Hammer Blog

Among Fred Grunwald’s many acquaintances in the Los Angeles arts community during the 1950s was the art historian Karl With. In 1933, the Nazis had forced With out of his position as director of the applied arts museum in Cologne, and by 1950 he had begun teaching at UCLA.

In 1952 the Claims Conference was organized in New York City by representatives of Jewish organizations from across the world. Their goal was to help advocate for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution by fighting for indemnification. The primary compensation program for individuals was set up in the 1950s by a number of German federal compensation laws known as the Bundesentschädigungsgesetz.

Security supervisor Jack Matsukawa has been at the Hammer Museum since day one. On the eve of his retirement—after 27 years!—I spoke with Jack about how the Hammer has changed over the years and what he will remember the most.

Ebria Feinblatt was born in Los Angeles and attended the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. After her undergraduate studies, she returned to her hometown to do postgraduate work at UCLA. At that time LACMA was part of an older museum in Exposition park dedicated to history, science, and art. In 1947 Ebria founded the department of prints and drawings, and helped oversee the acquisition of 25,000 prints during the course of her thirty-eight year career.

For those of you who aren’t in the know: NARA stands for National Archives and Record Administration, the arm of the United States Government charged with holding (nearly all) government records. Imagine the magnitude of such an enterprise. Now envision trying to find documents about an unassuming German national who fled Europe in the wake of war.