Painting Factory

When Los Angeles Art Dealer Martin Lowitz sends a cable to an obscure artist calling for "200 Braques, 15 by 22, soonest," he is ordering guaranteed, authentic, tried and (in a way) true pictures-- painted by a skilled imitator's hand. No ordinary purveyor of paintings, Dealer Lowitz is busy answering the bothersome question raised by hotelkeepers and other custodians of public and private buildings: What to put on the walls? Lowitz' answer: "original" paintings. In providing that answer, genial, garrulous Martin Lowitz, 61, has become the founder and entrepreneur of the world's biggest, and perhaps only, mass-production line for oil paintings.

From his smart showrooms appropriately located on the edge of Beverly Hills, Lowitz supplies paintings in any shape, size, color, subject, style or quantity. Last year he sold about 40,000, mostly to hotels, and this year business is even brisker. In a recent typical week he sold 1,166 paintings to a Hollywood studio, a cluster of hotels, a golf club and a Los Angeles eating place called Coffee Dan's; fortnight ago he got an order from San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel for 3,564 paintings (all "very modern," mostly abstract); last week he sold the Las Vegas Hacienda 1,488 paintings with colors to match the color schemes of the rooms.

Unoriginal Originals. It would be hard to confuse the paintings that Lowitz' artists produce with masterpieces. Some are attempts to reflect a recognized master's style; others are done in the painter's own style. They are painted quickly and slickly on a type of beaverboard (easier to store, less likely to damage) that is cut to fit nine frame sizes, ranging from very small (8 in. by 10 in.) to rather big (72 in. by 20 in.). Whether they are semiabstract, magazine-cover American or postcard romantic, most of the unoriginal originals have the restful quality of being reminiscent without demanding a second glance.

Many have found a happy resting place in some of the nation's most expensive hotels, e.g., Las Vegas' Tropicana, Beverly Hills' Beverly Hilton, but they are notably inexpensive, $17.50 for the smallest, with frame, to $375 for the biggest. "I can sell for $125," says Lowitz, "what would go for $1,750 in a New York exhibition. Gallery owners and some painters hate me. They think I sell paintings too cheaply." But hotel decorators love him. Said one: "Usually we've spent so much money on everything else that there's not much left for the walls. We tell Lowitz how much we've got left and he sells us what our money will buy."

Buying Blind. The decorators buy their hotel art with one eye on swatches of material and the other on the colors of the paintings. Some buy blind, simply phone their orders and leave the choice to Lowitz. Since the orders are often for hundreds of paintings at a time. Lowitz tries to keep an inventory of about 30,000 pictures, to suit all tastes, stacked in 17 locked vaults. The problem is not demand but supply. Says Lowitz: "It's harder to find good artists than good clients."

Lowitz manages to find them. But his requirements are rigorous: his artists must be deft and fast. "Not a day passes without some artist stopping in with his work," says Lowitz. "Out of 300 or 400, I sometimes find only one artist for us. I always ask them how fast they paint, and they usually think they paint fast. Ha! They think five or six pictures a day is fast. Most of my good artists can do 20 pictures a day."

Lowitz' production line consists of 40 to 50 painters, mostly living outside the U.S. They produce as many as 400 paintings daily and make as much as $400 each a week. Shaking his head sadly, Lowitz says: "American painters don't work hard enough. They would rather paint one picture every few months and try to sell it for a big sum than to get busy and paint lots of pictures."

As for the quality that comes with such quantity, Painting Producer Lowitz seems to have no qualms. He is delighted that instead of stealing towels and silverware, people are now stealing his pictures from hotel rooms. Says Lowitz: "It shows they want good art in their homes." And it is good for business.

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