Add news
News Every Day |

Remembering Tony Sheets, who saved art by his father, Millard Sheets

Tony Sheets went his own way as an artist, rarely working directly with his famous father. But in later years, Millard Sheets’ legacy became his son’s.

Tony led the art program at the Los Angeles County Fair, just as his father had done a half-century earlier. And he devoted his energies in recent years toward rescuing murals at Home Savings and other buildings by his father that were threatened by demolition.

The last surviving child of Millard Sheets, Tony Sheets died Dec. 10 at age 82 in Oregon after several years of declining health.

On Facebook, Brian Worley, who worked with both Tony and Millard, wrote: “The Sheets legacy will continue but it has lost the brightest light.”

Millard Sheets was a watercolorist and muralist who was born in Pomona in 1907 and lived and worked in Claremont before his 1989 death. As a latter-day admirer, I was thrilled to meet his son.

Tony, hired in 2007, was the fair’s director of art. His father had held the same post from 1931 to 1956. The 1937 Fine Arts Building had been renamed the Millard Sheets Art Center in his honor.

Many of the 300,000 annual visitors might never otherwise set foot in an art museum. The mission, as Tony told me in 2010, was “to bring art to the people.” That was part of his DNA. His father had held a similar view. And his son embraced that.

“I don’t try to fill his shoes. I try to fill his spirit,” Tony said.

Born in 1942, John Anthony Sheets was raised in Padua Hills, an artists’ colony above Claremont, studied with or apprenticed for some of the city’s well-known artists and, after some rebellious years, made peace with his father and assisted him at times.

By the 2000s, Millard’s commercial art in public or semi-public places was increasingly in jeopardy as Home Savings, for which he had done 40 mosaic murals, became Chase Bank, and those and other buildings were shuttered, renovated or repurposed.

Tony Sheets touches up a mural by his father, Millard, at Mineta International Airport in San Jose in 2011. The canvas mural, which had been glued to the wall in Terminal C, was successfully removed and installed in the new international terminal. (File photo by Patrick Tehan, Mercury News/BANG)

In 2008, a 1970s terminal at San Jose International Airport was set to be demolished, taking a 28-by-35-foot Sheets mural with it.

“Tony investigated and found it was actually on canvas that could be detached and moved. As a result, that great mural is today in the new terminal,” Alan Hess, an architectural historian, wrote after Tony’s death.

Under Tony’s direction, the massive “Pleasures Along the Beach” mosaic mural, made up of thousands of pieces of colored glass, was saved from a Santa Monica Home Savings. It was repaired by Worley, who then oversaw its installation in 2024 outside the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange.

Tony also consulted on the restoration of his father’s twin Rainbow Tower mosaics, 31 stories high, on the sides of the Hilton Hawaiian Resort Village in Honolulu, and he rescued an 80-foot Tournament of Roses mural that found a home at Pasadena City College.

Advocating for his father’s art, his late-in-life calling, resulted in saving many examples that otherwise would have been lost.

“I think that’s maybe his biggest contribution,” Catherine McIntosh, board member of the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art and a family friend, told me. “It’s probably the thing that will be most important in the long term.”

Adam Arenson got to know the younger Sheets while researching Millard’s Home Savings art for his book “Banking on Beauty.” By email, Arenson said: “Tony Sheets was first and foremost an artist, talented and with his own sometimes quirky vision.”

One of the county fair shows he organized was on collectors and collecting, with a man’s assemblage of lunch boxes framed inside a wall-sized lunchbox. The 2009 fair show had this tongue-in-cheek title: “The Making of Art: The First 30,000 Years.”

Tony would drive down from Oregon in an RV with his wife, Flower, for the duration of the fair through his last one in 2015. Friendly and low-key, he always appeared glad to see me and would walk me around the exhibit to point out little touches.

A signature element of his tenure was to have artists at work inside the gallery or out on the patio, blowing glass, crafting jewelry, weaving threads. “People love to see artists at work,” he told me. “It makes them see they can do it.”

“The Evolution of Los Angeles” is a 66-by-35-foot narrative mural in concrete by artist Tony Sheets that traces the history of the city. It’s on the exterior of a parking structure on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Like his father, Tony took on several monumental commissions.

“Gift of the Valley,” a painted mural of an orange tree, was unveiled in 2017 at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. Measuring 30 by 83 feet, the mural wraps around two sides of a parking structure on Orange Grove Avenue and can be glimpsed from the 10 Freeway.

His work is also in downtown Los Angeles. Finishing up lunch on a recent weekend at Grand Central Market, I realized two of those pieces were just blocks away above Third Street.

“The Evolution of Los Angeles” is on the west side of the former L.A. Times parking structure on Broadway. “The Evolution of Printing” is on the structure’s east side on Spring. The bas-relief murals in concrete were produced from 1988-89 and are said to measure 66 by 35 feet.

They’re impressive to take in, both in their massive scale and in their compression of centuries into an easy-to-digest timeline of images. The one about printing begins with (I think) the ancient Phoenicians, winds through Gutenberg and ends with — be still my heart — a newsboy hawking newspapers.

Passersby walk by “The Evolution of Printing,” a concrete mural by Tony Sheets on South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. It’s on the exterior of a parking structure formerly owned by the Los Angeles Times. The multi-scene mural ends with a newsboy hawking a newspaper. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

I’m aware of but haven’t seen another mural, a frieze, that is in downtown’s World Trade Center. It sports yet another grand title, “The History of World Commerce.”

I don’t know who will advocate for saving Millard Sheets’ artwork in his son’s absence. But with talks about renovating the World Trade Center into apartments, it might be that someone will need to advocate for saving Tony Sheets art too.

David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday for newspaper sheets. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.

Минск

Лукашенко заявил, что белорусская армия готова к любым вызовам.

Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this

Liverpool marching toward Premier League title after statement win at Man City

Police arrest serial thief in Jigawa, recover stolen vehicle

Arne Slot explains ‘completely normal’ drop in form for Liverpool hero this season

Pranali Rathod and Akshay Bindra share their excitement about starting a new journey as leads in Kumkum Bhagya

Ria.city
Реклама
Recommendations to help you get a great harvest of potatoes

Life hacks to help you get a big potato harvest: Asian farmers share tips






Реклама
Recommendations to help you get a great harvest of potatoes

Life hacks to help you get a big potato harvest: Asian farmers share tips


Реклама
Recommendations to help you get a great harvest of potatoes

Life hacks to help you get a big potato harvest: Asian farmers share tips

Read also

CBN reaffirms commitment to stronger Nigeria-Saudi economic ties

Rumble and Trump Media File New Lawsuit in US Court Against Tyrannical Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Moraes, Who Is Censoring, Fining and Blocking Social Media Platforms

The Department of Defense is publicly telling staff to ignore the DOGE team's 'what did you do last week' email requests

News, articles, comments, with a minute-by-minute update, now on Today24.pro

News Every Day

Pranali Rathod and Akshay Bindra share their excitement about starting a new journey as leads in Kumkum Bhagya

Today24.pro — latest news 24/7. You can add your news instantly now — here


News Every Day

Police arrest serial thief in Jigawa, recover stolen vehicle



Sports today


Новости тенниса
Елена Рыбакина

Автор уникального достижения высказалась о победе над Рыбакиной



Спорт в России и мире
Москва

Талисман команды: 15-летний молоток вдохновляет гимнасток Волгограда на победы



All sports news today





Sports in Russia today

Москва

Талисман команды: 15-летний молоток вдохновляет гимнасток Волгограда на победы


Новости России

Game News

КГ играет: Yakuza 0, часть 4


Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine

Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this

Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this

Russian.city

Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine


Москва

Пациент «Евроонко» стал героем сюжета «Первого канала» об успехах российских онкологов в лечении тяжелых случаев рака


Губернаторы России
Коммерсантъ

Кандидат без отрыва от фронта // Внесен законопроект о праве военных выдвигаться на выборы, не покидая место службы


2 БПЛА уничтожены над территорией Рязанской области, вероятная цель - РНПК

Консультант Музыканта. Консультирование Музыканта.

Российские рыбаки предсказали рост цен на лососевые

Праздник 23 Февраля в ТРЦ «Нора»


Super.ru: Билан пришел на выступление девочек, поющих песню «Сигма-бой»

Иск удовлетворен частично: состоялось заседание по разделу имущества Градского

Вспоминаем хиты века. Metallica в настоящей тюрьме, Бейонсе в майке-«алкоголичке», а Мэнсон будит лихо (видео)

Общественники потребовали отменить концерт Киркорова в Санкт-Петербурге


Обидчица Елены Рыбакиной повторила достижение Марии Шараповой

Рио (ATP). 1/4 финала. Зверев сыграет с Комесаньей, Серундоло – с Мюллером

Мирра Андреева поднялась на четвертую позицию в гонке за чемпионство WTA.

Красноярская теннисистка Мирра Андреева выиграла турнир WTA 1000 в Дубае


Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine


День защитника Отечества отметили в Центральном округе Росгвардии

Yagoda: Новое слово в сборе чаевых и эквайринге для бьюти и других отраслей

Синоптик Ильин: в Москве последняя неделя февраля будет морозной

Автомобильный аккумулятор взорвался в квартире на юге Москвы, выбило стекла


В Грозном представитель Росгвардии принял участие в совещаниипо вопросам проведения Международной историко — просветительской акции «Диктант Победы»

Поздравление президента ТПП РФ Сергея Катырина с Днем защитника Отечества

Трамп не планирует визит в Москву на 9 Мая, заявил Дмитрий Песков.

Трамп и Москва: судьба майского визита к Дню Победы остается неясной


​Газоблок против каркаса. Какую технологию строительства загородного дома выбрать?

Красноярские легкоатлеты завоевали три медали первенства России

Ампир, эклектика и неоклассика: три особняка признаны памятниками архитектуры

Instagram* не пустят в Россию даже после отмены санкций: Депутат назвал главную причину


Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this


Путин в России и мире
Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this



Реклама
Top 6 nutrition questions men should ask themselves after 40

To maintain health and remain full of energy, men will be helped by this



Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine



Реклама
The most beautiful beach towns with cheap living

A huge number of people around the world dream of one day breaking out of the daily routine

Персональные новости Russian.city
Моргенштерн

"В каждом из нас есть Божественная душа". Моргенштерн* рассказал о том, что переосмыслил за время пребывания в рехабе



News Every Day

Traffic plan for Champions Trophy matches finalised in Rawalpindi




Friends of Today24

Музыкальные новости

Персональные новости