Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olson on the ’50s Adventures of SupermanTV series, was a gay man with apparently world-class taste. Larson, who just passed in September and his late partner James Bridges (who died 25 years ago) are donating their art collection and this small but perfect Frank Lloyd Wright house in Brentwood to an auction to benefit the Bridges/Larson Foundation which provides scholarships to high-school graduates who plan to major in film, TV, or theatre.

Completed in 1939, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges House has a dramatic cantilevered design with just 2 bedrooms and one bathroom but the master architect’s use of the surrounding landscape tricks the eye into believing the brick-and-concrete house is larger than it is. Part of it hovers over the hillside lot, making the home seem as if it were floating when viewed from the road below. There’s a large living-dining room with a fireplace and a basement that could be as more bedrooms. But the 17,000-square-foot lot is smaller than most in multi-million dollar homes in nearby Beverly Hills.

The couple also spent decades collecting modern art, including works by Alex Katz, David Hockney, Don Bachardy, Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, Alberto Giacometti, Claes Oldenburg, Sam Francis and others which will also be up for auction. Wright-designed, as well as other furniture from house is being sold separately and this auction marks the first time Los Angeles Modern Auctions is auctioning a home as art. LAMA founder Peter Loughrey says the Sturges house offers,

”an opportunity to live inside a work of art.”

A spectacular house no doubt, but not many people who can spend $3 million on a house, want to live in 1200 square feet. The Larson/Bridges auction is February 21 at Los Angeles Modern Auction. You can find out more here.

The Morgan Library’s current exhibition “Handmade: Artists’ Holiday Cards from the Archives of American Art,” has some great holiday cards created by modern and contemporary artists. Among the artists represented are Claes Oldenburg, Helen Frankenthaler, Milton Avery, Alexander Calder, Ad Reinhardt, and Saul Steinberg.

Dating from the 20s to the 90s, the cards were chosen from among 6,000 artist collections at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. Exhibition curator Mary Savig says;

“The cards are often in keeping with the artists’ familiar styles, though a few represent creative departures. They’re a little bit more personal and are sent directly to someone else. They were really just meant for a few people to see.”

Some of them are jokey, like Oldenburg’s pig drawing with the caption, “Sappy Goo Year.” Others are more avant, like Kay Sage’s “Merry Xmas, Happy 1959,” in typewritten rows of letters. The exhibit is on view through January 4 at The Morgan Library.

Painter Ad Reinhardt shows illustrates a portrait of himself as a sign painter (his former occupation) & his wife over a hot stove, while his son Jeb is ‘slaying Goliath.’

Saul Steinberg sent this card to curator Dorothy Miller in 1945.

Artist Julia Thecla sent this hand-painted holiday card to Katharine Kuh, a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Claes Oldenburg’s card to Sam Wagstaff, sent around 1965.

Artist Kay Sage sent this holiday card to Eleanor Howland Bunce in 1959.

Alexander Calder’s 1929 New Year’s card was signed with his nickname, ‘Sandy.’

Philip Guston send this card to Dorothy Miller in the early 1970s.

WHO KNEW SUPERMAN'S JIMMY OLSON LIVED IN A FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT MASTERPIECE?

HANDMADE HOLIDAY GREETINGS FROM AVERY, CALDER, OLDENBURG...