1973 Nyman Pictorial View of Los Angeles, California

LosAngeles-nyman-1973
$850.00
Los Angeles. - Main View
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1973 Nyman Pictorial View of Los Angeles, California

LosAngeles-nyman-1973

Unrecorded 'Psychedelic' Promotional View of L.A.
$850.00

Title


Los Angeles.
  1973 (dated)     28.875 x 40 in (73.3425 x 101.6 cm)

Description


This is an unrecorded 1973 psychedelic pictorial view of Los Angeles and its environs by artist Robbie Nyman. Aside from its distinctive aesthetic qualities, the view is also notable for being a very early example of the 'cartoon' style promotional views that would become prevalent in the following years.
A Closer Look
Oriented roughly towards the northeast, the view covers, at left, from the Sepulveda Pass and Santa Monica in the north to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in the south and, at right, from Chinatown to Boyle Heights. However, artistic liberties are taken with the placement and orientation of neighborhoods and buildings; in reality, Dodger Stadium, Chinatown, Japantown, and Boyle Heights are within a stone's throw of each other, but here take up most of the top-right quadrant of the view. At the same time, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills are depicted as next-door neighbors here when, in fact, they are separated by roughly 6 miles.

The view adopts an interesting color scheme reminiscent of psychedelic prints of the era. In reference to the horrendous traffic choking L.A.'s freeways (this was the height of the 'smog' crisis), cars are depicted bumper to bumper along the area's main arteries, the only drab, grey spots in an otherwise colorful landscape. Several businesses (which no doubt sponsored the view's production) are prominently noted, as are landmarks such as LAX, the L.A. Coliseum, Dodger Stadium, Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood Bowl, the Angel's Flight, and Watts Tower.
Publication History and Census
This view was drawn in 1973 by artist Robbie Nyman (Penthouse Studios) for Trans Continental Cartographers, all Canada-based. It is a promotional view, perhaps produced for (J. W.) Robinson's Department Stores, although other businesses (Avis Car Rental, Utter McKinley Mortuary, KNBC TV) certainly seem to have sponsored it as well, given their multiple prominent appearances. The publication information notes that it was distributed by A.A. Sales Inc., which produced a series of psychedelic posters during this era. In any event, it represents an early example of the style of promotional city view with advertisements for local businesses that would become widespread in the following years. The view is quite rare, with no known institutional holdings.

CartographerS


Robbie Nyman (fl. c. 1972 - 1976) was an artist of cartoon-style promotional pictorial views or maps of North American cities. He was affiliated with Penthouse Studios, Ltd. of Vancouver, Canada, in which the company Trans Continental Cartographers bought a principal interest in 1972. Nyman went on to design (either under his name and/or as Penthouse Studios) Trans Continental's maps of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Ottawa-Hull, and was the publisher of a Seattle poster (c. 1974). Nyman also created similarly themed poster maps for other publishers, including Vancouver (1975) for Evergreen Press, Montreal (1976) for the Montreal Star newspaper, and Sun Valley, Idaho (no date). (Stevens, R., 'The Cartoon-Style Poster Maps of Trans Continental Cartographers Ltd., Vancouver, B.C.' Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives No. 172, Summer 2023). More by this mapmaker...


Transcontinental Cartographers Limited (fl. c. 1971 - 1972) was a publishing company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company published several pictorial maps of American and Canadian cities, including Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, Kansas City, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Vancouver. It appears that they subscribed to the ‘subscription model’ of cartography, by accepting payment from companies to feature their businesses in their maps. Their maps were distributed by A.A. Sales Inc. of Seattle, Washington. Learn More...

Condition


Very good. Closed edge tears professionally repaired on verso. Manuscript infill to lower border.