Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles

MCLA NEWSLETTER

Volume 8, Number 2 -- Spring, 1997

In recent months a number of top murals ringing the downtown L.A. freeway system have been tagged repeatedly. While some are protected under the Mural Rescue Program (MRP), not all of these have been protected with sacrificial coating. Three MRP murals in the area, Frank Romero's "Going to the Olympics," Glenna Boltuch Avila's "L.A. Freeway Kids," and John Wehrle's "Galileo, Jupiter, Apollo" have no sacrificial coating. Each poses special conservation problems that MCLA is currently evaluating as plans are made for restoration.

In addition, Kent Twitchell's diptych mural, "Seventh Street Altarpiece," was about to be seriously damaged by earthquake retrofitting working being conducted by CalTrans when MCLA intervened during March to call it to the attention of the agency. They responded quickly with a contract enabling conservator Nathan Zakheim to protect both murals [please see the accompanying article, below, by Zakheim--Ed.]. Still, there was some relatively minor damage sustained by both murals during the early phase of the retrofitting work. Also, fill-in work on two of the walls separating the images curb both their visibility and aesthetic impact. In addition, going back two years, Roderick Sykes "Unity," also on the Harbor (110) Freeway at Adams, was destroyed in the course of previous retrofitting work by CalTrans. Attorney and Board Member Richard Solomon has made efforts to lay the groundwork for CalTrans to eventually commission Sykes to recreate the mural in a new location.

These factors add up to a crisis that threatens the city's single most visible concentration of murals since the bulk of them were created during the Olympic year of 1984.

Who has not seen the murals of Lita Albuquerque and Jim Morphesis facing from across the Habor (110) Freeway, signaling each other silently but with the intense sensitivity that artists share? The "Seventh Street Altarpiece," one of Kent Twitchell's top works, exemplifies the potential of site specific mural art. It offers a sense that, in spite of the flickering drive-by perception of the two faces framed by upheld hands that are now separated by two concrete walls apparently barring all communication, that hope does indeed exist.

This is the product of our earthquake abatement people at CalTrans, who recently began to fill in the rows of columns between the freeway lanes that created an amazing "Doppler Effect" between the two faces. Now you can barely see Morphesis' visage, which is hidden behind a wall that blocks the view from across a single bus-only lane. He is trapped in something of a dark cave.

I came upon the scene of the threatening activity driving casually by. When I saw the Big Machines and the many cuts, gouges and scrapes on the surface of the murals I pulled over and screeched "Whattheheckisgoingonhere?" at the astonished workmen in aluminum hard hats.

I learned that concrete was soon to be poured--which would certainly splash all over the mural surface, as one worker volunteered--and that no one had considered the mural as something to worry about during the retrofitting of the overpass.

A series of telephone calls from MCLA President Bill Lasarow and attorney Richard Solomon resulted in a concerned response from CalTrans. A contract was quickly patched together and approved by the agency to protect the two faces in place. MCLA has also made efforts to address the question of relocating the mural to a new location where both its visiblity and aesthetic impact will be reinstated, calling on assistance in doing so from several local and state officials. While this additional step would require a separate contract, I meantime oversaw completion of the work's protection during the course of retrofitting. Several layers of non-woven fabric were placed over the two heads to act as a protective facing. The top layer is comprised of a waterproof membrane that will ward off splashing concrete as well as penetrating spray can paint.

Though currently covered with extensive graffiti, this will wash off easily enough as both walls are protected with sacrificial coating. After work has been completed and the fabric is removed the limited damage to each can be repaired. After de-waxing them temporarily, a coating of Acryloid B-72 applied to the surface will protect and consolidate the paint.

If relocation of the murals can be arranged the facing material now in place will facilitate removal using the "Strappo Method." The fabric protects the skin of paint while pressure is applied to pulverize its bond to the concrete walls. The murals are then peeled from the wall and rolled into large tubes for transport.

The backs are cleaned, then reinforced with a new fabric and acrylic gel backing. Still covered by the facing, the murals can then be remounted at a new location using acrylic gel as adhesive. The covering fabrics can now be removed so that the murals can be cleaned, repaired and inpainted, re-varnished and finally coated once more with the protective sacrificial wax.

It cannot be assumed that any new location will completely reproduce the conditions and effects of the old one. But MCLA, working with artist Twitchell, has determined optional locations that are not scheduled for earthquake retrofitting that would be better than the current location under the new conditions. Whether it will be possible to realize this in the immediate future cannot be said at this writing.

 

NEW MURALS

Compiled by Robin Dunitz

All you mural artists out there, if you want your public to know what you've been doing lately, please send the information, along with a picture if possible, to Robin Dunitz, PO Box 64668, Los Angeles 90064. Or you can call 310 470-8864.

The following new murals were completed through March.

 

Hugo Ballin was one of the more colorful and controversial artists to work on the government-sponsored art programs during the Depression. While other artists ran afoul of government censors or offended public sensibilities with daring compositions, Ballin's problems began when he decided to teach a lesson to the so-called "art experts," whom he felt were ruining art by pushing "modernism" down the throats of the public. The artist's controversies were the result of a deliberate attempt to show people how inept the Federal Art Program administrators and the art critics were that supported their policies.

For many years Ballin was a fixture of the Southern California art scene. Born in New York City in 1879, the artist moved to Los Angeles in 1921, where he found work in the film industry as a set designer. He also established a successful career as a muralist. Locally, the artist is best known for his murals at the Los Angeles Times, Griffith Park Observatory, Wilshire Boulevard Temple, County-USC Hospital, and the B'nai B'rith Temple. Yet Ballin represented the older generation of painters who were being eclipsed by younger artists, whose European-influenced modernism was favored by local government art administrators. Ballin must have felt that, little by little, artists like Fletcher Martin, Helen Lundeberg and Grace Clements would corrupt public murals (and consequently taste) with their avant garde approaches.

However, this artist was a force not to be taken lightly. Acknowledged by his peers with election as an associate member of the National Academy and Southern California Co-Chair of the National Society of Mural Painters, he decided to defend the old school, whose artistic style was theatened by the "cancer" of modernism that was gradually gaining acceptance in the United States.

"School Days," the one mural that Ballin executed under the Public Works of Art Project at El Rodeo Elementary School in Beverly Hills (1934), is one of the most stunning of the local federal murals. Situated in a breathtaking Spanish-style building with heavy wooden beams, his Byzantine-influenced mural is beautiful in execution and didactic in composition. It is the perfect artwork to instruct young impressionable children in concepts of beauty.

Ballin must have become very disturbed by the art being created under the various federal programs. The "battle" between modernism and conservative art, as it was then called, was a very heated debate, filling pages of the paper in the 1930's. "Sanity in Art," a conservative art association, took aim at modern artists with diatribes regularly published by sympathetic art critics in papers like the Los Angeles Examiner and the Evening Herald and Express, and held exhibits to educate the public to the values of traditional art. The modern view was espoused by Los Angeles Times' critic Arthur Millier. Ballin's first salvo was to send two paintings to an exhibition at

the National Academy of Design. One was a traditional portrait of "Dolores del Rio" under his own name; the other was a spoof, titled "Mrs. Katz of Venice," under the pseudonym A. Gamio, which the jury accepted into the show. The title pokes fun at Leo Katz, a leading Southern California modernist whose murals were removed from the Frank Wiggens Trade School as offensive to public morals. New York Times critic Edward Alden Jewell pointed out A.Gamio's work as one of the highlights of the exhibit. Ballin had pulled off a major embarrassment against the modernist art establishment, believing he had revealed their lack of judgement. As one sympathetic Los Angeles critic, Herman Reuter, chortled, "a mighty deflation of stuffed-shirt." However, both Millier and Jewell insisted that the hoax work really was superior to the "Delores del Rio" composition, which was tagged "a piece of imprudent vulgarity, best quickly forgotten."

Ballin upped the stakes when he took on the Section over a mural commission. The artist was bitter about earlier being denied the prestigious Beverly Hills Post Office commission, and was insulted about being offered the decoration of "so unimportant a space" as the Inglewood Post Office. He circulated a false story that he had submitted six serious sketches and a hoax sketch that showed "licentious and low brow" behavior by California 49'ers. The government, he claimed, only wanted the "almost communist" composition. The truth was far from this. The committee had recommended that Ballin be given the commission, but that appointment was subject to the submission of preliminary sketches. They knew his reputation as an artist, and felt he could do much better work than the "trite" designs he submitted. Unfortunately, Ballin was out to reek havoc, and he opted to inflict damage on the federal art programs' public image over executing the commission.

Needless to say, Ballin never did another federal mural. Los Angeles was only one of many battlegrounds between the conservative and modern factions of the art world. The Ballin affair stands as a small skirmish that helped mark the evolution of our Southland art scene.

RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE REAL
WORLD OF MURAL CREATION

by Art Mortimer

In painting a public mural this past summer in Billings, Montana, potential vandalism became an immediate issue. The mural was in the "other side of the tracks" part of town. A lot of disadvantaged and/or trouble-making kids lived in the area. And the mural was in a public park on the side of the building for a community swimming pool. A lot of the neighborhood kids came to the pool in the summertime, and some groups (dare I say gangs?) had apparently claimed part of the park as their turf.

At about the midpoint in the project, the mural was vandalized by scratching several parts of it, and it became apparent that a serious anti-graffiti coating would probably be a very good idea--there was a certain amount of resentment in some people about this outside project being done in "their" park. But in Montana, what sort of resources are available? Probably not many, it seemed. This was the first serious mural ever in Billings (the largest city in Montana at 175,000 souls), and there was little or no knowledge about mural techniques and procedures.

We (the committee, City and I) decided that a strong, permanent anti-graffiti coating was probably our only alternative available. But the anti-graffiti product company whose literature I had brought with me from California apparently had closed down, as I was unable to contact them. Someone locally suggested that I go to Sherwin-Williams and see what they had available.

What I found out was that they have a couple of really excellent choices available to anyone who is interested. They carry "ARMAGLAZE 9000," a permanent, polyurethane coating. MCLA mural conservation expert Nathan Zakheim has described the perils of polyurethane coatings over long periods of time (they eventually degrade, discolor, shrink and crack under harsh conditions), but we saw no other alternative. But we did find that the product is warranteed for 120 months (10 years) and also has "high level of resistance" to ultraviolet light, the primary culprit in the degrading of these coatings. Also, upon application I found that it substantially enhanced the colors in the mural, making them richer and brighter than before coating. We figured that ten years of protection in a dangerous situation was better than nothing, even if the mural started to self-destruct at the end of that time.

I also found that Sherwin-Williams now carries "Graffiti Melt" from Genesis Coatings. This is the same wax-based sacrificial coating used by the Mural Conservancy in its Mural Rescue program, by SPARC, and by several local private anti-graffiti companies here in Los Angeles. The clear wax coating is sprayed over the mural, and if it requires graffiti removal the coating melts off with a hot water pressure washer much like the spray wands in a do-it-yourself carwash, taking the offending graffiti with it; a fresh coating of wax is then sprayed over the cleaned area.

For the Mural Conservancy, this service is provided by a company which contracts to maintain the wall for a certain fixed fee per month or per year. All that is required is to call them when a mural is hit, and they come out and clean it and reapply the coating all in one trip. But in places outside of big cities, this service is usually not available-until now.

To my surprise, Sherwin-Williams supplied me with complete technical specifications from the manufacturer, as well as instructions in wall preparation, application, graffiti removal and reapplication of the coating. The instructions even describe what sort of sprayers to use, what water pressure, and a suggested method of spraying for maximum effectiveness.

This is great news! Now anyone, almost anywhere in the U.S.A., can obtain and maintain the sacrificial anti-graffiti coating our experience has shown to be the most effective. Cities, or other similar entities, who already possess the necessary spray equipment can easily set up a maintenance procedure for any and all murals they are responsible for, and do the work on an as-necessary basis, no longer having to contract with an outside company to provide the service.

OTHER NEWS:

During a recent conversation with the owner of Nova Color, the acrylic paint manufacturer in Culver City, he stated that he is working to develop an ultraviolet shield for acrylic paints. Conservator Nathan Zakheim has stated that ultraviolet light is the main culprit in the degrading of acrylic mural paints, and he recommends applying a coating over murals to protect them from these "deadly" UV rays. It would be a wonderful thing if the UV shield could be incorporated into the painting process or even the final varnish with any mural. I'll pass along word on this as I hear of it.

 

MARCH WORKSHOP BRINGS IN NEW ACTIVISTS

 

From l. to r., Robin Dunitz, Norma Wrege, Mark Bowerman, Arthur Mortimer, MCLA Board members who led March's Mural Activist Workshop.

 

A group of fifteen new mural activists attended MCLA's first annual Mural Activist Workshop on March 22nd at the Roxbury Park Community Center. The Saturday morning session featured presentations by a group of six MCLA Board members giving the group an inside view of the nuts and bolts of the Mural Rescue Program (Mark Bowerman and Arthur Mortimer), Mural Tours (Robin Dunitz), Fundraising (Richard Solomon), Technical Workbook (Norma Wrege), and the Newsletter and Web Site (Bill Lasarow). Michelle Isenberg served as moderator.

Breaking up into small focus groups after the presentations, many of these new activists listened to and discussed with the Board members how they will best be able to help further the mission of MCLA.

 

ARTS TELETHON STILL HAPPENING
--NOVEMBER 10TH, VETERANS' DAY

The postponed Artsathon arts telethon that was originally announced to broadcast Presidents' Day weekend has finally put its legal paperwork in order, and is now on track to produce the event on Veteran's Day, November 10th. Look for more details in the next Newsletter.

Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles Journal

Published quarterly, © 1997, Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA).

Editor: Bill Lasarow
Contributing Editors:
Robin Dunitz, Orville O. Clarke, Jr., Richard Solomon, Nathan Zakheim
Masthead Logo Design: Charles Eley.

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles was formed to help protect and document murals, and enhance public awareness of mural art in the greater Los Angeles area. These programs are made possible by the tax-deducible dues and donations of our members, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the National/State/County Partnership Program, and the Brody Fund of the California Community Foundation.

 

MCLA NEWSLETTER

Volume 7, Number 4 -- Summer, 1996

RETURN OF THE "FREEWAY LADY"? . . .
. . .AND A REVIEW OF KENT TWITCHELL'S NEWEST PROJECTS

by Robin Dunitz

Artist Kent Twitchell displays a print version of the original "Freeway Lady," while behind him the mural begins to reemerge.Photo © Melissa Anderson

Many Kent Twitchell fans were excited to read in a recent L.A. Times article that the "Freeway Lady" is about to return. We've been waiting for almost ten years now. I spoke to Kent shortly after that newspaper story appeared and was disappointed to learn things are again at a standstill, but thrilled to hear about all Kent's other mural projects in the works.

So far the owner of the Prince Hotel has paid out $10,000 of the $250,000 he agreed to in the settlement of a few years back. Kent's (and the Mural Conservancy's) conservator, Nathan Zakheim, recently did some preliminary removal of the white paint covering the image, but will stop until further funds become available. Negotiations between Amy Nieman, Kent's lawyer, and Mr. Kurakawa continue. Kent is optimis tic that the money will be paid soon, as Mr. Kurakawa appears more willing to work things out.

In the meantime, Kent is hoping to start a new mural in the city of San Bernardino by the end of September. The five-story-tall portrait will either be James Whitmore as humorist Will Rogers or Hugh O'Brien as lawman Wyatt Earp. The most likely site is an historic theater in the downtown area.

It also looks likely that by the end of the year he will get back to work on the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra mural facing the Harbor Freeway in downtown L.A. He has decided to go ahead with the money raised, using art students at Biola University as assistants. Kent will add another 25 musicians, including two other large figures. That project was originally funded by the 1%-For-Art fee charged to large developers, Mitsubishi in this case.

Kent has been living in northern California with his family since shortly after the earthquake of January, 1994. There is a good possibility they will be moving back to L.A. soon. In the meantime, Kent spends several days a month down here working on various projects. He has agreed to lead another day-long tour of his murals in Fall, 1997.

Other mural concepts Kent has in mind to do in the not-too-distant-future are Charlton Heston in Hollywood, Johnny Cash in Nashville, and a young, raw Elvis in Memphis. Stay tuned.

The Mural DoctorHOW THE "FREEWAY LADY" IS RETURNING: A HISTORY

By Nathan Zakheim

Conservator Nathan Zakheim and artist Kent Twitchell take a break beneath the "Freeway Lady's" tight-lipped surveillance.
Photo © Melissa Anderson

Once again, it is time to re-visit the "Old Woman of the Freeway" Kent Twitchell's consummate masterpiece of the mural genre. Originally painted in 1974, the mural was bifurcated in 1978 by the erection of a one story building in front of it. The roof line of the new restaurant and club belonging to the Prince Hotel (owned by the redoubtable Mr. Kurakawa) neatly cut it in half, covering the "Freeway Lady" from the waist down with concrete blocks and paint.

Interestingly enough, the lower portion of the mural was carefully preserved by the general contractor who (knowing well the eventual non-endurance of things constructed) carefully preserved a ventilated air space between the mural and the wall so that the mural could at some future time be re-displayed after the concrete-block bar and club was no more (He apologized to Twitchell, saying that he was appalled to see how much of the mural had been covered by the revised plans of the designer; an earlier version had left more mural on display.).

In 1986 the building owner succumbed to the notion of using the space occupied by the mural as a location for advertising that would be visible from the northbound Hollywood Freeway. Through his agent, Blue Wallscapes, the visible upper portion of the mural was coated with nonsoluble sign painter's block-out paint labeled with the contact number of the agency. Mr. Kurakawa eagerly awaited advertisers to come flocking to have their billboards pasted there for some gratifying fee.

Instead, the segment of the greater Los Angeles Community concerned with the creation, preservation and appreciation of art flew into a collective rage. Meetings were held, and articles were published in the local press as well as magazines and newsletters. In the midst of this expression of outrage, the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles was founded by a group of muralists and other supporters to right this specific wrong.

The upshot: rather than profiting, Kurakawa encountered costs. First, Cal Trans blocked sale of the wall space for billboard advertising. Federal law prohibits such sale within 100 feet of a freeway--only signage promoting the building's business occupant(s) is permitted. Then, represented by arts attorney Amy Nieman (then of Folger and Levin), Twitchell sued Kurakawa for violations of the California Art Preservation Act, a law specifically designed to protect artwork and requiring notification of the artist prior to any work being done to a physical structure that could negatively impact the work of art--which Kurakawa had not done.

Murals have been accorded removable art status under the Art Preservation Act due in part to application of my own "Strappo" mural removal method, which allows the paint layer to be removed from the wall without the wall itself being significantly damaged. I not only found a way to remove the white over-paint from the "Old Woman of the Freeway" but also found that the mural could be removed from the wall well within the parameters of the "Strappo" technique, should that become necessary.

After a considerable amount of litigation, Mr. Kurakawa not only found himself without the right to paste advertising over Twitchell's famous mural, but out of pocket for a court-ordered settlement with the artist and his attorney of $250,000.

At this point Twitchell called in Nathan Zakheim Associates and asked that a representative area be revealed so that freeway travelers could see that the mural was alive and well and that it would be brought back to life very soon.

The eye area was selected as the specimen area to be revealed. The artist confided that the two eyes were different: One was very strict and severe, while the other was filled with grandmotherly love, kindness and compassion.

In our discovery phase, at which time we were able to test the mural with a variety of solvents and over-paint removal techniques, we discovered that the best technique for removal was miraculously simple. Using heat guns, we were able to loosen the layer of white paint covering the mural by melting the layer of Liquitex Gloss Varnish that the artist had used to coat the surface of the acrylic paint. This enabled us to gently lift the coat of white paint from the surface, leaving the mural image in a completely undamaged condition.

Fortuitously, the binding medium of the acrylic paint and the gloss varnish used to coat it share identical melting points. This was due to the fact that, both being Liquitex products, the same basic formula was used to create each.

The ability to melt the varnish without melting the paint layer depended on the fact that the pigment of the paint absorbs heat due to it's chemical composition, and thereby increases the temperature at which the paint layer melts as compared to the melting point of the varnish. The few degrees of difference between the melting point of the varnish and the paint comprised our miracle!

Working with precision within that narrow variance of temperature has allowed us to remove the white covering paint front the layer of varnish without melting the paint itself, and we were able to rernove an area approximately 14" high by 30" wide.

Imagine our horror to find that after only a few weeks of renewed visibility, the punctilious Mr. Kurakawa had ordered the area we had uncovered around "The Freeway Lady's" mysterious eyes painted over again! This time, however, the white block-out paint had been applied over this most important area of the mural. And worst of all, the varnish had been stripped during the process of removing the original coat of insoluble white paint. The new coat of block-out was directly touching the mural and as a result, almost impossible to to remove.

Last year the artist once again brought me to the "Freeway Lady" mural site. This time we removed large areas of other parts of the body, and coated the areas revealed with Soluvar after the block-out paint had been removed using the heat-gun process. This newest attempt at revealing the painted surface of the mural left bright patches of colored clothing exposed.

After a brief fanfare of publicity, together with optimistic projections for the completion of the work, the restoration process descended dismally once again into the quagmire of inactivity.

Wait a minute, wasn't there a settlement meant to finance full restoration made several years earlier? Didn't Kurakawa receive a court order to pay for this restoration, along with legal fees and punitive damages to compensate the artist for a small portion of the indignity and infamy of having his masterpiece obscured?

Well, ten thousand dollars had in fact been paid by Kurakawa, all of which went to cover a portion of Folger and Levin's legal services. The rest is something of a mystery. The artist apparently was required to pay $600 for filing fees, and more than a year went by before that was done. After that, despite a court order, several years slipped by. No payments, no promise of payments, and no court action to compel payment.

Certainly the legal minds pursuing this case were not the feral, single mindedly savage type about which the plethora of lawyer jokes have been created. Unlike a person with a late parking ticket or a delinquent Columbia House Video payment, Mr. Kurakawa was left in undisturbed peace. Of course, he languidly hinted that he probably didn't have enough money to pay, or that the sum should be cut in half so that he could, but even that did not produce the usual flurry of settlement conferences and intense and urgent fax storms in which terms would be haggled, stipulations entered and conditions imposed.

So it came as no surprise to the small, underfed, but patient army of conservators that this Summer, once again, work needed to be done "on spec" at the "Freeway Lady" mural site. The equipment was once again dragged in the intense summer heat to the oven-like roof. The press feasted their lenses once again on the repeatedly newsworthy conservation "miracle" of paint being lifted off of melted varnish to reveal the undamaged mural surface beneath.

This time, Monica Valladares had joined the crew. Fresh from Mexico City and the excavations of the Templo Mayor of venerable Aztec origins, she applied her conservation and archeological training to excavation of a modern painting from under an even more modern attack of official vandalism and graffiti. From her perspective it was very hard to understand why, in the United States, one of it's most estimable works of public art would so quickly be buried under white paint in the lifetime of the artist. As a specialist in colonial religious paintings, she was used to the ravages of time taking centuries, not mere decades, to accomplish it's erosion. For her, this was an experience of culture shock.

The heat guns were plugged in and aimed; the cameras began their staccato, motor-driven frenzy; the artist posed with a variety of paraphernalia including a conservator or two; Kurakawa, almost sonambulant after so many years without a sign of hostilities, or even a small border skirmish, welcomed one and all to the Prince Hotel, making courteous suggestions as to where to plug the power cords and where we might conveniently store our ladders. Large amounts of paint came off of the melted varnish, and as usual, revealed the pristine surface of the mural.

What a difference the passage of time had made!

Now we were dealing with repeated coats of white paint over repeated applications of multicolored spray can graffiti. Areas that we had previously cleaned had been "hit" with more graffiti and naturally, the tidy Mr. Kurakawa had arranged for white paint to be applied each time that occurred. The heat-gun loosened paint came off in bizarre sheets in a Jacob's coat of paint of many colors. Aided by the use of chopsticks to hold the infernally hot sheets of paint, the conservation team revealed large areas of mural paint.

The two day effort had ended. The bottles of Evian water had been drunk. The press had given thorough interviews with everyone (including Mr. Kurakawa, who was a bit taken aback by the ferocity of the media team). The artist and his attorney smiled and declared it all to be a huge success.

Then, as so many times before: Tired, hungry, overheated, and unpaid, we all went home.

 

MCLA SIGNS ON TO POSSIBLE L.A. ARTS TELETHON

by Bill Lasarow

Set aside a portion of the upcoming President's Day holiday this February 17th to do a little TV viewing. A coalition numbering more than 40 of Los Angeles' non-profit arts organizations is planning a 5-hour telethon that day in order to show the world what smaller organizations--most of the time overshadowed by the L.A. Philharmonics and L.A. County Museums of the cultural world--mean to the town, and the kind of talent they are laden with. And, yes, this is a major group fund-raising effort for organizations operating on budgets of under $750,000 annually.

Often strapped to maintain their programs from year to year, many non-profit arts organizations have struggled during the 1990s due to relentless and significant budget cuts and restructuring of state and local art agencies along with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Thus the telethon coalition emerges in part as a constructive response to significantly declining government support, asking taxpayers to fill the vacuum voluntarily.

Host cable station KWHY, channel 22, normally broadcasts business news during daytime hours, and Spanish-language programming at night.. In addition to music, dance and comedy performances, MCLA plans to oversee an in-studio mural project during the telethon broadcast. Details should be available for publication by the time of the next Newsletter. A number of TV spots have already been lined up by project organizers, along with a local media blitz, so you can be sure that you'll be hearing more about it--a lot more! If you need more information or are interested in helping out as a volunteer please call MCLA, (213) 481-1186.

THE FEDERAL ART PROGRAMS AND THE RIGHT TO WORK

by Orville O. Clarke, Jr.

Milford Zornes at work on his Claremont USPO mural.

One of the biggest misunderstandings when discussing the four major art programs--Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), The Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture (Section), Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), and Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP)--sponsored by the Federal government during the Depression years is their purpose. They were NOT primarily art programs, but RELIEF programs that hired artists. It was unfortunately a key point that even some of the art program administrators failed to comprehend.

From the very beginning, the programs were under intense pressure to keep costs down, employ as many as possible (in May, 1937 the WPA/FAP alone employed 37,250 people), and produce quality artwork that avoided public controversy. The money for these various programs came from Congressional appropriation, which carefully watched spending levels and public opinion. Some of these mandates could be as brief as three months (especially with Federal One, which sponsored the WPA/FAP). This continual need for Congressional approval fostered a sense of impermanence and created anxiety about the future, if any, of the programs.

Art officials, who kept pushing for a permanent national art program, never realized that the projects were kept on a short funding leash for a reason: So that they could be canceled quickly when their usefulness was over. This was not the machinations of evil "art haters" in Congress, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. An examination of budgetary requests and correspondence between the President and program officials show that it was Roosevelt's desire that the tentative status of the programs exist.

President Roosevelt was a brilliant politician who understood not only the average American, but Congress as well. Congress gave him all the money that he requested for the art programs because he knew just how much they would go for. In the middle of the worst depression in U.S. history, to ask for and receive millions of dollars in federal funds to support artists is nothing short of a miracle. However, the President never pushed Congress or backed them into a corner over money.

While the art that was produced, especially in Southern California (just think of George Stanley's Muse at the Hollywood Bowl, of Fletcher Martin's murals at the San Pedro USPO, or Edward Biberman's mural at the Venice Post Office), was often beautiful and widely praised, they were expensive to produce, based on the man-month, the system the government used to gauge program costs. Construction projects were the bulk of the federal relief programs, and they employed thousands of people, often in rural areas, many of whom were unskilled or semi-skilled labor--which tended to keep the costs low. The average man-month for the WPA was $59 (on average it cost $59 to employ one man/woman for one month). On the other hand, the WPA/FAP man-month cost was $99.80, or almost 70% more.

The art programs hired fewer people who cost more to employ. The majority of the workers were skilled artists paid in the highest wage classification--professional--who lived in urban centers where the cost of living was higher (The government salaries were tied to pay in the private sector in each region). So on a per person basis the arts looked very expensive. Only the theater program was more expensive than art, about $200 a man-month per person, with the writer's program, music, and the historical records survey cheaper. Thus, in July, 1938, even through the art program took only 13.3% of the total Federal One budget (theater took the largest piece with 29.1%), on paper it appeared wasteful. Ultimately, roads, schools, dams, and public buildings will win out over murals, mosaics and statues, expecially if they appear cheaper.

This is why we see so many projects that require more than a solitary artist. The great success of the Long Beach Mosaic is that it required an army of workers to cut and assemble the tiles, thus reducing the average man-month cost. This is the same concept with the many petra-chrome murals that are unique to Southern California. It is not just the durability of concrete or tile to stand up to the intense local sunlight that was important, but the fact that so many people were needed to complete the projects and lowering the man-month cost.

The beautiful public art created during the almost ten-year life of the various programs served as propaganda that supported the President's New Deal ideals and reinforced traditional American values to a public badly shaken by the Depression. It was never primarily about the art, but getting as many people as possible working for as little as possible. Once World War II jump started the economy and relief was no longer necessary, the art programs were discontinued as quickly a possible.

 

FROM THE ARTIST'S POINT OF VIEW. . .

. . .Thoughts on Starting and Developing a Community Mural Project

by Arthur Mortimer

Muralist Art Mortimer with his latest mural project, "South Park Mural", located in Billings, Montana.

(Published originally in the MCLA Newsletter, v. 7, n. 4 & v. 8, n. 1)

A mural project can be a very daunting prospect to a community: Where do we start? How do we raise the money? How do we find artists? How do we select an artist? How much should we pay for a mural? What are appropriate themes for the mural(s)? These questions, and many others, can seem overwhelming to people in communities with little or no experience.

Let me take some of these questions one at a time and try to answer them from an artist's perspective.

WHERE DO WE START?

My experience with communities has been that the best place to start is: In the community. Start with local people who are involved in the arts. Look for people experienced in fund-raising. Look for people, perhaps in local government, who have had experience in awarding commissions or contracts for community projects. Maybe there are artists in the community who have had experience with public art projects and competitions--maybe even an artist or two who has had experience painting murals. Find people with experience that is in some way relevant to the process you want to undertake and get their input--and hopefully even their participation.

Most community mural projects I have been involved in have been organized and brought to fruition by a committee of citizen volunteers who have taken it upon themselves to make a mural project a reality for their community. They have had meetings, asked questions, gone to City Hall for support and even money, looked at artists' slides, done fund-raising in the community, organized community forums, etc. In some cases there has been a local Arts Council or other such organization that has provided the focus for a mural project.

HOW DO WE RAISE THE MONEY?

I have encountered several different ways of raising money for mural projects. Sometimes a grant or series of grants from government and foundation sources can be obtained to fund a project (although this is less likely in an era of downsizing and government deficits). Corporate sponsors are often a good source of support, particularly local corporations whose success involves goodwill in the community and who have a history of sponsoring community events.

Several communities I have been involved with recently have been raising money by producing and selling limited edition prints of the artist's renderings of their mural designs, numbered and signed by the artist, to local collectors and supporters as a way of funding each mural.

Private donors and community boosters will also make donations (especially if they can get a write-off on their taxes). One community even made it possible for citizens to add an extra dollar or so to their monthly utility bill, and that money went to the mural project. Most projects use a combination of the sources mentioned above plus a few original twists thrown in for good measure. Be creative!

HOW DO WE FIND ARTISTS?

Depending on the experience level and competence you are looking for in an artist, and the amount of funding you have, different routes are available. For low-budget local projects, local artists are a great resource. Most have little or no experience with murals, but are eager for the opportunity, and often produce remarkable results under the right circumstances. Larger projects, with larger budgets and more ambitious quality goals, probably indicate finding more experienced and recognized mural artists. There are many of these in most parts of the county. The West Coast and large eastern cities are home to many accomplished and experienced mural artists. Surprisingly, some small towns and cities also are home to very accomplished artists. Communities that have already produced murals or started mural projects will probably be happy to share their resources with you, as well as their own experiences.

Several books have been published in the last decade or so about murals in particular cities and regions of the country. These are a good resource for artists and for becoming familiar with different styles of murals. Also, the California Arts Council used to keep a list of artists who have done murals that was available to communities. Authors of books on murals are a good source of artists' names and addresses. In particular, MCLA's own Robin Dunitz, author of Street Gallery--Guide To 1,000 Los Angeles Murals and a soon-to-be-published book on the murals of California, is a great resource for experienced and talented mural artists of all types and styles. MCLA is a valuable resource for information on many mural artists and their work; mural techniques, maintenance and preservation; referrals to experienced artists and other mural organizations.

MCLA also maintains a Web site on the Internet (http://artscenecal.com/MCLA.html) which contains information on many murals in the Los Angeles area, articles on mural preservation and restorations, educational materials, and bio-graphies of many mural artists, along with photos of their work.

HOW DO WE SELECT AN ARTIST?

Most communities organize some sort of competition to select an artist based on his or her submissions. The most common way is to first advertise (either by contacting artists directly or by advertising in art publications such as Artweek [west coast] or Art Calendar [east coast]) for artists to send in their qualifications for a preliminary selection process. This is called a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and usually asks for a certain number of slides, a current résumé, possibly a letter of interest and other supplemental information.

Frequently, communities will select an artist based solely on qualifications and then work with that artist to develop a concept and design for the particular project. A possible second step is to select a half-dozen or so finalists from the responding artists and ask them to submit proposals. This is a Request for Proposals (RFP) and usually invites the finalists to submit some sort of proposal within certain guidelines by a certain date. An honorarium is usually paid to finalists. Serious muralists usually will not respond to an RFP unless the amount of the commission is substantial. Most experienced muralists are happy to participate in a lower-paying project if they don't have to make a proposal in order to be selected. Proposals are a lot of work and require a big commitment of time and energy in order to do a good job.

 

HOW MUCH SHOULD WE PAY FOR A MURAL?

This varies greatly depending on the circumstances. As an artist, I certainly encourage you to pay as much as you can possibly afford. Murals require a tremendous amount of time for research and design, planning, and finally painting. Artists have to pay bills and eat just like everyone else. Small projects by local artists should be do-able for a few thousand dollars. A large, important project by a nationally known artist for a large city or major corporation could run into six figures easily. Most projects fall somewhere into the lower range of the middle, in my experience. My rule of thumb is: Can I make enough on this project to pay my bills, live for the duration of the project and get me through to the next project with something left over? Different artists work at different speeds: some paint faster than others. But speed or slowness are no guarantee of either quality or efficiency. A general range for me would be something on the order or $10.00-$20.00 per square foot, plus travel, lodging and equipment expenses if it is necessary to travel to and live in your community while painting the mural. Larger murals can be done for less per square foot provided the overall amount is substantial. A $7,000-$15,000 commission will secure the services of many experienced mural artists if the project is of moderate size, provides them with a good opportunity to express themselves and is not too far from their home.

WHAT ARE APPROPRIATE THEMES FOR MURALS?

This is mostly up to the community. Each community has its own particular history, citizens, and view of itself. Anything that is of importance to the community can probably be a good theme for a mural in the right artist's hands. Historical themes are the most popular and accessible, and different artists have different ways of approaching such themes. The committee can select which approach or approaches they like best, and then work with the artist to develop it. A mural project provides an opportunity for a community to see itself through the eyes of artists who can depict for people their community in a new light and in a fresh way. It is important to give artists input into the process once they are selected and not tie their hands by being too specific about subject matter and content. Select an artist you feel comfortable with, let the artist make a proposal based on general guidelines and community input, and then work with the artist to improve or refine the proposal if necessary. It is the artist's job to be creative, to come up with new ideas and ways of doing things.

There are, I am sure, plenty of other questions that people might have about starting and seeing through a mural project. As an artist, I have probably had experience with most of those issues. Please feel free to contact me via the Mural Conservancy with questions or problems if you think I can be be able to help with answers.

Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles Journal

Published quarterly, © 1996, Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA).

Editor: Bill Lasarow
Contributing Editors:
Robin Dunitz, Orville O. Clarke, Jr., Richard Solomon, Nathan Zakheim
Masthead Logo Design: Charles Eley.

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles was formed to help protect and document murals, and enhance public awareness of mural art in the greater Los Angeles area. These programs are made possible by the tax-deducible dues and donations of our members, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the National/State/County Partnership Program, and the Brody Fund of the California Community Foundation.

 

MCLA NEWSLETTER

Volume 7, Number 2 -- Winter, 1996

 

 

New Murals Detailed in Street Gallery Addendum

by Robin Dunitz

Time sure flies when you're having fun...chasing murals especially. I can't believe it has already been three years since I published Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Los Angeles Murals. While my book isn't exactly obsolete, there have been major changes since the end of 1992. That is why I decided to publish an Addendum to my book.

Eighty-five pages long, my Addendum includes corrections and destroyed murals, plus more artist biographies. The bulk of the text, however, is the description of about 200 new murals.

A number of significant new murals have been completed in just the past few months. As usual, SPARC (the Social and Public Art Resource Center, based in Venice) has been in the forefront of sponsoring some of the most meaningful. Very unfortunately, SPARC's funding for new murals was eliminated for this year. Hopefully this will only be a temporary setback for local muralism. Contact the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department, and/or the Mayor's Office to voice you support for this valuable program.

Here are a few of the past year's Neighborhood Pride: Great Walls Unlimited projects (the program SPARC sponsors):
22-year-old muralist, Eliseo Silva, created a 100-foot long panorama of 4000 years of Filipino and Filipino-American history at 1660 Beverly Blvd. in Echo Park. It is called Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana (A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy). Many of the significant historical figures depicted are making their debut on a local wall, emphasizing how long overdue this history is. For example, Larry Dulay Itliong led the Delano Grape Strike in 1965 and convinced Cesar Chavez to join him in forming the United Farmworkers Union in 1967.

Artist Alma Lopez directed a Woman's Public Art Workshop, out of which came a mural at Plaza Community Clinic at 648 Indiana St. (near Whittier Blvd.) in East L.A. The mural, entitled Que Esconde La Esperanza? (What is Hidden in Hope?) was a collaboration between several artists and the women of Esperanza Project, mothers recovering from substance abuse. Participating artists included Sol C. Alvarez, Lupe Becerra, Isabel Mora, Patricia Soto and poet Gloria Alvarez.

Noni Olabisi is just about finished with To Protect and Serve, her forceful impressions of the Black Panther Party. Located at 11th Avenue and Jefferson Blvd., in South-Central L.A., the monochrome imagery includes scenes of the Ku Klux Klan, Bobby Seale bound and gagged during the conspiracy trial of the Chicago 7 in the late 1960s, as well as portraits of Huey Newton and Angela-Davis, and the Panther's highly regarded Free Breakfast Program. This is Noni's second mural. Her first one, Freedom Won't Wait, at 54th St. and Western Ave., dramatically captures the anguish of a community victimized by police brutality and other forms of oppression. It was painted in late 1992, after the acquital of the police who beat Rodney King sparked a violent response all over L.A.

To order a copy of the new Street Gallery Addendum, 1996, send a check for $7.50, payable to RJD Enterprises, to PO Box 64668, Los Angeles, CA 90064. That price includes sales tax and shipping. For more information, call me at (310) 470-8864. The Addendum will also be available on MCLA tours.

YOU ARE THE STAR SHINES AGAIN IN HOLLYWOOD

Thomas Suriya's You Are the Star mural, Wilcox at Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.

Thomas Suriya's popular Hollywood mural, You are the Star, received the final touch of its recent rennovation. A Mural Conservancy team under the direction of Nathan Zakheim installed Suriya's two new panels, replacing the badly worn plywood panels that were part of the original painting. Suriya executed the new panels in his New Mexico studio during 1995, shipping them back to Los Angeles for MCLA to complete the job. A Soluvar varnish, applied during the summer, already reaffixed the original protective coating, and the sacrificial coating service was subsequently put in place to guarantee that this landmark work will be around for a looong time.

THE PROBLEMS WITH URETHANE
Part 1: A Dramatization

By Nathan Zakheim

Approximately ten years ago, it became the fashion to coat outdoor murals with a newly developed urethane emulsion coating that was touted to be a "cure" for graffiti. The main selling point of this coating was the fact that in was virtually indestructible, did not succumb to the usual hydrocarbons such as toluene, acetone, lacquer thinner, MEK etc. that are the usual solvent components of most marking pens and spray can paint. Certainly the idea of a "suit of armor" that could withstand the worst that graffiti vandals could dish out had a certain appeal to frustrated artists who had become accustomed to seeing their finely wrought work executed under physically dangerous and fumigatiously unpleasant circumstances wiped out by a few arrogant passes of a 98 cent can of fifth class hot rod primer.

Since urethane cannot be dissolved in most substances known to humankind, it would seem that the final and most enduring mural protection had finally arrived courtesy of the large chemical companies that had already developed an awesome array of acrylic products (Products that included the vulnerable polymer "Rhoplex" emulsions used for mural paints as well as the harsh solvent-based acrylic monomers used for spray can paint). In the battle to the death between monomers and polymers, urethane surely seemed the shining armour in which the knights of future muraldom were destined to ride.

Alas! who could have predicted the fatal and tragic flaw of mural protective hubris! As graffiti vandals gnashed their collective teeth in frustrated rage at the ineffectiveness of their impotent spray cans as a means of permanently disfiguring governmentally sanctioned public art, urethane, the kindly friend of artist and art aficionado alike began to turn in the flaky gruesome fashion of "Friendly" alien monsters in an Ed Wood film.

First, the trusting artists stood agape as the treacherous substance began to yellow in the Ultra-Violet radiance of the sun! Helplessly, they watched their vivid hues sink into ghastly dull browns and greys. Then the treacherous urethane began to separate from the mural paint itself, much as the skin molts on a snake. Those with strong nerves would wait in the heat of day and the cold of night; braving rains and frosts to gaze with horror-stricken eyes on the minute and almost imperceptible crackling of the paint as it loosened first in pin-head little bubbles, then in patches and sheets, taking the precious final glazes and color areas with it as a stain. Now, a leprous white crept over the mural composed of de-laminated urethane film.

Then came the rains, bringing liquefied smog and grime, oozing beneath the leprous coating, impacting the fractured mural paint, gathering in impacted toxic globs, seething with inherent venom and petrification. Ah! the secret life of mural paint! First hot, then cold, light then dark, loose, then tight, wet, then dry whipped by rain, parched by sun, occasionally gouged by the bumper of an errant car. Using stop-frame photography like Disney dramatizations of an opening flower, they would seem to writhe! All in the thrall of Ultra-Violet light: the great killer of transparent coating film! From a microscopic view, we see the thickness of the film, following the contours of the mural paint and wall in a lumpy and ungainly way; sometimes thick, sometimes thin. The deadly rays of Solar Attack plunge through the surface of the film, only to be repelled by the surface on the mural paint side! Particles of light bouncing back and forth between the twin surfaces of the urethane film like nuclear ping-pong balls begin to smash the helpless and vulnerable molecules in their way. Accomplishing what no solvent dare attempt, they ruthlessly and indiscriminately side-swipe first electrons, then neutrons, then photons breaking down the integrity of their famous and reputed bond. Like cannon balls, crushing the fortifications of some ancient castle, cracks and fissures begin to form, and tired chemical bonds sigh and gradually release their hold. Heat and cold cause molecular tensioning within the urethane film itself; a "rigor mortis chemicus" of atrophying molecular chains. Stiff as mummified arms and legs of some ancient creature lost in the swirling mists of time, the film creaks like a mummy newly disturbed, and shrinks stiffly and rigidly across the minute voids it used to fill. If one had tiny ears and plenty of time, one could hear the crackling of the surface as these loose and brittle pin-head spots incrementally grow.

Moving back to a viewer's stance from the intense drama occurring microscopically within the coating of the mural wall, the saddened viewer simply sees the mural covered with whitish or translucent spots and blotches. He probably does not see them grow.

Happily, although impossible to remove, urethane "protective" coatings gradually fall off by themselves in the fullness of time. Of course, they do not leave willingly. They take whatever paint layers with them that they can before loosening and falling away in sheets.

Of course, science can step in, with wetting agents, surfactants, and bristle brushes for loosening the film. Perforating pinpricks of pattern wheels can accelerate the access of deionized water charged with loosening agents applied by trained and skillful hands.

Challenged by water after being loosened by time, the coating falls away readily enough, an ignominious ending for a substance resistant to the strongest chemicals known to man!

MURAL TOURS 1996

by Robin Dunitz
MCLA Tour Director


Eliseo Silva, Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana (A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy), mural located at 1660 Beverly Boulevard, 1995. Photo © Robin Dunitz.

By now every mural aficionado in Southern California should have received a 1996 Mural Tour Schedule. This year's tours are going to be HOT!

Every MCLA tour this year is a new one. We start the year with one of L.A.'s best, Terry Schoonhoven, on February 24th. Terry has been painting public murals since 1969, when he and Victor Henderson decided to take their fine art talent to the streets by forming the Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad. We will see one of their early creations on the tour, as well as several of his more recent, solo efforts. He's been painting murals on his own since 1974. A couple of extra bonuses on this tour will be lunch downtown amid the hoopla for the return of the Angels Flight railway. In addittion, while viewing Terry's ceramic mural at Union Station, we will take a peek at some of the wondrous new public art just being installed next door at the Gateway Transit Center. These include works by Richard Wyatt, East Los Streetscapers, Jim Doolin, Patrick Nagatani and May Sun.
On April 27th I will be leading a tour of Hollywood and Koreatown. The emphasis will be on the exciting new murals along Western Avenue. Thanks primarily to the sponsorship of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), several Asian aritsts are getting involved in muralism locally for the first time. We will also see a vibrant new (1994) work by Ernesto de la Loza, veteran East L.A. muralist and MCLA Board member, in Silverlake, as well as 22-year-old Eliseo Silva's panorama of Philipino history in Echo Park. I will finally get the chance to share my great food find with a mural tour--Si Yeon, a Koreatown all-you-can eat buffet that features Chinese, Japanese and Korean food.

On Saturday, June 22nd veteran art activist Cecil Fergerson will share his irreverant insights on life, culture, politics, racial relations and anything else, while he shows us important and often-overlooked, landmarks of local African-American history and art. Among the sights we will see are Betye Saar's downtown relief tribute to former slave Biddy Mason, First A.M.E. Church, and the Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue, where many famous African-Americans stayed back when they weren't welcome elsewhere. It's now a museum. A one-time janitor who sued the L.A. County Museum of Art in order to become a curator, Cecil has been organizing art exhibits at community venues for 30 years.

The theme of our Sunday, August 25th (note the slight date change!) tour is Jewish Murals. Eric Gordon, director of the Workmen's Circle, will be our guide. Murals full of history and heritage such as Hugo Ballin's 1920's Biblical mural in the Wilshire Boulevard Temple sanctuary, Art Mortimer's Fairfax Community Mural, and Zinovy Shersher's painting of Boyle Heights past and present will be among the highlights.

On Saturday and Sunday, October 12th and 13th, we will take to the freeway and travel to Ventura and Lompoc to enjoy murals and a week-end getaway at the same time. We will see a beautiful New Deal mural in the Ventura Post Office, then local artists will share some of the vibrant new works around town. Of special note is the Tortilla Flats Project, which through oral histories and lots of community involvement, recreated the history of a fascinating Latino neighborhood that was destroyed in the 1950s when the 101 Freeway was built. We will spend Saturday afternoon in Lompoc, watching about a dozen artists participate in the now-annual "Mural in a Day" event. We will also see other top quality murals, painted in recent years by such artists as Dan Sawatsky of Chemainus, British Columbia, as well as Art Mortimer, Richard Wyatt and Roberto Delgado of Los Angeles. We need 25 participants to do this tour, so call in your reservations soon. The $65 cost includes overnight in Lompoc at the Quality Inn, cocktail hour Saturday evening, and buffet breakfast on Sunday morning.

On our last tour of this year, we won't board the bus. Saturday, November 23rd we will ride the MetroRail. Our guide will be MTA art coordinator Alan Nakagawa, who last year led the Asian Murals Tour. We will view a selection of the most interesting public art found along the Red, Blue, Orange and Green Lines. Among the artist's whose work we will see are Willie Middlebrook, Richard Wyatt, Joyce Kozloff, Eva Cockcroft, Frank Romero, Francisco Letelier, Jonathan Borofsky, Elliott Pinkney and East Los Streetscapers. This tour will cost a mere $15 ($10 for members, students and seniors).

For reservations, call me at (310) 470-8864, or Jim Kenney at (213) 257-4544. You can mail your checks, payable to MCLA, to: Robin Dunitz, PO Box 64668, Los Angeles 90064. Don't delay, as these tours are filling up!

GRACE CLEMENTS' NEWLY UNCOVERED
MURAL, THE STORY OF MUSIC

by Orville O. Clarke, Jr.


Grace Clements, The Spirit of Music, mural at Damien High School, La Verne, California, c. 1939.


You cannot imagine my surprise when the telephone call came announcing that a WPA mural had been found at Damien High School in nearby La Verne. Trust me, there was no mural there! Just two years earlier, I had walked through the campus examining the older buildings for the mural and bas-reliefs that were executed in the 1930's under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Program (WPA/FAP). Since there were no signs of the "lost" work, I had no choice but to consign them to the "lost" bin.

Well, as Father Travers, the Principal of Damien, was happy to point out, the mural was in fine health, thank you. Damien High is renovating their physical plant and the music building was one of the structures that needed some T.L.C. While removing the stucco that covered the building's facade the mural was uncovered. What the workers had found was Grace Clements' The Spirit of Music.

The mural was probably done in 1939. We can make this assumption since there is a dedication on the lower left hand corner of the mural to the "class of '39." Under the various Federal Art Programs that the government sponsored during the Depression, only organizations that were partly or wholly funded by the government (either at the federal, state or local level) were eligible for public art. In the case of schools, the local art's administrators would donate the labor required for the completion of the mural while the school would pay for the materials, which was a small percentage of the total cost. Since a beautiful and inspiring mural to decorate a building would have been a perfect type of class gift, it is safe to assume that this was their graduation gift to the school, then called Bonita Union High School.

This mural utilizes a technique called "petra-chrome," which was invented by Stanton Macdonald-Wright for the Federal Art Programs. It is concrete that is colored to create a permanent and weather resistant art work. It is a cousin of tile and opus sectile, but one that is more affordable and uniquely suited to the bright, sunny Southern California environment. It also solved another problem the programs ran into: There were only a limited number of artists qualified to create the large-scale public murals. Since the creation of the actual mural only required skilled artisans, a "master artist" could design it, while others could execute his/her design. Thus the WPA/FAP, a relief organization dedicated to helping those in need, could maintain their high artistic standards and employ a greater number of relief workers.

Grace Clements was one of the more interesting artists to work under the Federal Art Programs. A skilled modernist painter and critic who, along with Loser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg, was a proponent of a movement called Post-Surrealism or the New Classicism. Her easel and print work bare little resemblance to the rather tame public commissions she did for the government, which include the Long Beach Airport, Venice High School, Bancroft Junior High School, Dorsey High School and Santa Monica High School (the last three also are petra-chromes). The government wanted nothing to do with any of the new "isms" that artists were following--just simple painting that the public could understand and enjoy.

The mural at Damien is a perfect example of this. Although the composition shows elements of Cubism and Surrealism, it remains a straightforward and easily recognizable image. Her mural is dominated by musical instruments. In the center a lute, cello or bass, violin and a guitar are set on top of and contrasted to a piano. This central grouping dominates the composition. Against this swirl are the supporting instruments: A kettle drum to the left, with a French horn above; cymblas, a slide trombone and harp on the bottom, with a choir on top. All of these instruments are tied together by musical notes, which run diagonally across the center. A little touch of modernism to soothe the soul, and we have a mural that anyone walking into a music building would appreciate. This was the kind of success that the government strived for in public commissions: Good art that the public would enjoy, and maybe even learn a little from.

We are lucky that this gift from the past has been rescued in such excellent condition, and that Father Travers and his staff at Damien are so excited about their "new" mural. Now if I can only get them interested in those four missing bas-reliefs on the old gym. . .

 

 

Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles Journal

Published quarterly, © 1996, Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA).

Editor: Bill Lasarow
Contributing Editors:
Robin Dunitz, Orville O. Clarke, Jr., Richard Solomon, Nathan Zakheim
Masthead Logo Design: Charles Eley.

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles was formed to help protect and document murals, and enhance public awareness of mural art in the greater Los Angeles area. These programs are made possible by the tax-deducible dues and donations of our members, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the National/State/County Partnership Program, and the Brody Fund of the California Community Foundation.