Contact Information: Contact: Elaine Beno Jeff Spring 714-885-2333
WESTWAYS Magazine Cover Art Featured at John Wayne Airport
| Source: Auto Club of Southern California
SANTA ANA, CA--(Marketwire - May 27, 2009) - A new exhibition, "Scenic View Ahead: The
WESTWAYS Centennial," featuring cover art from the Automobile Club of
Southern California's WESTWAYS magazine, will be on display in the Vi Smith
Concourse Gallery in the Thomas F. Riley Terminal at John Wayne Airport
(JWA) beginning this week through Monday, Oct. 19.
The exhibition will feature 56 paintings. Ticketed passengers who have
passed through security will be able to view the collection, on display
across from Gates 1 - 4 and 11 - 14 in the Thomas F. Riley Terminal.
WESTWAYS magazine celebrated its 100th birthday earlier this year as
Southern California's longest continuously published magazine. Today, it
has the 10th largest circulation of all magazines in the nation. Published
by the Auto Club for its members, WESTWAYS serves 8 million readers as the
region's premier lifestyle magazine and is a significant voice in local and
regional affairs.
"The exhibition at John Wayne Airport will have more works of WESTWAYS
cover-art than any prior public showing of the collection," said Auto Club
Historian Matthew W. Roth. "We're delighted with the airport and its
expansive space, which allows us to present works of art from every period
and genre. The cover of the Auto Club magazine featured examples from most
of the major movements of California art in the 20th century and this is a
rare and welcome opportunity to present that breadth to our members and the
public."
The WESTWAYS cover-art program began in 1928 and commissioned paintings
from most major artists working in Southern California including Alson
Clark, Maynard Dixon, John Frost, Donna Schuster and William Wendt from the
plein-air period. Noteworthy watercolorists such as Rex Brandt, Phil Dike
and Maurice Logan also contributed.
WESTWAYS covers also traced prominent stylistic movements of the 1940s
through 1970s such as California watercolor, Pop Art and collage-mixed
media. Artists who created covers for WESTWAYS also designed posters, album
covers and sets for films and theater such as Jan Sawka, and Merle Shore.
In the 1960s-1980s, the last decades of the cover-art program, the magazine
capitalized on the eclectic Los Angeles art scene by featuring covers from
diverse and notable artists such as William Pajaud, Paul Hogarth and Shore.
WESTWAYS originally published under the name Touring Topics starting in
1909 at 10 cents per issue with a yearly subscription rate of $1. The
earliest issues focused on touring destinations, advances in automotive
technology, racing coverage and efforts to bring modern road building to
Southern California. Travel coverage expanded to descriptions of road
conditions, lodging reviews and innovations like the motel. Along the way,
the magazine took a new direction and adopted a broader cultural mission
and commissioned original artwork for the magazine covers. The WESTWAYS
name was placed on the mast in 1934, with Gyo Fujikawa's untitled painting,
following a reader contest that drew 10,000 entries.
For more information about JWA's art program, visit www.ocair.com. To
learn more about the Auto Club, visit www.AAA.com.