Olvera Street, 1951

A California art print on Arches watercolor paper. 100% archival, and printed in HD. Olvera Street marks the birthplace of Los Angeles in 1781. Built in 1818, the Avila Adobe still stands on Olvera St. and is the oldest house in Los Angeles. Olvera Street was virtually forgotten and had crumbled away into a run down little alley by the 1920’s. In 1930 the street was re-imagined as a tourist attraction. The new vision was for a commercial fantasy, an Early Los Angeles Mexican street marketplace. Los Angeles City Hall was completed in 1928 and rises to 454 feet tall. Its design is based upon the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Greek c. 350 BC, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. Up until the early 1960’s LA City Hall functioned as a glowing-tower-of-light marker at the city’s center, visible from miles away and from every direction. Millard Sheets watercolor vividly contrasts these two famous emblems of the city of Los Angeles. Courtesy Glen Knowles. Exhibited: This Exciting Land, Watercolors of the USA, May 6-May 31, 1989, Stary-sheets Art Gallery. World of Watercolor, Fallbrook Art Center, March 6 - April 27, 2011. “City Life, Los Angeles 1930s – 1950s”, at the Laguna Art Museum, February 21 - June 12, 2016. 50/50: California Art in Transition, 1940 - 1970, at the Hilbert Museum of California Art, 2018. National Watercolor Society: Southern California Inspirations, Past and Present - Oceanside Museum of Art, December, 2018 - April, 2019. Literature: As seen on the front cover of California Watercolor Art from the Early 20th Century Through Today.