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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