If ever Los Angeles real estate had a photographer, it is Julius Shulman. And now, 85 years after Shulman moved to Los Angeles, his work will finally have a permanent home here.
Development firm Lee Homes has acquired a collection of 60 Shulman images for permanent display at the new Julius Shulman Gallery at 801 S. Grand Ave. The works are displayed on the first floors of the Sky high-rise in downtown Los Angeles. The mixed-use high rise, owned by CIM Group and Lee Homes, has luxury lofts on its top 11 floors, while the lower 10 floors are dedicated to office space with retail shops and restaurants on the ground floor.
Harlan Lee, founder of Lee Homes, met the iconic photographer in 1953 when Shulman shot a project 14 homes built in a Walnut Grove that Lee built in the San Fernando Valley.
“Julius shot it in a way that was so amazing,” Lee said. “After that, I had Julius shoot all my houses. I’ve been a big admirer for many years and one of his biggest fans.”
The permanent gallery collection cost Lee about $50,000 to pull together.
Last year, the Getty Research Institute purchased Shulman’s archives 260,000 prints, negatives and transparencies and developed a traveling exhibit of his works titled “Modernity and the Metropolis.” A popular Shulman exhibit at the J. Paul Getty museum closed in January.
The photographer was born to Russian immigrants in 1910 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The family moved to L.A. in 1920 and Shulman, now 95, lives in Laurel Canyon.
He’s perhaps known best for his photographs of the Case Study Houses, which were residences built from 1945 to 1966 by major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, Pierre Koenig, Raphael Soriano and Craig Ellwood. The experiment was backed by John Entenza’s Arts & Architecture magazine. The traveling Getty exhibit features 83 images, including 18 of the 26 California Case Study houses.
The downtown Shulman gallery displays a variety of his works, including color photos of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Our Lady of Los Angeles Cathedral and a 1933 black and white image of Los Angeles City Hall reflected in a pool of water near the Union Station construction site. One of his more recognizable works is a 1933 shot of the bombed out ruins of the former Los Angeles Times building.
“They were his selections, not mine,” Lee said of the gallery. “None of the Case Study Houses are in it; he felt it was better as more of a historical L.A. exhibit.”
The Julius Shulman Gallery is open to the public seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
