One Sunday Morning (Chavez Ravine)
Artist
Millard Owen Sheets
(1907 - 1989)
Datec. 1929
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions24 x 28"
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of the Hilbert Collection
Object number2017.036
DescriptionThis is a depiction of the Mexican-American community in Chavez Ravine, on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles -- which was one of Millard Sheets' favorite places to take his art students when he was teaching them to paint "en plein air" (outdoors on location). At the time he created this painting, he was just 22 years old and teaching at Chouinard Art Institute.The colorful community of Chavez Ravine in the 1920s looked very much like a small town in Mexico. About 1,000 people lived in this neighborhood, which, in addition to modest homes, included two elementary schools, a few grocery stores, and a church.
In the 1950s, the city of Los Angeles deemed the area "blighted" and exercised eminent domain, forcing the residents to sell their property in the name of progressive development. The last residents of the community were forcibly evicted in 1959 in a clash dubbed “The Battle of Chavez Ravine.” The property then remained uninhabited until, eventually, Dodger Stadium was built on part of the land, opening in 1962. Sheets’ evocative painting reminds us of the heritage of what was once a vibrant community and a vital part of L.A. history.
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