SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA.- The University Art Museum presents Picturing Tradition: Lutah Maria Riggs Encounters Mexican Architecture through January 30, 2005.
This exhibition showcases period photographs, colored sketches, and measured detail drawings compiled by Lutah Maria Riggs (1896-1984) during her architectural tour of Mexico in December 1922. Sponsored by her employer, the Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith (1876-1930), and his wife, the three visited some of Mexico’s most picturesque historic towns including Cuernavaca, Guanajuato, Puebla, and Queretaro. Smith commissioned Riggs to sketch, photograph, and purchase copy photographs of local architecture and architectural details intended as source material for future designs in Santa Barbara, as well as a book that he hoped to publish on Mexican architecture. The exhibition also features historic drawings and photographs for selected buildings designed by Smith and Riggs to demonstrate the role that Mexican vernacular designs played in helping to shape their subsequent creative architectural efforts in Santa Barbara. As a further enhancement, Riggs’ black and white photographs will be supplemented with selected contemporary photographs by the noted Santa Monica architect and artist, Stephen Harby, to highlight the rich textures and colors of these structures.