JORDAN DRAWINGS - 1958
As a newly minted Master of Fine Arts, Van Sant put his skill as a sketch artist to work. Having persuaded the LA Times to send him to the Middle East as a War Correspondent, he drew in flashpoint areas, including Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Cypress, and interviewed key figures, including King Hussein of Jordan.
The LA Times published a selection of his drawings in February 1959 alongside a self-penned article about the struggle to throw off British rule in Cypress. In March 1959, as described in an LA Times article titled “Thomas Van Sant: Artist's Exhibit Wins Plaudits,” the artist exhibited “paintings and drawings, mosaics and sculpture in the Los Angeles County Art Institute.” Including “pen and wash drawings done on a recent sojourn in Europe and the Near East.
JORDAN LEGIONNAIRE, PEN AND INK, C. 1958
LA TIMES, C. 1959
CYPRESS PRISONERS, PEN AND INK, C. 1958
FALCONER, PEN AND INK, C. 1958
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Retail Clerks International Union (REIU)
Local 707 5955 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, California
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1957
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N/A
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Oil paint on canvas
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Unknown
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Unknown
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Retail Clerks International Union, Local 707
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Unknown. (The building still stands, but no longer houses REIU, Local 770. )
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TVS digital records.
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Van Sant received this commission while studying for his MFA at the Los Angeles County Art Institute (now Otis Art Institute), when he won a competition held among graduate art students in Los Angeles and vicinity. It was made for the REIU’s new building in Hollywood. The raw canvas visible in the photograph’s upper right edge and the unfinished appearance of some of the figures suggest that it may record a sketch or a grisaille stage in the work. Alternatively, unresolved aspects of the work may result from student inexperience.
