mélange of activity… Meanwhile a silent auction was also taking place, of paintings, enamels, pottery and sculpture. A wildly mod fashion show by Paraphernalia of La Jolla presented far-out fashions, modeled by the most energetic frug dancers this side of the Daisy, needing no commentary (impossible above the music anyhow)… The art auction wound up the evening's activities, when several La Jollans carted off their prizes, delighted if deaf... Chairman of the evening was Kay Whitcomb Keith of La Jolla… Mrs. Jacob Bronowski was in charge of the light shows…Local artists who contributed their talents to the success of the event were Dorothy Stratton, Helen Dowd, Frank Papworth, Helen Petre, Frederic Whitaker, Genevieve Stepanek, Ruth Gewalt, Jean Anthony, George and Pat Mattson and Edna Root."

     This article, written by Nancy Chase, came out in the December 1968:
City Fair…
     "ANOTHER KIND OF 'HELMSMAN' starred at Illusion 68, the San Diego Art Guild of the Fine Arts Gallery's art-auction/psychedelic party. This winner was not man but machine, an IBM computer whose film and sound track premiered that night at the Gallery's Copley auditorium. Cybernetics is the name of the game, a Greek word meaning helmsman that mathematics prodigy Norbert Weiner updated to mean the building of a system which controls its own behavior (spooky shades of A Space Odyssey! Apparently the 1968 illusion is that people still are in control). More generally, it means the control and communication of automation, electronics - and spectacular.
     The evening was a spectacular, unlike any seen before in San Diego, and a happening that took some doing - A great deal of it on the part of Rita Bronowski, co-chairman of the evening with Kay Whitcomb Keith. Last Summer Rita was in London visiting her sister, one of the animators of Yellow Submarine, the Beatles' latest film. While there she saw, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, a cybernetics film made by John Whitney, an old acquaintance of the Bronowskis. One thing led to another, and both creations ended up in the Art Guild's pocket.
     Showing a film clip of a new Beatles movie before its New York premier should have been enough of a coup for any hostess, but the talented computer was the real lion. ('My dear I want you to meet the most amusing IBM machine!') The cybernetics film was given center screen, while three other projectors gave a border of goodies, such as the Beatles clip and old home movies made by Mrs. Henry Anthony's father. ('I think everyone liked them best,' was Mrs. Bronowski's cozy aside). For slight eye repose, slides were thrown on the side walls, among them a miniaturized aspirin thoughtfully provided by Dow Chemical. With half-dimmed house lights and Charlie Computer going full blast, it was to blow the mind.
     Even the showing of smashing, dashing Paraphernalia clothes was modeled against a backdrop of a Lynn Fayman slide lit by flashing strobes and accompanied by 100-proof Rock.
     No wonder Carol Becker's crew of body painters were besieged by individuals yearning to get with the new normalcy.
     If you still were stuck for conversation, you could look at peaceful crafts or graphics or whatever else didn't move, or at least only moved. The silent auction and the busy bar were nice and necessary antidotes for jangling nerves.
     Strangely, no one looked hippie anymore. In fact, no one bothered to look. The upshot of it all is that here today, right in San Diego, three or four hundred more people have been turned on, and it's a cinch that they weren't bored by the experience. Blinded, deafened, or dizzied - but not bored."

     Illusion 68 proved to be "one of the most unusual events of the season" (San Diego Magazine, Dec. 1968).
     Illusion 68 grossed $3,104.

     On January 19, 1969 Warren Beach was given a gift for his retirement and made an honorary Guild member in 1970.
     The Art Guild celebrated the 200th Anniversary of San Diego in 1969 with their annual California South 7 Exhibition. To mark this occasion, Dennis Davis, Mary Ellen Long, Dixon Fish, Myrna Nobile, Joan Thorburn, Kay Whitcomb, and Rossi Wade each designed a 10-foot banner, which was sewn by Lilli Hill. The banners were hung in the Fine Arts Gallery Rotunda during the exhibition.
     Jackson and Ellamarie Woolley, enamellists, were featured speakers in the forth of a series "Evening with the Artist" in January 1969.
     In January 1969 the guild attempted to hold an exhibition in Rep. Bob Wilson's suite in the Rayburn Office Building, Washington D.C. as part of helping publicize San Diego's 200th anniversary.
     On Wednesday, February 5, 1969 in the Copley Auditorium of the Fine Arts Gallery, the Guild sponsored Mr. James Wayne in a lecture called "an Artist Craftsman's Approach to Glass."
     The Guild show, celebrating San Diego's 200th anniversary, originally scheduled for January - February 1969 in Washington D.C. Show was tentatively rescheduled to open April 15. Unable after much effort to find a location, this attempt to have a show in Washington D.C., was officially canceled in April 1969.

     On July 8, 1969 in the Evening Tribune Jan Jennings wrote:
Fans Hung Up on Rental Art
Quality Paintings Enjoyed by Month

     "Rent a masterpiece' is the phrase circulating now at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery.
And though the paintings available for rent may not yet be considered masterpieces, time will tell their tale.
     The rental gallery, begun last September, offers some 200 paintings for rent created by some 90 artists from the San Diego and Los Angeles area.
     They are available to the 5,800 members of the Fine Arts Society for fees ranging from $2.50 to $25 for a two-month period, depending on their cost.
     'The purpose of the rental gallery is to offer patrons quality contemporary art,' said Mrs. Murray Holloway, its head. 'We select paintings that will give an overall picture of contemporary art and reflect life today.'
     'All artists invited to show works at the Rental Gallery have been in juried exhibits,' said Mrs. Holloway. 'Of approximately 400 works submitted for exhibit, only 80 or 90 would be selected by the jurors.'
Less Then One-Third Up for Rent
     And of approximately 300 paintings reviewed by the gallery's selection committee, less than one third are selected to be displayed for rental.
     The art works cover everything from still lifes to landscapes to lithographs to portraits and range from the more realistic to the abstract.
     'The beginning art patrons are more likely to rent the realistic works, such as a colorful landscape,' said Mrs. Holloway. 'As they learn about art, they begin to choose the more abstract works.'
     'It's all a matter of individual tastes,' she said. 'Everyone's taste is good for them, but of course, as one learns about paintings, taste changes.'
     In addition to the rental service, the patrons may buy the paintings over a period of four months….
     The rental gallery committee of 12 meets monthly to discuss the progress and twice a year there is a complete turnover of paintings…."

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