Watts Towers, (sculpture).

Watts Towers, (sculpture).

Rodia, Simon, 1879?-1965, sculptor.

Watts Towers, (sculpture).

Simon Rodia's Towers, (sculpture).

Digital Reference:

Mixed media, including found objects, shells, reinforcing rods covered in chicken wire plastered with cement and set with glass, shells, broken and cut tile.

Each tower: approx. H. 100 ft.

Three high towers or spires set in triangular plot, with surrounding arching retaining walls, walkways, benches and gazebo-like structure. The three main towers are cone shapes made of galvanized steel, bent by hand, wrapped with wire, and covered with cement and found objects.

Architecture -- Civic -- Tower

Outdoor Sculpture -- California -- Los Angeles

Administered by City of Los Angeles, Cultural Affairs Department, Public Art Division, 433 South Spring Street, 10th floor, Los Angeles, California 90013

Coadministered Watts Cultural Arts Center, 1765 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, California 90002

Located 1727 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, California 90002

Watts Towers was built by Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant and day laborer, who lived across the street from the sculpture. He began constructing the work when he moved to the area in 1921, and worked on it for the next thirty years. The piece has been designated a national landmark. Repairs were ongoing at time of April 1995 SOS! survey.

IAS files contain City correspondence from 1977 to 1978 regarding the acquisition of a Rodia planter for the site; and newsclippings from Los Angeles Times, Oct. 21, 1994, B2; Jan. 4, 1995, Sect. E 1-4. IAS files also contain related articles from Washington Post, June 22, 2003, Sect. D-1 and the New York Times, Sept. 22, 1991. For further reading see: "Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts," a photographic essay by Seymour Rosen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1962; Seymour Rosen's "In Celebration of Ourselves," A California Living Book published in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Kristan Lawson and Anneli S. Rufus' "America Off the Wall: A Guide to Unusual Sights," NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Nancy Dustin Moure's "Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945," Los Angeles County Museum of Art, c. 1980.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, California survey, 1995.

NMAA Inventory Staff, 1991.

Washington Post, Sept. 28, 2001, pg. A35.

The New York Times (Sept. 22, 1991).

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Control Number:

Horizon Information Portal 3.25_9382

Powered by SirsiDynix

About | © 2020 Smithsonian | Terms of Use | Privacy | Contact

SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System