‘Fly for Art’ Gets Off the Ground in Santa Monica

Like Snoopy and the Red Baron, art patrons soared above Santa Monica in vintage airplanes last weekend to help raise money to place public art in the city’s airport.

“I want one, I want one, I want one,” said a euphoric flyer-patron who yearned for a plane like the one he’d just flown in.

Banking gracefully into a pale pink sunset, seven aircraft, including a blue World War II P-51 Mustang and a silver A-26 Invader, sent higher-paying patrons skyward for “Fly for Art,” a benefit sponsored by the Santa Monica Arts Foundation (SMARTS) and the Santa Monica Airport Assn.

The unusual fund-raiser, replete with food, drink and Western music, drew about 250 people paying at least $50 each and garnered about $10,000, said Christine Anderson, a SMARTS spokeswoman.

The money will be used to restore epic WPA murals by California artist Stanton McDonald-Wright and to commission public artworks for the airport that is in the midst of a major overhaul. Under construction at the site is a new administration building, 80 hangars, two restaurants and the cavernous Donald Douglas Museum of aviation history, where the murals are to be housed.

Funds from “Fly for Art” will go toward future public artworks, but money for the airport’s first effort has already been raised and maquettes by five finalists vying to create the installation were unveiled last Saturday. Artists Karl Ciesluk, Will Nettleship, Ron Pippin, Peter Alexander and Sylvia Gentile have come up with concepts that range from paintings of Santa Monica’s twinkling nighttime coastline to an airborne form that looks like a high-tech dragonfly.

Denise Dubroy, one of five jurors who selected the finalists, said her job was easy.

“We were looking for something compatible with the airport and with the structures here,” said Dubroy, an artist herself. “It was surprising how much we (jurors) all agreed on who to pick.”

Jurors will decide who should win the $30,000 commission (subject to final approval by the Santa Monica City Council), but SMARTS welcomes public input and Saturday’s patrons voted for their favorite artist. The maquettes will remain on view at the airport’s nearly completed administration building, where the work will be placed, through Labor Day.

The airport’s Donald Douglas Museum is scheduled to open in November and the first commissioned artwork is to be installed some time next year.

“One of our key goals is to establish Santa Monica Airport as an important cultural destination,” said airport director Hank Dittmar.

NEW BOOKS: “Modern Painters” (Alfred A. Knopf: $45), John Ruskin’s magnum opus, first published in 1843, has been given its fifth reprinting. The new, abridged version is edited by David Barrie.

“Modern Painters” is a study of art from the Renaissance to the mid-19th Century. Ruskin was an influential critic who discovered J. M. W. Turner.

“The Symbolists” (Harry N. Abrams Inc.: $85) lavishly illuminates the art of Gustave Moreau, Gustav Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley and others.

KID CULTURE: 5- to 12-year-olds may have their day in “Sundays in the Museum,” a summer family series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Today, the theme is portraits, with gallery tours in English and Spanish, storytelling, poetry writing and mask-making. The California E.A.R. Unit, a contemporary music ensemble, will show participants how to make self-portraits in sound.

On Sept. 25, children may discover the ancient world by learning traditional Chinese dances. There also will be storytelling, museum tours, an art project and other activities. No reservations are required. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

PEOPLE: Philadelphia architect Adele Naude Santos has won a design competition held in conjunction with a 1989 Museum of Contemporary Art exhibit about Case Study Houses. As winner of the competition, Santos’ design of an affordable housing complex for 40 families will be built in Hollywood by 1990. Her design was modeled after projects in the Case Study Houses program that took place in Los Angeles between 1945 and 1966. The competition was co-sponsored by MOCA and the Community Redevelopment Agency.