Return to top of Newsletter

Los Angeles Times story about Leo Katz’ mural, “Man and His Inventions”, June, 1935.

The Federal Work Project Act murals of the thirties, and the mural renaissance which has occurred since the late sixties, established murals and muralism as the quintessential visual hallmarks of Los Angeles. But even as far back as 1932, the year the city hosted its first Olympic Games, murals were already viewed as important aesthetic monuments. Art writer Arthur Millier, writing in the Los Angeles Times, pointed out that a “Mural-Painting Tour” would be a valid way of entertaining visitors attending the games. Two years later, the Los Angles Art Association Mural Art Committee published a Preliminary Catalogue entitled Mural Decorations to See in Los Angeles Territory to accompany the exhibition Mural Painting, a Civic Asset, which was organized by the Los Angeles Art Association and held at the Los Angeles Public Library. Both lists are tantalizing because they conjure images of a metropolis lost in another space and time, one in which a sense of civic pride in murals and their creators seems so evident. Among the works mentioned by Millier for example, are two Ballin murals in private homes, those of the bankers, Milton E. Getz and Ben Meyer in Beverly Hills.

Appearing on May 29, Millier’s article mixes beautifully decorative panels such as Julian Garnsney’s ceilings at UCLA’s Royce Hall, with actual murals. In a detailed description the soon-to-be-completed Cornwell murals at the Los Angeles Public Library, Millier describes them as “. . .some of the most impressive wall decorations the country can offer.”, while also noting Albert Herter’s panels in the history room. Ballin’s prodigious production is evident: Millier lists at least five by him, crediting him as well for the sketch of Pallas Athens on the entrance of the Olympic Stadium (the Coliseum). Department stores--Barker Brothers (Maynard Dixon’s Hopi murals), Bullocks Wilshire (Ojura Stojana, Hermann Sachs) Robinson’s (Millard Sheets, whose work is also in the State Mutual building next to the Philharmonic Auditorium) Dawson’s Book shop (Gile Steele) are listed as well as theaters. Albert Herter at the Warner Brothers in Hollywood, Christian von Schneidau at the Forum on Pico, and André Durenceau at the Leimert Theater all appear in this 1932 inventory and are already missing, as is Jorge Juan Crespo Jr.’s Plaza Center mural, from the more extensive 1934-1935 catalogue. “Arranged according to location,” this list includes downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Pasadena and “surrounding communities” extending as far north as Santa Barbara, south to San Diego, west to Santa Monica and Catalina Island and east to El Centro. It includes three controversial works, doomed to disappear: Maxine Albro’s Sibyls fresco at the Wilshire Ebell, Leo Katz’ Wiggins Trade School mural, American CraftTraditions, and David Alfaro Siqueiros’ Olvera Street mural, simply entitled Mexico, as well as his Stamp Speech, the fresco produced at the Chouinard School of Art on 741 South Grand. It is intriguing to see the number of murals produced by this time. In Los Angeles and Hollywood 57 appeared on this list. Writing in Saturday Night (Nov. 5, 1934) about the exhibition, Harry Muir Kurzworth points out that in the last five years, “. . .mural painting is. . .becoming a civic asset to many Southern California communities.” He also mentions that the exhibition covers the ideas, sketches, drawings and the full-sized cartoons for many of them. Also planned were two lecture series opening with the chairman of the Association Mural Painting Committee, Barse Miller, speaking to the theme topic. In order to make the material more accessible to a greater number of people toward the objective of “. . .helping young people enjoy good taste as an element of good citizenship; and developing southern California as one of the great cultural centers of the new world,” Mrs. Ione Bellamy Harkness (the former chair of the Federation of Women’s Clubs) arranged an outreach program using ‘lantern slides’ and also arranged school tours to visit the murals. Ah yes, it was another time.

News Briefs