Robert F. Boyle and Boris Levin were two great artists you may have never heard of, but you already love their work. The longtime friends were the art directors behind North By Northwest, The Sound of Music, West Side Story and decades of the 20th century’s most beautiful movies. I particularly love Boyle’s sets (and Mary Blair’s color design) for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. When not creating these temporary aesthetic wonderlands, the Academy Award winners painted a wonderful series of California watercolors currently featured in an exhibition organized by the Art Directors Guild. These original works, depicting traveling circuses, Grauman’s Chinese and the looming oil tanks that used to dot downtown, are on view at the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood through September 8th. Leven died in 1986 and Boyle in 2010, but their creations live on through their beautiful movies and these gorgeous glimpses of depression-era California. Here is a gallery of ten of our favorites.
Photos Copyright: Art Directors Guild/The Boyle Family
