Pasadena Art Museum Version #2

There is a slightly longer version of this article at

1970/1 Pasadena Art Museum With Warhol Wearing A Rudi Gernreich Dress. Meet Paige's Date Bill…

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Around May 15, 1970, an appearance by the former Playboy model Paige Young at the Pasadena Art Museum, was recorded by Los Angeles Evening Citizen columnist Marvene Jones and her photographer.

Jones’ column, The Social Butterfly, focused on hip happenings in the LA social scene.

This occasion was a gala honoring the new Andy Warhol exhibit with Warhol himself as the guest of honor.

Obviously a big deal.

Below is the first part of the column that appeared in the Los Angeles Evening Citizen 5/16/1970

More on Paige Young’s date this evening, Bill Gardner, coming up. Note the mention of comedian Jonathan Winters here and in the article. Note the dress Paige is wearing (and barefoot) by famous fashion innovator Rudi Gernreich.

Column #2 of article. Richard Sample told me Paige was always barefoot, and frequently topless. Iconic 1960s fashion designer and one time Venice Beach resident Rudi Gernreich, was the designer of Paige’s dress this evening. Did Paige get the dress directly from Rudi? I think so. Gernreich hung around the Venice Beach scene at the time and was a guest at many of the local artists’ opening exhibit parties. Marvene Jones implies that Paige removed her clothing in the VIP area sometime during the evening. Notice the mention of the couple who attended the soiree with Paige and Bill: DeWain Valentine and wife. More on Mr. Valentine coming up.

Designer Rudi Gernreich, inventor of the infamous topless bathing suit he named the “monokini,” seen at right. This version is housed at the Kyoto Costume Institute. Paige and Rudi hung out in the same Venice Beach artsy social circles.

End of article.

Who is Bill Gardner, Paige’s date mentioned in the Pasadena Art Museum article by Marvene Jones?

Paige’s date for the Warhol opening, Bill Gardner, is shown on the set of the Jonathan Winters Show 1967–1969 CBS, with 2 men he “managed,” Mickey Rooney and Winters. Paige Young’s publicity said that she was an extra on the Jonathan Winters show and Playboy After Dark. Both shows were filmed at CBS Television City at 7800 Beverly Blvd. Jones says in the above article that Bill was Jonathan’s manager for a while and his main job was to keep Winters sober.

From his website:

William Louis Gardner was born in Minnesota and finished school there. He
joined the US Air Force and worked at the Pentagon in the Target Library of the world. Went on to the Pasadena Playhouse to learn television and movie making. He got a job with actress Marion Davies at her home. There He met a movie agent and started a career in Hollywood. William Louis Gardner has worked in Hollywood as the agent, personal secretary, PR advisor and manager for for Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Jill St.John, Bobby Van and director, John Huston. William Gardner is the author of two books, “Confessions of a Hollywood Agent,” and “The Games End.”

Paige Young and Bill Gardner have a connection to both Winters and Huston.

Much more on Bill Gardner in a future chapter.

According to the article, Paige Young and Andy Warhol discuss a role for her in an upcoming Andy Warhol film.

It did not happen. I think the two were making flirty small talk.

Ironically, Paige is quoted in her November 1968 Playmate issue of Playboy magazine: she refers to Warhol and the Pop Art scene, “it’s real and has something to say,” nonetheless it “gives me a headache ” and “I wouldn’t waste my paint on it.”

Marvene Jones also says that Mr. and Mrs. DeWain Valentine made up a foursome that evening with Paige and Bill Gardner. A friend of Paige’s named Richard Sample told me that he and Paige were friends with artists and neighbors DeWain Valentine and Larry Bell.

Mr. Valentine had an exhibit of his large cast polyester resin pieces at the Pasadena Art Museum that night along with the Warhol exhibit.

LAT announcement

Below is seen a black and white version of what Paige and the guests would have seen that night at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1970, along with the Warhol exhibit. Ellsworth Kelly works were also shown.

2 years before the Warhol exhibit this article appeared in the Los Angeles Times March 10, 1968.

DeWain Valentine was one the the hottest young rising artists in the 1960s Venice Beach, California art scene.

From Getty’s exhibit “Pacific Standard Time.” DeWain Valentine is in front of one of his works (or material for) of art in his studio on Market St. in Venice Beach, California.

Valentine was an innovator in the “Light and Space” art movement, along with artists Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, James Turrell and others.

By that point, these artists were continuing a well established practice.

Some brief background for context:

Before the Light and Space artists emerged, the Cool School or Ferus Gallery artists, had already established themselves beginning in the early 1950s.

These artists were located all over Los Angeles but many of them lived in Venice Beach due to the cheap rent. Many eccentric people lived there already like the Beatniks and then the “Beatnik wanna-bes.”

The Ferus Group members included LA artists who now have worldwide acclaim: Ed Keinholz, Wally Berman, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, John Altoon, Peter Alexander, Ken Price.

Just as influential were the curators and owners of the Ferus Gallery who helped bring the work of these artists to renown, Walter Hopps and Irving Blum.

From top right: Billy Al Bengston, Irving Blum, Ed Moses, John Altoon in front of the Ferus Gallery on La Cienega Blvd. in 1959. Photo in Pacific Standard Time book. Photo by William Claxton. The era of the Ferus Gallery was late 1950s-early 1960s.

The Ferus artists lived and worked far away from the competitive, pressure-filled New York City art world with its’ art critics.

The Ferus artists felt free and uninhibited to create without the concern or expectations that they would have experienced in NYC.

directly onto sheet metal.” From the book “Made in California:Art, Image and Identity, 1900–2000.”

Invitation to a Kenneth Price exhibit at the Ferus Gallery in 1961. Price himself is the surfer.

The Ferus Gallery group famously interacted with Andy Warhol during his well documented stay in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Warhol drove with actor Taylor Mead, assistant Gerard Malanga and painter Wynn Chamberlain from NYC to LA. This was for Warhol’s 2nd showing ever and his 1st exhibit at Ferus.

In fact, it was Warhol’s very first trip to Los Angeles.

The Ferus ‘Studs’ the new generation of artists, young abstract painters, ceramicists and assemblage makers who had been flying under the wire now were the featured artists at the Ferus Gallery. The Gallery was ripe for the adventurous artists who would set the new bar in contemporary styles. The Ferus Gallery had belief in the performance of their work and was one of the first galleries to support it.

Ferusgallery.com

END

In this milieu DeWayne Valentine moves to LA around 1965 and finds a studio on Market St. I’m exploring the possibly that Valentine learns of the studio from Paige Young friend Richard Sample.

Valentine was originally from Ft. Collins, Colorado.

He developed a type of polyester resin material that allowed him to make large scale pieces like the one shown below from 1970.

From Christie’s online auction, Measures 17 1/4 x17 1/4 7/8 in.

Richard Sample

told me in our interview that after he moved to a studio-home in Venice (late 1960s) he invited Paige to move in with him.

I think it may have been Richard’s father, artist and western jewelry maker Charlie Sample, who was able to get Richard the studio space in Venice Beach on Market street.

I asked Richard the location and he said he could not remember it, but that it was quite close to the ocean and his artist neighbors and friends were, DeWain Valentine and Larry Bell.

Paige refers to her “new Venice art studio” and the art scene, in several interviews with Playboy magazine and US newspapers in 1969 and 1970. (See chapter: Most Public Year 1969)

Richard Sample and Paige Young joined the community of Venice artists, but were “not working with the new materials,” to quote Paige in an interview. She was referring to her neighbors and friends, Valentine, Bell, Irwin, etc.

One of many interviews in 1969 which Paige mentions she now has a Venice studio where she can paint.

De Wain Valentine, Concave Circle Blue Green, 1968–2017. Cast polyester resin, 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches. © De Wain Valentine. Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Brooklyn Rail.

Philadelphia Inquirer June 27, 1969

Paige mentions Venice Beach as an “important art colony,” where she now has her own studio.

After a long search I found the location of this Venice studio: 62–68 Market St.

Research and interviews show that Robert Irwin lived across the street from Valentine. This was not mentioned by Richard Sample. At one point I asked him if he “knew Ed Ruscha or Robert Irwin” and some others. He did not recognize those names, he was definitive about Larry Bell and DeWain Valentine.

Richard Sample’s niece Ellen Sample told me she remembers visiting her uncle and grandfather Charles Sample at the art studio/home in Venice Beach. Charles Sample was a professional jewelry maker and had a retail storefront in addition to his studio.

Ellen, a child at the time, remembers hearing frequent talk about a man named “Valentine.”

Richard and Ellen both recalled being able to see the beach from the studio.

62–68 Market St., a block from the ocean, is a large structure and was divided amongst many artists who rented their own studio according to Ellen. This is why the address lists a range of numbers.

Richard Sample is listed with an address of 63 Market St. Venice, in a newspaper marriage announcement, 1968.

Ellen texted me a story: she thinks her Uncle Richard sublet the Venice studio to Paige at one point.

Ellen recalls “tensions” regarding Paige amongst Ellen’s aunts. These women were the wives of Charles Sample and his sons.

Ellen said her own mother was not bothered by Paige living at the studio, but that her mother did “go with her sister-in-laws to see what was going on at the studio.” Ellen says the most tense time was when Paige’s Playboy issue was current and shortly after.

Richard Sample told me he was forced to ask Paige to leave the Venice studio because she never paid him rent.

(See chapter Richard Sample interview)

Richard Sample painting in his Venich Beach studio.

I asked Ellen if it was a possibility that Richard felt pressured to ask Paige to leave due to the tension.

Ellen said she thought it was possible, but didn’t know for certain.

DeWain Valentine has spoken about his Venice studio in several Art magazine interviews and the influence it had on his art.

I spoke by telephone with his ex-wife who told me Paige was one of many women with whom Valentine slept with during those days. Mrs. Valentine confirmed Paige was a women on the Venice art scene in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

In this interview, DeWayne Valentine fondly remembers the friendships with his many fellow artists, Larry Bell and Robert Irwin and their days spent on Market St.

DeWain Valentine above states that he lived in and eventually purchased the 62 -65 Market St.

And indeed, several records with his signature and name can be seen in public building archives from LA County, now available online. Copy of one seen below.

61–65 is the address listed here.

DeWain Valentine with fellow LA artist Judy Chicago.

DeWain Valentine spent many years living and creating art in Hawaii after the 1970s.

He and the Mrs. Valentine mentioned in the Marvene Jones article, divorced around 1970, Mrs. Valentine told me.

She said she wasn’t aware Paige was an artist.

DeWain remarried and stayed married to the 2nd Mrs. Valentine until his death on February 2, 2022.

When he moved back to LA from Hawaii, it was to a large studio and home in Gardena.

.

62–69 Market St. in Venice Beach, California, as seen in 2022.