The Depression
As a result of the stock market crash of 1929, Sol Kogen’s financial position was severely impacted. Consequently, during the depression, Kogen relied more and more on Carl Street Studios as a means of revenue. The “art for art sake” spirit of the complex diminished somewhat, and Kogen apparently began demanding that the studio spaces be made smaller in order to increase the number of paying tenants. A rift thus developed between the art-inspired Miller and the cashed strapped Kogen and by 1936, Miller ceased work on the project altogether. It must also be said that, by this time, Miller’s work was in high demand commercially, and it is unlikely that he was contributing much to the complex anyway. With Edgar Miller’s departure, most of the on-going art work in the studio complex was completed by the versatile Jesus Torres, who had been Miller’s primary apprentice. During the ensuing decades, generations of artisans and craftsmen (and craftswomen) have worked on the exteriors and interiors of the studio complex.
Read more about this topic: Carl Street Studios
Famous quotes containing the word depression:
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)
“Mental health data from the 1950’s on middle-aged women showed them to be a particularly distressed group, vulnerable to depression and feelings of uselessness. This isn’t surprising. If society tells you that your main role is to be attractive to men and you are getting crow’s feet, and to be a mother to children and yours are leaving home, no wonder you are distressed.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)