Dietrich Grunewald

Dietrich at the easel, San Francisco, ca.1940

After leaving Chicago, Dietrich initially settled in downtown Los Angeles, where he enrolled in classes to study anatomical drawing at night and poured over art books housed at the Los Angeles Public Library during the day. Also during this time, he began producing a series of etchings documenting the city's street life. In 1938, he met a Danish conductor named Charles Lautrup who invited him to design the sets for a one-night production he was to be conducting of the Danish national music-drama, “Elverhøj” (aka “The Elves’ Hill”), as part of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. Dietrich accepted Lautrup's offer and soon found himself relocating to San Francisco, where he began research, producing concept and final drawings, and working with a team to create the backdrops.[10]

“Elverhøj” was performed at the War Memorial Opera House on June 18, 1939.[11] On the night of the performance, he met heldentenor, Lauritz Melchior, and veteran character actor, Jean Hersholt, both of whom urged him to explore production work in Hollywood.[12] In the months following the performance, he stayed in San Francisco and resumed a course of independent art study by regular visits to the library, taking night classes in etching and drypoint, and capturing the Bay Area’s urban, rural and waterfront scenery through paintings, drawings and etchings, which were exhibited at the Courvoisier Galleries in San Francisco.[13]

Truckfarmers etching, 1940

In 1940, he returned to Los Angeles and was hired for production work at 20th Century-Fox Studios, where he was tasked with projecting dimensional drawings from architectural blueprints to facilitate set construction, along with continuity sketches. His initial assignments consisted of two Carmen Miranda musicals, Down Argentine Way and Springtime in the Rockies. His next assignment was at Paramount Pictures where he worked under the supervision of acclaimed production designer William Cameron Menzies to create the storyboards for For Whom the Bell Tolls.[14]

"Perspective View, Forward Deckhouse Erection Section" axonometric drawing, Kaiser Co., Inc., Richmond CA, 1942

Following America's entry into World War II, Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver, Washington, contacted him about applying his drafting skills to aid in war production. Similar to what he had done at 20th Century-Fox, he was tasked with creating axonometric drawings from architectural blueprints to aid in ship construction. In late spring 1942, he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he commuted every day to the Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver. By winter, he had received an offer to transfer to the shipyards in Richmond, enabling him to return to the Bay Area. As a Swedish citizen, Dietrich had initially come to the US on a student visa and had looked into the possibility of applying for American citizenship. However, once the US entered the war, his becoming a citizen was contingent upon his going to war, which he refused to do. Alternately, he was advised by the Swedish Consulate that he could obtain an exemption based on his Swedish citizenship, and re-apply after the war ended. However, as he learned at the war's conclusion, it would not be possible to do so until many years to come, when he finally became an American citizen at the age of 80.[15]

Dietrich creating a storyboard for The Princess and the Pirate at Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Hollywood, 1944

In 1944, he was hired by Samuel Goldwyn Productions in Hollywood to create the storyboards for the Danny Kaye musical Up in Arms, and the Bob Hope comedy The Princess and the Pirate. This in turn led to an assignment at Walt Disney Productions, where he created the matte drawings for the live-action background sequences of Song of the South.[16]

Dietrich Studios publicity photo showing the designer surrounded by his textile and wallpapers designs, ca.1950

A studio-wide strike between 1945 and 1946 compelled Dietrich to venture beyond the art departments of Hollywood and explore new ways of making a living. Heeding the suggestion of costume designer, Edith Head, he contacted San Francisco-based textile designer and weaver, Dorothy Liebes, about the prospect of branching out into wallpaper and textile design. In addition to her success as a designer and weaver, Liebes was also a savvy businesswoman. After reviewing his sketches and color samples, she invited him to showcase his work that fall to her East Coast buyers at New York City's Gotham Hotel. For the next two months, he worked on developing a design portfolio for the showcase, which Liebes would later brand “The New California Look.” The success of this showcase enabled him to forge a new path in textile and wallpaper design, securing contracts with leading U.S. manufacturers, such as Scalamandré Silks, Schumacher & Co., Kent-Bragaline, Katzenbach and Warren, and Morley-Fletcher.[17] Some of his more popular designs for textiles and wallpapers included Asian-inspired motives of cherry, pine and ming trees, Southwestern pueblos, Over-sized oak leaves printed on Peruvian linen and scenes of Americana.[18] In particular, Dietrich's oak leaf design on Peruvian linen received national attention through exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.[19] Upon his return from New York, he rented a storefront on West 3rd Street in West Hollywood, where he worked as a freelance designer until opening Dietrich Studios in 1948.[20] By the late 1950s, Dietrich's textile and wallpaper designs could be found on the walls, windows and furniture of various U.S. Embassies; President Truman’s “Little White House” in Key West, Florida; the Governor's Palace in Manila; the S.S. United States; and an array of popular hotels, such as the Ambassador, Beverly Hills, Oceanhouse, Tropicana, Flamingo and St. Francis.[21]

Serigraph produced by the Van Amstel Co., ca.1965

Dietrich's introduction to serigraphs started at Dietrich Studios, where he began experimenting with design and production. Soon, he was producing pairs and trios of prints unified by theme and palette that he marketed as “decorative paintings” to complement his wallpaper and textile designs. In 1949, he met a German framer named Werner Rodman, who sought to capitalize on Dietrich's artistry through a collaborative venture. In the mid-1950s, Rodman proposed a plan whereby the artist would create the designs for serigraphs and monitor production of them, while Rodman, operating under the auspices of the Van Amstel Company, would produce, market and distribute them. Over the next 25 years, Dietrich made regular visits to Van Amstel's Culver City factory, where he supervised production of his limited-edition serigraphs, which were then sold through department stores across the country, such as Broadway, Bullock's, Gimbels, Macy's, Marshall Field & Co. and others.[22] Dietrich's association with Rodman and Van Amstel proved to be a successful partnership that provided him with the financial grounding to pursue his lifelong ambition to become a fine artist.

Dietrich Vernissage at the William Tishman Home, Beverly Hills, June 1963

By the mid-1950s, Dietrich's goal of becoming a fine artist had been overshadowed by the constant demand to produce textile, wallpaper and serigraph designs. Frustrated by a lack of progress, he resolved to rededicate himself to his childhood dream through independent study and experimentation. In 1959, he acquired a studio residence in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades, and in 1961, he was commissioned to paint a large-scale mural for the new Union Federal Bank headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.[23] This was followed by another mural commission for the Prudential Life Insurance Company.

Two years later, he partnered with real estate scion, developer and interior designer, William Tishman, to present an exhibition of his impressionist works at a house Tishman had built on spec in Beverly Hills.[24] The event, billed as “The Vernissage of ‘Dietrich’”, attracted over 2,000 people on its opening weekend in June 1963, including decorators, interior designers, architects, art collectors, society people and celebrities, and the general public. The vernissage marked his formal introduction into Southern California's art colony, and was a prelude to a host of exhibitions throughout California and in various cities across America, as well as in galleries in Sydney, Toronto, El Salvador, Hong Kong and Stockholm.[25] In 1993, he moved to La Quinta, California, where he continued to show and paint until the late 1990s.

San Francisco panorama showing Dietrich's application of the impasto technique, ca.1940, oil on canvas, 24x20

A study of Dietrich's early paintings from the late 1930s and early 1940s reflects his attraction to Van Gogh's bold use of color and the impasto technique, characterized by thick layers of paint showing the texture of brush strokes or a palette knife. Color would continue to play a significant role in his work and he also cited the influence of Pierre Bonnard for his “nuanced color arrangements” and Henri Matisse for his “original use of color, an intuitive control of space and innovative sense of spatial exploration”.[26]

The Marble Players showing Dietrich's experimentation with chiaroscuro, 1958, oil on canvas, 43x49

Dietrich was also influenced by the works of Caravaggio, Murillo and Rembrandt, whose strength lay in their ability to master light and emphasize the enigmatic qualities of shadow, or chiaroscuro. He began experimenting with this technique by scouring and glazing the dark colors to extract the light from the canvas. He also cited the figures and landscapes of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Dürer as being fundamental to his exploration and treatment of this subject matter.[27]

Beyond the Old Masters and early Modernists, two experiences left a deep impression on him: one, when as a child sitting in his mother's lap, he looked out the window and witnessed the early morning sky flaring up in a brilliant cascade of light, and the other, when he arrived in the Central California Valley as a young man and was bedazzled by a field of flowers. He noted that his fascination with light and color, long preserved in his dreams, emerged in a binding theme and permeated his creative endeavors. Seeking to translate these wonders of nature to his oils on canvas, he discovered that spatial depth could only be attained through the luminosity of the color and the graduation of light, achieved by a wet-on-wet technique that prevented any individual pigment from dominating the composition.

Rites of Spring showing Dietrich's incorporation of fantasy imagery into a flowerscape, 1960, oil on canvas, 30x36

Dietrich would often employ fantasy imagery within a variety of natural settings as a way of breathing life into his work. Describing these flora fantasies as “leaps of imagination”, his imagery took the form of solitary nudes, lovers, musicians, sprites, animals, or any combination thereof set within idyllic settings that included flowerscapes, fields, meadows or forests.[28]

Polo Players, 1970, oil on canvas, 48x42

In some instances, he worked from photos provided by his patrons to incorporate the faces of their children into these settings. In the realm of figural representation, he took inspiration from Käthe Kollwitz for her transcendent works reflecting human passion and Grandma Moses for her ability to convey the purity of childlike innocence.[29]

Dietrich's study of human anatomy found its ultimate expression in a series of quasi-life-size sports paintings depicting football, baseball, soccer and tennis players, track-and-field athletes, and surfers.[30] He was also captivated by horses and the ways in which their physicality and movement could be expressed on the canvas, whether running wild, racing across a finish line or entangled in a polo match. Other subjects included children, lovers, matadors, mother and child tableaus, musicians, nudes, cityscapes, landscapes, townscapes, waterfronts and sailboats. Over the course of his fine art career, flora fantasies and horses would be recurring themes of his work.

• 
  Serenade, oil on canvas, 33x24
• 
  Seine View, Paris, oil on canvas, 36x42
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  Waterfront scene, oil on paper, 26x40
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  Skyview, San Francisco, oil on canvas, 26x31
• 
  Tropical Fantasy, oil on canvas, 32x30
• 
  Enchanted Forest, oil on paper, 22x30
• 
  Billowing Sails, oil on canvas, 39x48
• 
  Desert Sunset, oil on canvas, 36x48
• 
  Day of the Hunt, oil on canvas, 36x57
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  Goal Line Stand, oil on canvas, 78x42
• 
  "The End of the Race", oil on canvas, 70x51