Resorts at Sea - February 2013

The first ship in this study should be Matson Lines’ Malolo, which entered service in 1927.

(Now I’m still wrestling with whether the Leviathan should take this spot. Technically the German-built Vaterland, William Francis Gibbs gave the ship a top to bottom rejuvenation, but if I hold true to keeping the ships in this study American-built, then no Leviathan. Argh.)

I found a pamphlet listing the artworks installed on the Malolo. Not murals, they were paintings meant to accessorize whatever room they were placed. I don’t believe they were specially created for the ship.

However, the prints adorning the staterooms and suites were created specifically for the Malolo. I had the name of Mary J. Coulter, but little else. Then I stumbled across a small piece in a long-defunct magazine: The Argus. (Subtitled: A Journal of Art Criticism and News.) Folios of the prints onboard the Malolo were on display in two galleries in San Francisco.

Stranger things have been listed on WorldCat.org, so why not search? Lo and behold, a catalogue of etchings and dry points* dated 1927, same year the Malolo entered service, same year The Argus article appeared. Not 100% conclusive proof, but as her work for the Malolo took two years, did Coulter make time for other projects? Perhaps, just to take a break and do something different, but that’s how I would do it. (And I admit Time Management is not always my friend.)

To my knowledge, there are no libraries in my area that are on WorldCat, so it may take a personal visit to check this lead out.

*Yeah, I didn’t know what dry points were either. Webster’s says a dry point is “a fine, hard needle for engraving lines on a copper plate without using acid.” Sounds pretty time-consuming.

Resorts At Sea - Jan 2013

Of the interior designers involved with the ships in this project, the one that may have the greatest name recognition is Raymond Loewy.

Fans of Mad Men … Which of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce’s accounts was the biggest? Yes, Lucky Strike, very good. Who designed the iconic packaging for Lucky Strike? … … … It was Raymond Loewy.

Few people have been so closely identified with their company: Steve Jobs and Apple, Hugh Hefner and Playboy, Walt Disney and, well, you get the picture.

Perhaps the biggest brand identity of the mid-20th century was that of Raymond Loewy. More often than not, if Raymond Loewy was listed as heading up a project, few, if any of the others involved were mentioned.

Apologies for the image quality. These are from the journal Pacific Marine Review. On the left, we have

a rendering of the Rio Hudson from October 1940. She, along with her three sisters were completed

as "baby flattops" - small aircraft carriers for World War II. On the right, are July 1950 renderings

of public spaces on the President Jackson. The Jackson, Adams, and Hayes were taken for troopship

duties during the Korean Conflict.

 

Loewy was involved with the interiors of Panama Lines’ Panama, Ancon, and Cristobal, the Rio Hudson quartette for Moore-McCormack, the postwar refit of Matson Lines’ Lurline, the President Jackson trio of 1950, Banner Lines’ Atlantic, and Moore-McCormack’s 1958 Brasil and Argentina.

 

Banner Lines' Atlantic was taken over by American Export Lines. On the right,

a sketch for the cafe on the Brasil/Argentina.

 

Any artists connected with any of the above projects were discovered almost by accident. Random Google searches have born some fruit, but a look at company papers, which seem to be scattered hither and yon, but mainly in Delaware and D.C., should prove useful.

Resorts at Sea: June 2012

The harvesting of artist info continues. With that brings avenues of exploration that I must not go down. Several of these artists, such as Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston dove head long into Abstract Expressionism after their WPA work on their respective ships, thus more info is available on these latter portions of their careers. (Fun to look at, the subject matter is, admittedly, not for the masses, and some of it would have looked quite freakish on board a ship. Case in point ... after showing her the exhibit catalogue for 12 Americans, my 92-year-old grandmother said it looked like children did it,  and not in the good way.)

There have been days where I swear I’ve come close to breaking Google. Or maybe it’s a warning to back off a little. But I have found more artist-ship connections. I also found a digital library with lots … nay … tons of Matson Line ephemera. When their Malolo debuted in 1927, a pamphlet listing the artists and their art was published. (Even the titles of the works were included!) Another one in 1957 described the works on the Mariposa and Monterey. Twelve new artists were added to the list with that pamphlet alone. Twelve. Yay!

Occasionally, the must have piece of ephemera becomes available. I’ve recently lost two auctions for this American Export Lines brochure that has color photos of the public spaces on board the Independence and Constitution. On the other hand, I didn’t know it existed, so I guess that’s some consolation. This piece contains the names of artists who decorated the Tourist Class dining rooms. The photo posted on eBay was a little blurry, but I think I have derived the names. However, without this piece, or any other evidence, my conclusion is mere conjecture.

But I made up for it -- a little -- with a 1948 deck plan for Moore-McCormack's Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Until now, I've had only a partial list of public spaces, and only the faintest idea as to their layouts.