Plein Air Goes Hollywood

Paul Grimm, Approaching Storm, about 1925. James Irvine Swinden Family Collection 

The Depression years were grim times for Southern California's colony of visual artists. Some found work in the motion picture studios, designing sets and costumes. Many of the artists recruited were plein air landscape painters—"California Impressionists." Though some had achieved national reputations in the 1920s, their naturalism was considered derivative and outdated. That however was no problem at the studios, which needed painted backdrops indistinguishable from life. It was thus California artists who established the look and feel of setbound Hollywood pictures of mid-century (The Wizard of Oz to The Sound of Music). In this way little-heralded West Coast artists may have had broader influence than the East Coast version of "American Impressionism." This under-recognized story is the subject of an exhibition at UC Irvine's Langson Orange County Museum, "Staging California in Early Hollywood." It has not a little relevance today, with productions fleeing California for cheaper locations and artists juggling side projects with paying the bills.

Installation view

Paramount Pictures location map (facsimile), about 1927. Margaret Herrick Library, AMPAS

This is a story of economics as much as art. California was originally a cost-cutting move. West Coast productions could evade Edison's rent-seeking and take advantage of Southern California's varied terrains and climate. Shown in facsimile is a Paramount Studio map celebrating California as global simulacrum. The Salton Sea could deepfake the Red Sea, and the Palos Verdes peninsula was a dead ringer for Wales. 

The Depression hit the Hollywood studios too. Moguls  prioritized techniques for shooting on location without going on location. As Sam Goldwyn had it, "A rock's a rock, and a tree's a tree. Shoot it in Griffith Park." Another popular location was  Chatsworth's Garden of the Gods, often a stand in for the Old West or the Ancient Middle East. The 1928 silent film of Noah's Ark combined real scenery with a matte painting of the ark by artist Paul Grimm. At the time, matte paintings were grisaille, but Grimm's gift for capturing the high-key cloudscapes of California's rainy season was useful. The introduction of Technicolor amplified demand for color landscapists.

Emil J. Kosa, Jr., Portrait of Edith Head, 1950. The Hilbert Collection 

A key figure is Emil J. Kosa Jr. He was a nepo baby of sorts, for his father also worked for the studios. But Junior built an independent career as an American Scene painter, getting shows at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1926 and 1940. In 1933 he took a job at 20th Century Fox, where he worked for decades, winning a 1963 Oscar for Cleopatra. Kosa was an occasional portraitist of Hollywood folk and the designer of the 20th Century Fox searchlights logo. Late in his career, he turned to abstraction, but it was perhaps too little, too late. It was Kosa's searchlights logo that captured the imagination of Ed Ruscha, Monty Python, and others. 

Granville Redmond, Untitled—Moonlight Marsh Scene, before 1935. Gift of the Irvine Museum

Granville Redmond's paintings of hillsides and poppies were popular with the Hollywood crowd. Charlie Chaplin bought his paintings, promoted his art, and even cast Redmond (who was deaf) as actor in several of his films. The two works on view—one a weird nocturne of a swamp—makes you wonder why Redmond isn't better known. 

Warren Newcombe, Winter Ploughing California, Calabasas, 1931. Gift of the Irvine Museum

During his tenure at MGM, Warren Newcombe invented the "Newcombe shot," involving a matte painting on glass. It was Newcombe and his MGM minions who painted the looming Emerald City and cliffs in The Wizard of Oz. Secretive about his methods, Newcombe was considered a wizard himself. In comparison his easel paintings seem unexceptional.

Bill Anderson, Gordon Butcher, John Gary Coakley, John Harold Coakley, Emil J. Kosa, Jr., and Arthur Grover Rider, backdrop for The Sound of Music, 1965. Courtesy JC Backings Corporation and the Coakley Family

"Staging California" includes one matte painting, a view of the Alps created for The Sound of Music. This was late in the tradition, as matte paintings were being supplanted by location filming. The backdrop was a collaborative effort of Kosa and five other artists. The windows in the Alpine town were made of translucent material to allow them to be lighted from behind for night views. 

Detail of Sound of Music backdrop

Edward Biberman, Pavement Patterns (Pickets), 1945. The Buck collection, UCI Langston Orange County Museum of Art

It's become a journalistic cliché to link the 2023 Writer's Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes to the recent decline in Los Angeles production. Contentious strikes are nothing new. The show includes an Edward Biberman painting of the 1945 strike that led to Hollywood's "Bloody Friday," a two-hour melee outside Warner Brothers' Burbank studios. Biberman, brother of a blacklisted screenwriter, often favored eccentric compositions. In this case he seems to be taking a cue from van Gogh's (Gustave Doré's) prison yard.

"Staging California in Early Hollywood" runs through Oct. 4, 2026.