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Watts Towers:

National and California

Historic Landmark

Presentation by Kristi Reyes

Level 7, MiraCosta College

Spring 2022

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Watts Towers

Created by Sabato (Simon or Sam) Rodia (1879 or 1886 - 1965), an Italian immigrant who came to U.S. at age 15

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Also known as Nuestro Pueblo ("our town" in Spanish)

Rodia was a construction worker and tile mason

Watts Towers were build over a period of 33 years from 1921 to 1954

Located in Watts, a neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, California

At age 42, Rodia began working on his masterpiece. Every day after work and all through the weekends, he would search for usable material and work, work, work. Carmen soon left him - according to Rodia, it was due to his obsession with the project. (source: WATTS TOWERS: THE STORY OF AN LA ICON)

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Watts Towers

Art Movement / Type

The work is an example of outsider art (or Art Brut) and Italian-American naïve art.

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Location

1727 E 107th St, Los Angeles, CA

(1 hr 20 minutes drive depending on traffic)

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Watts Towers Arts Center - community arts center

https://www.wattstowers.org/

Events: films, concerts, art exhibits and programs, tours of Watts Towers

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What is it?

Watts Towers

A collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artist's original residential property

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Materials

Found objects (recycled)

  • Constructed from steel rebar and the artist’s own concoction of a type of concrete, wrapped with wire mesh.
  • Main supports are embedded with pieces of porcelain, tile, and glass
  • Decorated with found objects, including bottles, ceramic tiles, seashells, figurines, mirrors, and much more.
  • Built them with no special equipment or predetermined design, working alone with hand tools.
  • Neighborhood children brought pieces of broken pottery to Rodia, and he also used damaged pieces from Malibu Potteries and CALCO (California Clay Products Company)
  • Green glass includes recognizable soft drink bottles from the 1930s through 1950s, some still bearing the former logos of 7 Up, Squirt, Bubble Up, and Canada Dry; blue glass appears to be from milk of magnesia bottles
  • Much of the Towers' framework came from scrap rebar, using nearby railroad tracks as a makeshift vise
  • Other items came from alongside the Pacific Electric Railway right-of-way between Watts and Wilmington

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A Part of History

The Watts Towers were added to the National Register of Historic Places in April 1977. The towers were designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in March 1963, a California Historical Landmark in August 1990, and a U.S. National Historic Landmark in December 1990.

Featured in popular music, movies, TV shows, literature, and even video games.

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I chose this piece of art because it’s interesting, it cost next to nothing for the artist to make it, and it’s part of California history.

It is art made from “found objects” and didn’t use up valuable resources.

It’s also colorful, bright, and joy-inducing with a lot of small, intricate details.

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Conclusion:

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”�

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credits.

Presentation Template: SlidesMania

Sample Images: Unsplash

Fonts used in this presentation: Times.

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