Wednesday, November 10, 2021

bank mosaics


In Beverly Hills, on Wilshire: a closed bank - the First Bank - but the two mosaics by Millard Sheets are very visible.  It dates from 1959, and shows parents enjoying nature with their children (there are mosaids inside, too, with doves, and other decorations, but (I was driving past) it doesn't look at all easy to enter.  Sheets was commissioned by Howard Ahmanson in the 1950s to design Home Savings Bank branches throughout Southern California - buildings, mosaics, exterior and interior ornament.  He designed over 80 - I'm not sure how many are still extant - and murals, paintings, bas reliefs, most of them with SoCal themes (and he was an art educator, and very active in WPA projects).  Given his impact on the visual culture of LA, I'm surprised we don't hear about him incessantly.

 

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