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Lena Torslow Hansen Papers
0205
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Contributing Institution:
Pepperdine University. Special Collections and University Archives.
Title: Lena Torslow Hansen Papers
Identifier/Call Number: 0205
Physical Description:
.21 Linear Feet
1 Half Hollinger Box
Date (inclusive): 1980 - 2021
Abstract: Lena Torslow Hansen is a Danish ceramic artist and Scandinavian arts advocate. In 1981,the Franciscan Friars of the Serra
Retreat commissioned Torslow Hansen to design installations of fire-salvaged Malibu Tile at the Serra Retreat. This collection
documents Lena Torslow Hansen's work from planning diagrams and research on the Serra Retreat, Malibu Potteries, and the Adamson
House at the Serra to photographs of the installed tile.
Physical Location: PAYSON 360 Row 3
Language of Material:
English
.
Advance notice required for access.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was transferred to Pepperdine Libraries Special Collections and Archives by Lena Torslow Hansen in two parts.
The first donation was of 140 slide film photographs in color. The second donation was of Torslow Hansen's workbook.
The Lena Torslow Hansen Papers are arranged in the order in which they were received from Torslow Hansen (slide film photographs
and then the workbook). Interfiled materials in the notebook were removed for preservation concerns, and refoldered in original
order.
[Box/folder# or item name], Lena Torslow Hansen Papers, Collection no. 0205, Malibu Historical Collection, Special Collections
and University Archives, University Libraries, Pepperdine University.
This collection was arranged and described by Anastasia Armendariz, September 2022.
These papers contain documentation of Lena Torslow Hansen's tile work for the Serra Retreat. In 1981 the Franciscans of the
Serra Retreat commissioned Torslow Hansen to select pieces of unset Malibu Potteries tiles that had survived a prior 1970
fire for installation throughout the retreat center and grounds. After gathering, cleaning, and identifying surviving tiles
that were still suitable for use, Torslow Hansen designed and executed their arrangements.
This collection contains 140 photographic slides documenting Torslow Hansen's installation of the tiles at Serra. It also
features her work book, which consists of a notebook, photographs, news clippings, diagrams, record of billable hours, and
design sketches. The collection also includes clippings and ephemera related to her research for, and enduring interest in,
Malibu tiles at both Serra Retreat and the Adamson House for the commission. Torslow Hansen also shared photographs of work
by, and clippings related to, La Jolla tile designer Theresa Yianilos. Yianilos designed part of the Serra Retreat entrance.
Lena Torslow Hansen is a Danish ceramic artist and advocate for Scandinavian art and artists. A long-time Malibu resident,
Torslow Hansen was commissioned by Father Ron Colloty at the Serra Retreat to design and install a group of Malibu Tiles in
1981. She worked on this project through the summer of 1983.
A major fire in 1970 had destroyed the western part of Serra Retreat, which included all of the aboveground portions of the
original structure of May K. Rindge's unfinished hilltop mansion. Despite the scale of the destruction, many uninstalled tiles
from the original Malibu Potteries factory were found intact, albeit smoke-damaged, in a closed basement room of the mansion.
A portion of these titles were originally intended for the mansion before construction ceased. Others were unsold tiles that
had been transported up the hill after the permanent closure of Malibu Potteries in 1932.
Torslow Hansen was responsible for inventorying, cleaning, and then determining what tiles were in good enough condition for
use. With input from Father Ron, Torslow Hansen created designs for installations throughout the Serra Retreat grounds. Her
first design project was a "carpet" of decorative tiles for the walkway leading to the dining room along with a sweeping tile
installation along the wall at the walkway's end. Torslow Hansen's signature tile is worked into the front right side of the
"carpet."
Torslow Hansen's collage design also adorn the stairway and entrance to the administration building, the kitchen wall, the
bell tower at the upper plaza, stairs leading up to the dining room patio, the west patio fireplace-turned-planter, the exterior
of the dining room windows, and the center fountain and tree planters of the lower courtyard. The large tiles incorporated
into the lower courtyard tree planters were from the original Rindge mansion large Persian rug installation. Some of these
were still attached to the concrete they were initially set in on the grand gallery floor.
Lena Torslow Hansen's final piece of work for the Serra Retreat project was an entrance sign on Serra Road. This sign was
completed in collaboration with ceramicist Theresa Yianilos. Concurrently with the Serra Retreat project, Torslow Hansen served
as the Chairperson of Visual Art for Scandinavia Today from 1982 to 1983. In this role, she initiated and placed 29 exhibitions
in Southern California museums and university galleries. Torslow Hansen was also instrumental in bringing the exhibition "Golden
Age of Danish Painting" to the LACMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the mid-1990s.
Torslow Hansen also organized and curated "Broad Spectrum: Contemporary Los Angeles Painters and Sculptors" for the Los Angeles
Olympic Cultural Festival. She received a fall 1985 Fellowship for Arts Managers from the National Endowment for the Arts
(NEA) and in 1990, Torslow Hansen founded the Scandinavian American Arts Foundation (SAAF). SAAF was a non-profit institution
that promoted and supported Scandinavian contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States.
Torslow Hansen's ceramic artistry has been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries, and she is a practiced and ready lecturer
on the subject. Since 1986 she has led ART: CONSULTING: SCANDINAVIA, a book importer and distributor focusing on works related
to Scandinavia.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
See also Malibu Tiles Collection
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Adamson House (Malibu, Calif.)
Malibu (Calif.) -- History -- 20th century
Photographs
Ceramic tiles
Clippings
Architecture -- Designs and plans
Serra Retreat (Malibu, Calif.)