SPRING/SUMMER 2014 George Bellows’ Fantasy A Botanical Expedition to Namibia Unpacking the Octavia E. Butler Papers The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Explore and Shop www.cartier.us 370 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills (310) 275-4272 South Coast Plaza (714) 540-8231 - 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Canoga Park (818) 737-3471 40 Newburywww.cartier.us Street, Boston (617) 262-3300 4040 Newbury Newbury Street, Street, Boston Boston (617 (617) 262-3300) 262-3300 ©2013 Cartier ©2013 Advertiser: Cartier Advertiser: Cartier Advertiser: Cartier Advertiser: Cartier Ad: La Petillante Ring Spread PUJE1493 Ad: La Petillante Ring Spread PUJE1493 Ad: La Petillante Ring Spread PUJE1493 Ad: La Petillante Ring Spread PUJE1493 Publication: Boston Musuem of Fine Arts Publication: Boston Musuem of Fine Arts Publication: Boston Musuem of Fine Arts Publication: Boston Musuem of Fine Arts Issue: September 2013 Issue: September 2013 Issue: September 2013 Issue: September 2013 Bleed: 15.25" x 11.03" (7.75"x11.03") Bleed: 15.25" x 11.03" (7.75"x11.03") Bleed: 15.25" x 11.03" (7.75"x11.03") Bleed: 15.25" x 11.03" (7.75"x11.03") Trim: 15" x 10.875" (7.5"x10.875") Trim: 15" x 10.875" (7.5"x10.875") Trim: 15" x 10.875" (7.5"x10.875") COLOR TAG INFO Trim: 15" x 10.875" (7.5"x10.875") COLOR TAG INFO Live Area: 14.75" x 10.53" (7.25"x 10.53") COLOR TAG INFO Live Area: 14.75" x 10.53" (7.25"x 10.53") COLOR TAG INFO Live Area: 14.75" x 10.53" (7.25"x 10.53") Live Area: 14.75" x 10.53" (7.25"x 10.53") Giga Job#: 66394 (Left page) Giga Job#: 66394 (Right page) Giga Job#: 66394 (Left page) ______________ / / Giga Job#: 66394 (Right page) ______________ / / ______________ / / ______________ / / SENIOR STAFF OF THE HUNTINGTON STEVEN S. KOBLIK President FROM THE EDITOR CATHERINE ALLGOR Nadine and Robert A. Skotheim Director of Education SUMMER FANTASIES JAMES P. FOLSOM THE ART OF OUTDOOR LIVING Marge and Sherm Telleen/Marion and Earle Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens KATHY HACKER his summer, you will be able to retreat from the heat of the gardens Executive Assistant to the President to the newly expanded Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American STEVE HINDLE Art. The conversion of a storage area to five new galleries has given W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research curators 5,400 square feet of additional space to showcase the expand- KEVIN SALATINO Ting collection, including a recently acquired painting by George Bellows, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections Summer Fantasy. RANDY SHULMAN Vice President for Advancement That painting is the subject of the cover feature by Kevin Salatino, the LAURIE SOWD Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections. Bellows (1882– Vice President for Operations 1925) is best remembered for his depictions of dark, gritty urban life in New SUSAN TURNER-LOWE York City at the beginning of the 20th century. But Summer Fantasy, completed Vice President for Communications less than a year before Bellows’ premature death at age 42, is far more vibrant DAVID S. ZEIDBERG and optimistic than those earlier works. In the article—titled “What Is It Telling Avery Director of the Library Us?” (pg. 16)—Salatino ponders the painting’s place in the artist’s oeuvre and among works by other American artists in The Huntington’s collection. MAGAZINE STAFF Octavia E. Butler’s rendering of an American past doesn’t have the nostalgia EDITOR of Bellows’ “lost and longed-for Arcadia,” but rather the all-too-real horror of Matt Stevens the antebellum South. In Butler’s novel Kindred, published in 1979, a young DESIGNER African American woman inexplicably transports from her California apart- Lori Ann Achzet ment on a June day in 1976 to a Maryland plantation in 1815. Butler (1947– Huntington Frontiers is published semiannually by the 2006) won a MacArthur “Genius Grant” in 1995 for her notable contributions Office of Communications. It strives to connect readers with to science fiction, although she once explained that Kindred was less science the rich intellectual life of The Huntington, capturing in news and more “grim fantasy.” In “Beyond Category” (pg. 8), Huntington archivist and features the work of researchers, educators, curators, and Natalie Russell explains the perils and pleasures of categorization when it came others across a range of disciplines. to cataloging the Butler papers, which the author bequeathed to The Huntington. INQUIRIES AND COMMENTS: Cody Howard lives in a world that is all about categorization. The young Matt Stevens, Editor, Huntington Frontiers botanist traveled to Namibia in southern Africa in November 2012 in pursuit 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108 of Ledebouria, a bulbous succulent in the hyacinth family. He was hoping to 626-405-2167 | [email protected] identify as many species of the plant as he could while trekking 2,500 miles up and down the country. Writer Diana W. Thompson tells his story in “Growing For advertising inquiries, please call Maggie Malone at Cultural Media, 312-593-3355 Enthusiasm” (pg. 24), which begins with the fits and starts you might find in Unless otherwise acknowledged, photography is provided by a typical episode of “The Amazing Race.” By early December, a few weeks shy The Huntington’s Department of Photographic Services. of summer solstice in the southern hemisphere, Howard was on a plane head- ing back to Southern California, thrilled with the Ledebouria specimens he had tracked down and convinced that he was living out his dream. © 2014 The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Matt Stevens Gardens. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the contents, in whole or in part, without permission of the publisher, is prohibited. On the Cover: George Bellows (1882–1925), detail from Summer Fantasy, 1924, oil on canvas. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. 1151 Oxford Road | San Marino, California 91108 | huntington.org DEDON Los Angeles 8444 Melrose Avenue · West Hollywood · T 310 388 4721 · [email protected] www.dedon.us DEDON_SWINGREST_GETTY MAGAZINE_8,25x10,5.indd 1 12.02.13 15:11 volume 9, issue 2 Contents SPRING/SUMMER 2014 SHOP FERRAGAMO.COM 8 FEATURES 357N RODEO DR WHAT IS IT TELLING US? 16 Pondering one of George Bellows’ final paintings By Kevin Salatino GROWING ENTHUSIASM 24 A small plant feeds big dreams for a botanist doing field research in Namibia By Diana W. Thompson DEPARTMENTS NEWS BYTES 6 ACCESSIONS 8 16 Beyond Category By Natalie Russell A CLOSER LOOK 14 Riveting Imagery By David H. Mihaly LESSONS LEARNED 30 The Beautiful People By Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell IN PRINT 34 Recommended Reading POSTSCRIPT 36 Possessing the Land By Matt Stevens Top: The Octavia E. Butler papers include a variety of materials, among them autograph notes, photographs, and ephemera. Middle: Kevin Salatino, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections, takes a 24 closer look at George Bellows’ Summer Fantasy (1924) with paintings conservator Christina O’Connell. Bottom: Cody Howard, The Huntington’s conservation technician, poses among Ledebouria in Namibia. News Bytes VOICES FROM VERSO, THE BLOG OF THE HUNTINGTON The Grace Nicholson Zenobia in Squint Photograph Archive “Even her fingers are exquisite!” “She seems to have had a —The Huntington on Facebook, naturalness and warmth linking to the Weekly Squint on with people, qualities that Tumblr are reflected in many of the photographs.” If you are among the 13,000 —The Huntington’s project archivist Suzanne Oatey, referring to Grace Nicholson followers of The Huntington on Tumblr, then you have already This photograph of a Yurok child named Genevieve Brooks, ca. 1910, is one of come to anticipate the posting of the thousands taken by Grace Nicholson (1877–1948), a Pasadena-based collector our “Squint” every Thursday. and dealer of Native American and Asian arts and crafts. The finding aid describ- Here is a closer look at Zenobia in ing the contents of the Nicholson Collection—available at the Online Archive Chains. The Virginia Steele Scott of California—has recently been completed as part of a two-year effort to catalog Galleries of American Art will The Huntington’s photographs of Native Americans. expand in July. Read more at huntingtonblogs.org/2014/04/nicholson Follow us at huntingtonlibrary. tumblr.com Thank You “Like all those who come to The Huntington, I owe an incalculable debt to Mary Robertson, whose interest, expertise, and friendship have smoothed Duet Two Butterfly my path.” Between the Finger Ring, 6 diamonds and yellow sapphires. —Barbara Donagan, in the acknowledgments of her book War in England, 1642–1649 Couplets Abound “Freely strolling in springtime beyond the painted halls In February, scholars gathered for a symposium Among plum blossoms, by shady willows, fragrances abound.” in honor of Mary Robertson (pictured), the former —From Tang Xianzu’s Mudanting (The Peony Pavilion), inscribed on William A. Moffett Curator of British Historical two plaques attached to columns of the new Clear and Transcendent Manuscripts, who retired last August after 42 pavilion of The Huntington’s Chinese Garden years on staff. In his opening remarks, Research Director Steve Hindle paid tribute to Robertson “Wind ruffles the water, scattering the spots of light. by reading the acknowledgments of many pub- Haute Joaillerie, place Vendôme since 1906 Sun warms the earth, coaxing beauty from the deep.” lished books, including Barbara Donagan’s 2008 —High school participant on a school tour of the Chinese Garden