Fine Offerings Make Library a Work of Art

From “Sex” to Cezanne, the fine-arts wing of the Beverly Hills Library is establishing a reputation for being on top of what’s hot in the international world of art, music and dance.

The wing, located on the library’s second floor, recently received, on loan, a copy of Madonna’s new book, “Sex,” which is kept under lock and key. But it also offers the work of contemporary artist David Hockney, richly reproduced in slides and books, and hosts art shows with works ranging from African art to the current exhibit by Beverly Hills ceramist Elsa Simon.

When word spread that the library had Madonna’s book, reserve request cards began to pour in, fine-arts librarian Nick Cellini said, but librarians informed patrons that the book could only be looked at in the library--with a credit card deposited as security.

“She’s no Mapplethorpe,” Cellini said wryly, but it was the librarian who loaned his personal copy of the book to the library.

Satisfying the interests of everyone from Avon bottle collectors to Picasso connoisseurs is the daunting task, librarians say. The 25,000-book reference collection is used by art, dance and music students, estate appraisers and baseball card collectors.

Even Interpol and the FBI use the library, to track down thefts and forgeries. The two law enforcement agencies recently called for a description of a piece from an artist’s catalogue raisonne , Cellini said. (A catalogue raisonne is an authoritative book that lists all of an artist’s work and usually includes a black-and-white photograph of a piece, its description, its sales price history and ownership history. One of the library’s foremost references is the Christian Zervos catalogue raisonne that lists Pablo Picasso’s work by year.)

For art connoisseurs, the need to know knows no boundaries, librarians say. “Beverly Hills rings a bell all over the world,” Cellini said. Calls for help come from as far away as Denmark, France and Germany.

It helps that Beverly Hills has a reputation and “people tend to toss our name out,” said librarian Jeri Byrne, who oversees the auction sales catalogues from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Butterfield & Butterfield.

But the main draw is the section’s accessibility, librarians say. Other reference collections are more comprehensive but are far more difficult for the general public to access. The reference resources at the J. Paul Getty Museum are probably the best, Byrne said, but patrons must have an appointment to see them.

Also, patrons at the Beverly Hills Library don’t need a serious research purpose for looking at reference materials. The fine-arts wing is useful for serious art collectors and appraisers, Cellini said, but about 35% to 40% of the inquiries by phone start out with, “I have this painting on the wall.”

Or they’ll say, “My grandmother said I could have her landscape” and they’re interested in finding out more about it, Byrne said.

There is a lot of detective work involved in finding out about an artist who is not a big name, Byrne said. The artist may not be well-known today but maybe was a successful etcher or drawer in 19th-Century England.

“We don’t pretend to be connoisseurs, but if we can find the information in a book, that’s what we can do for a patron,” Byrne said. For some patrons, the library ends the mystery about what had been a topic of conversation for 20 years.

Patrons’ interests are not all highbrow either. The collection stocks books that quote prices paid for Avon bottles, baseball cards, old kitchen utensils and all sorts of knickknacks, Cellini said. “Everyone has something they collect.”

The fine-arts collection was established in 1964 through garage sales of paintings and engravings by the library’s support group, the Friends of the Beverly Hills Public Library, Cellini said.

The group thought that the community had an interest in art but that there was no easily accessible art library, he said. The task of developing the reference library was given to Bernard Karpel, chief librarian at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who concentrated on acquiring research materials on art from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since then, the library has received several collections, Cellini said.

The 10,000-square-foot wing is the home of the Dorathi Bock Pierre Dance collection. Donated by the former dance soloist with the Mikhail Fokine Ballet, the collection includes 400 books, 8,000 issues of periodicals, 6,000 photos, 2,000 programs and Pierre’s personal dance files. It features information about dance personalities Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan and Rudolph Nureyev, as well as books on dance history, education, dance notation, and costume and stage design.

Also on display is the Zita Zech collection, a reference section on interior design donated by the American Society of Interior Designers at the Blue Whale in honor of Zech, Cellini said. Zech was a prominent Los Angeles designer in the 1930s.

The wing also showcases original works of art, including recent exhibitions of African art and Mexican pottery and jewelry. The glass exhibit space has become so popular that shows have been booked through September, Cellini said.

The current exhibition through Jan. 18 features selected ceramic works of Elsa Simon, including her interpretation of an ancient Japanese pitcher, a reproduction of an American bowl and an award-winning raku tea set.