'Drawing Down The Moon' showcasing the fine artwork of Seymour Klate
Opens March 18th at Gallery 800
Included in our next exhibition are the whimsical drawings of prominent television and movie Art & Set Director Seymour Klate (1919 – 1992). This is the first showing of his work since his death 25 years ago.
Klate, born in NYC to Russian immigrants, started off his film career in the 1940’s making Camouflage and Training films for the military. He then worked as Art Director at KTTV (1949 – 1952) in Los Angeles and then moved over to ABC TV (1952 – 1954) where he worked on numerous shows.
Some of his earliest television credits included “Buster Keaton Show”, “The Gordon McRae Show”, “The Rosemary Clooney Show”, “Walter Winchell News”, and “Space Patrol”. Later TV credits included such successful shows as “Miami Vice”, “Partridge Family”, “Columbo”, “The Incredible Hulk”, and “Knight Rider”.
It was Klate’s movie credits that he might be most remembered. Those included
“The Manchurian Candidate”, “North by Northwest”, “Cleopatra”, “Catch 22” and the highly successful 1980’s hit “Somewhere in Time” which made stars out of Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve.
In 1991, a year before his death, Klate summed up his long life’s work stating: “It is the art director’s job to interpret the movie visually, then thru sketches, to create the sets and settings which will be used in the movie. The art director’s quest for visual impact, realism and a ‘will it work for the cameras’ mentality is a stimulating, never ending source of excitement.”
Klate was elected President of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Director’s Local (1981) and twice elected governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (1984, 1985) He also taught his craft at USC in the mid 1950’s.
Seymour Klate (born 1919 – passed 1992) is best known as the Production Designer of the 1980 classic, beloved film Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. He also Production Designed The River Niger (1976) & episodes of The Rosemary Clooney Show (1956) and The Buster Keaton Show (1950).
He Art Directed numerous TV shows, including the popular Knight Rider (1982), Police Squad!(1982), Pennies From Heaven (1981), The Incredible Hulk (1978), The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1978), McMillan & Wife (1975-1977), Sirota’s Court (1977), Columbo (1976), The Partridge Family (1972), The Donna Reed Show (1966) and Space Patrol (1954).
Seymour was nominated for an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Art Direction or Scenic Design for a Comedy Series’ for Sirota’s Court in 1977. He was also the President of the Art Directors Guild in 1981.
The full list of artists follow:
