J.R. Davidson, A European Contribution to California Modernism

J.R.Davidson, ca. 1950, Valeska, photographer

Architecture and Design Collection, AD&A Museum

Opening reception September 27, 5:30-7:30pm

J.R. Davidson (b. Germany, 1889-1977), architect of the Thomas Mann House (1941), and three prototypes for the Case Study House Program (1946-48), contributed his European background, and specifically his training in interior design, to the advancement of modernism in Southern California. Throughout his five decades long career, Davidson produced an architecture highly functional in its plan, yet sensitive to its natural surroundings in its elevations. Despite the achievements that Davidson attained along his professional life, he remains an understudied figure in the history of modern architecture. This exhibition, organized with materials from the architect’s archive at the Architecture and Design Collection of the AD&A Museum, fulfills this gap by highlighting those aspects of Davidson’s trajectory that were unique to his way of understanding architecture and its practice. These include, for example, the way Davidson conceived architecture from the inside out and the integration of the outside in through large-scale windows. Photos, notebooks, manuscripts, and drawings document, in the exhibition, the prolific career of the German émigré bringing it to a new standing and recognition. J.R. Davidson, A European Contribution to California Modernism is curated by architectural historian Lilian Pfaff, who is also the author of the illustrated catalog accompanying the presentation. 

Please visit our online version of this exhibit: click here.

Stothart House, 1937-38, Anonymous

Architecture and Design Collection, AD&A Museum

Thomas Mann House, 1941

Architecture and Design Collection, AD&A Museum

Case Study House # 1

Architecture and Design Collection, AD&A Museum