Word: oneto
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Oneto pictures sometimes have a slick, posterish quality, rely too often on monotonous tricks of contrast for their dramatic effect. But at their best, as in his bleak Two Houses, they catch a lot of the mystery and melancholy of U.S. cities in the small hours...
Joseph Americus Oneto, San Francisco bachelor, had a problem seven years ago. He worked a 44-hour week as a clerk in the city water department, but that still left a lot of spare time, and he was "sick of sitting in bars." Joe decided that the solution to his heavy-hanging leisure was painting. He began spending his weekends haunting San Francisco's galleries, and devoted his evenings to reading books on oil-painting technique and experimenting with brush and canvas. By 1950, he had taught himself enough to win the $1,000 first prize at the California...
...result, Joe's San Francisco is a lonely place. Its deserted streets are eerily illuminated by glowing jar-shaped street lights ("my trademark"); deep shadows surround ghostly, luminous walls. Empty cable cars creep along phosphorescent tracks. To get his subjects, Oneto prowls San Francisco's hills and back streets, goes back night after night to verify troublesome details. On his jaunts, Oneto keeps an eye peeled for old-fashioned houses, especially those with plenty of gingerbread: "I'm only interested in San Francisco architecture before the [1906] fire." A good example of Oneto's preference...