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themed building. This neo-indigenous perspective had
become very popular among those researching
architectural trends. Globally speaking, modernism,
which involved a placeless, faceless, glass-walled, sharpedged aesthetic, was something that, for Mexico, involved
a bold statement of national identity. As was the
Annenbergs’ way, they didn’t just say, ‘Oh, that’s pretty,
that’s what we’re doing.’ No, instead they dug deeper,
reaching out to National Geographic and individuals who
knew a great deal about Maya civilization so they could
truly understand this aesthetic, where it came from, and
why it was being incorporated into modern buildings all
over the world.
We can see in Jones’s earliest renderings of the arrival
court at Sunnylands that there’s supposed to be a water
fountain in the court’s center axis, yet the fountain, which
When
South
Met West
“i never had the privilege of meeting Walter and
Leonore Annenberg, but from working here at their former
home, delving into their archive, and seeing the way they
conducted their lives, the way they approached every
project they took on, I think they really appreciated fine
things, who made them, and the history of the works. They
were true scholars in their approach to collecting and
creating a beautiful, material world.
As billionaires, the Annenbergs had the privilege to do
whatever they wanted, and they did. I’m not sure exactly
when they started thinking about creating Sunnylands, but
they bought the property in 1963. They envisioned
something very special, something with integrity, and so
they brought on William Haines, who eventually
introduced the Annenbergs to A. Quincy Jones, an all-star
architect and midcentury modern master. Jones, who
became the chief architect of the estate, visited Mexico
during the early design phase and wrote back to the
Annenbergs, saying, ‘I have visited the Indian ruins and
I have some ideas.’
One of Jones’s earliest notions was to have Sunnylands
be a series of buildings with pyramid-shaped roofs on
different elevations so it really would look like a field of
pyramids similar to the ancient Mayan temples in Mexico
and Central America. As we know, that concept did not
stick, and they just went with one larger structure.
Architectural historian David G. De Long suggested that
Jones was most likely inspired by the stepped pyramidal
roof of the Temple of Kukulkan at Chichén Itzá.
I can’t say that they were alone in their desire for a Maya-
Art+Auction february 2017
An exterior view of
the Sunnylands
estate, designed in
the 1960s for
Leonore and Walter
Annenberg.
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David Hume Kennerly and The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands
Anne Rowe, the director of collections and
exhibitions at the Sunnylands estate, shares a
sneak peek of her Modernism Week talk on the
influence of Mexican design on the former home
of the late philanthropists Walter and Lenore
Annenberg. In September of this year the lavish,
200-acre, Maya temple-themed desert oasis will
host “Carved Narrative: Los Hermanos Chávez
Morado,” the first joint exhibition of Tomás and
José Chávez Morado, the artist brothers who
created the commissioned fountain, carved in the
Maya style, that marks the entrance to the estate.
Ken hayden and The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands
70
A motorcade for King
Abdullah ii waits
outside the historic
house during the
February 14, 2014,
meeting between
President Barack
Obama and the
Jordanian leader at
Sunnylands.
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today is such an iconic piece of the property, was not
commissioned until 1968, almost two years after the estate
was completed. In the archives at Sunnylands, there are
many photographs from the Annenbergs’ trip to Mexico in
1967. The most noteworthy are the photographs from their
visit to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico
City, home to José and Tomás Chávez Morado’s famous
fountain, which is really the Eiffel Tower of Mexico City.
Upon their return to Palm Springs, the Annenbergs
contacted the museum’s principal architect, Pedro Ramírez
Vázquez, who successfully enlisted the Chávez Morado
brothers to recreate a version of the column for the
Annenbergs.
The Sunnylands fountain displays a carved narrative
that tells the story of Mexico’s journey from its indigenous
past to its contemporary present. Although the brothers
february 2017 Art+Auction
worked very closely together, each had his own distinct career
and style. José, an accomplished painter in Mexico City, ran
with the popular muralist crowd, while Tomás, a skilled
sculptor of monuments and civic works, took an academic
route as a professor at the Universidad de Guanajuato, where
he served as the director of its School of Visual Arts. When we
discovered that we had this collaborative work by these two
brothers, who have never been celebrated together as artists
outside of their hometown in Mexico, we decided to hold the
world debut exhibition of ‘Los Hermanos Chávez Morado,’
which is set for September 2017.
The notion of bringing the brothers together in a single
exhibition was born of the column. So far, the catalogue has
evolved to show some lovely pairings between José’s paintings
and Tomás’s sculptures. We are thrilled to showcase the
interplay between the artists’ work, how each used his own
particular medium to express certain ideas, and the limitations
and benefits of expressing similar messages and histories
through two different artistic forms. While José’s paintings
use stronger details and more provocative symbols to express
Mexico’s rich history, Tomás’s sculptures take a simpler,
carved approach to executing an equally powerful narrative.
That contrast has made for a lot of interesting pairings.
In Mexican art—and this is something that the
Annenbergs truly recognized and embraced—certain
repeated symbols, like a girl with a flower, take on entirely new
A seating area
in the master
bedroom
looks out on the
estaste’s
cactus and rose
gardens.
Ken hayden and The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands
72
Art+Auction february 2017
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both images: Photographs by Lance Gerber for the Annenberg foundation Trust at Sunnylands, Courtesy of the Instituto Estatal de la Cultura de Guanajuato
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La Gran Tehuana
(The Great
Tehuana), 1963,
by José Chávez
Morado, above, and
Imploración
(Pleading/Prayer),
1959, by Tomás
Chávez Morado, left,
will be included in an
exhibition featuring
the work of the
brothers at
Sunnylands this fall.
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february 2017 Art+Auction
meanings when you understand the history and context.
When you’re able to recognize the girl with a flower as an
indigenous person, the work suddenly transcends
aesthetics. There’s a tremendous amount of symbolism in
the brothers’ work, so we are working with a scholar in
Mexico to ensure that, culturally, we aren’t missing
anything they might be trying to say to us.
At Sunnylands, we align beautifully with Modernism
Week in terms of our space because the estate truly is a
modern masterpiece; this year, though, it really is a happy
coincidence that Modernism Week wanted to do a track on
Mexican modernism, as we are in the middle of creating
this exhibition. My goal is to make sure that when the public
comes in to view ‘Los Hermanos Chávez Morado’ in
conjunction with our Maya-themed estate, they can admire
a beautiful painting or an excellent carving while taking
away some of the deeper messages woven into the work. I’m
thrilled that we have a chance to share this work with the
public.”