2008 Woodie Awards
Simonite illustrates Alameda Theatre
McNay Art Museum showcases Patricia Simonite's exhibition, "Alameda Ayer"
Blake Hilburn
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Trinity Life
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San Antonio's Alameda Theatre, built in 1949, is the largest movie palace in America centering on Spanish language entertainment. By 1991, though, the theatre had fallen into disrepair and was renovated with the aid of local visionaries and donations given by the city of San Antonio. Five years later the Smithsonian Institute announced the Museo Alameda as its first affiliate outside of Washington, D.C.
It is this theatre, located downtown on Houston Street, that is the focus of an exhibit by Patricia Simonite, professor of art and art history. Her collection, "Alameda Ayer," is made up of 20 photographs, now on display at the McNay Art Museum.
Patricia Simonite's photographs were taken in 1980, 20 years after she had moved from Norwich, England.
"At the time that I photographed the Alameda Theatre, I had also been taking a series of photographs of old motels," Simonite said. "Many of the motel images were shot with black and white film and then hand-colored. I found myself drawn to places that seemed particularly 'American.' Motels and the Alameda Theatre are all types of architecture that are very different from what one might see in England."
Chief Curator of the McNay Rene Barrilleaux first saw Simonite's work at her personal studio.
"Because of the restoration of the Alameda, [Simonite's work] seemed timely. It was the end of the original heyday of the theatre," Barrilleaux said. "The use of black and white is interesting because she makes the photographs even more distant. We have a historical association with black and white. It transfers you to the past."
Barrilleaux described the significance of Simonite's work.
"Like the theatre itself, Simonite's pictures presents these amazing juxtapositions, like the art décor statues as a background for milk duds and concession stands or the use of bilingual movie posters placed side by side," Barrilleaux said.
Simonite discussed how the theatre provided inspiration.
"I was also very interested in places that had an 'aura' of time in the past, and that emanated a sense of history. The Alameda's interior is very art deco in style with the banana leaf walls and the art deco style figurines behind the concession stand. I have always been drawn to places that evoke a sense of time passed, even nostalgia. I was very aware of that when taking the photographs and that is what drew me to the Alameda in the first place. The Alameda was in the 1980s in its last years of operation and seemed then to be from a bygone era, of course that passage of time is even more obvious when looking at the photographs today," Simonite said.
Simonite's work fits perfectly into the McNay. The building is a massive 24-room Spanish colonial revival-style mansion, with its own share of history deeply rooted in San Antonio. Both Simonite's exhibit and the McNay draw attention to the city's blending of cultures through the preservation of history in the arts. Joan Fanshaw, an art student at University of Texas, San Antonio, described the exhibit.
"It's really weird because I have been living in this city for so long, and I had never even heard of the Alameda before. Simonite's photographs really capture it though" Fanshaw said.
Patricia Simonite's work will be showing at the McNay until Jan. 6, 2008.
It is this theatre, located downtown on Houston Street, that is the focus of an exhibit by Patricia Simonite, professor of art and art history. Her collection, "Alameda Ayer," is made up of 20 photographs, now on display at the McNay Art Museum.
Patricia Simonite's photographs were taken in 1980, 20 years after she had moved from Norwich, England.
"At the time that I photographed the Alameda Theatre, I had also been taking a series of photographs of old motels," Simonite said. "Many of the motel images were shot with black and white film and then hand-colored. I found myself drawn to places that seemed particularly 'American.' Motels and the Alameda Theatre are all types of architecture that are very different from what one might see in England."
Chief Curator of the McNay Rene Barrilleaux first saw Simonite's work at her personal studio.
"Because of the restoration of the Alameda, [Simonite's work] seemed timely. It was the end of the original heyday of the theatre," Barrilleaux said. "The use of black and white is interesting because she makes the photographs even more distant. We have a historical association with black and white. It transfers you to the past."
Barrilleaux described the significance of Simonite's work.
"Like the theatre itself, Simonite's pictures presents these amazing juxtapositions, like the art décor statues as a background for milk duds and concession stands or the use of bilingual movie posters placed side by side," Barrilleaux said.
Simonite discussed how the theatre provided inspiration.
"I was also very interested in places that had an 'aura' of time in the past, and that emanated a sense of history. The Alameda's interior is very art deco in style with the banana leaf walls and the art deco style figurines behind the concession stand. I have always been drawn to places that evoke a sense of time passed, even nostalgia. I was very aware of that when taking the photographs and that is what drew me to the Alameda in the first place. The Alameda was in the 1980s in its last years of operation and seemed then to be from a bygone era, of course that passage of time is even more obvious when looking at the photographs today," Simonite said.
Simonite's work fits perfectly into the McNay. The building is a massive 24-room Spanish colonial revival-style mansion, with its own share of history deeply rooted in San Antonio. Both Simonite's exhibit and the McNay draw attention to the city's blending of cultures through the preservation of history in the arts. Joan Fanshaw, an art student at University of Texas, San Antonio, described the exhibit.
"It's really weird because I have been living in this city for so long, and I had never even heard of the Alameda before. Simonite's photographs really capture it though" Fanshaw said.
Patricia Simonite's work will be showing at the McNay until Jan. 6, 2008.
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