COVER
STORY
Talking
Walls
A
guide to L.A.'s vast collection of murals, where artists paint
snapshots of history and hope.
By BRENDA REES, Special to
the Times
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They can be
classical or contemporary, abstract or realistic, a humorous
commentary or a poignant statement. And no manner where you
drive or walk in Los Angeles County, you will undoubtedly soon
find a mural adorning a freeway wall, public building, underpass
or private residence.
Big, expansive and rich in story, murals transform ordinary
structures into unique works of art. Not restricted to museums
or galleries, murals are the people's art and often reflect the
mood of the community they inhabit. With an idea, determination,
time and paint, an artist can change a blank wall into a
snapshot of history, a vision of hope or a reminder of the
challenges of daily life.
Murals are hidden gems," says Robin Dunitz of the Mural
Conservancy of Los Angeles, who explains that Los Angeles is one
of the mural capitals of the world. Home to more than 2,000
murals—and that's not counting artwork that is pure
advertising—Los Angeles offers artists a warm climate to work
year-round and plenty of empty spaces on freeways, buildings and
walls.
In recent years, Los Angeles has seen a "mural
revival" with more artwork being officially commissioned
for placement in subway terminals, schools, libraries and
private businesses. Mural art is more accepted now than it was
during the protest-fueled 1960s and '70s, when unauthorized
murals often depicted anti-war and anti-establishment
sentiments. Still, that rebellious nature often is echoed today
in murals that confront mainstream society.
Despite the new respectability of murals, Dunitz believes in the
need to keep the public aware of new and old murals. The
conservancy was formed by concerned mural-lovers when Kent
Twitchell's famed "Old Lady of the Freeway" was
painted over in 1987. For four years, the ethereal image of an
elderly woman and her swirling shawl, located on a downtown
hotel wall, welcomed commuters on the northbound Hollywood
Freeway. Wanting to use the space for advertising, the owner
unceremoniously had it whitewashed.
"The thing about murals is they might be here one day and
gone the next," Dunitz says with a sigh. "They are not
a permanent art form." Here is a sampling of the wide
diversity of murals found in the Los Angeles area in the form of
a driving tour. |
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1.
Great Wall of L.A. (painted 1976-1983).
Tujunga Wash flood control channel, Coldwater Canyon Avenue
between Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street, Van Nuys. Forty
panels spanning half a mile, this mural tells the visual history
of Los Angeles from the La Brea Tar Pits up to the 1960s. Judith
Baca, director of Social and Public Art Resource Center, brought
together more than 250 juvenile offenders who helped paint
various stories of struggle, such as the zoot suit riots of
1943, Hollywood blacklisting and the division of the barrios and
Chavez Ravine. The murals also reflect the progress of diverse
groups of the community, such as ethnic athletes competing in
the Olympics, Asians receiving citizenship status and the
origins of gay rights.
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2.
Hollywood Jazz 1945-1972 (1990).
Capitol Records, 1750 Vine St., Hollywood. Sponsored by the Los
Angeles Jazz Society, this mural is a testament to the legendary
history of jazz in Hollywood. Muralist Richard Wyatt composed 11
great jazz singers and musicians flanked by a beaming Nat King
Cole. Also included are Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie
Holiday and Tito Puente. Wyatt knew he could never show all the
artists who performed in the 30-year span, so in the background,
he etched names of other jazz greats.
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3.
Fairfax Community Market (1985).
People's Market Building, Fairfax Avenue between Oakwood and
Rosewood streets, West Hollywood. "It's like a family album
or scrapbook" is how muralist Art Mortimer describes his
work, located in the parking lot next to Canter's Delicatessen.
A collage of black and white photographs, this mural traces
historical moments for Jews in Los Angeles from 1841 to 1985.
Included in the seven panels are the humble beginning of
Cedars-Sinai Hospital, striking garment workers in 1900, Al
Jolson singing in a synagogue and Sandy Koufax pitching for the
Dodgers. An intergenerational project, this mural was
co-researched, designed and painted by senior citizens and high
school students.
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4.
Korean Farmers Dance (1994).
981 Western Ave., near Olympic Boulevard, Koreatown. Created in
1984 in honor of the Los Angeles Olympics, this mural has
recently changed from a single masked dancer to a group of eight
Korean folk dancers and musicians. Painted by artist Dong-In
Park, the mural celebrates the Korean tradition of folk games
and plays, intended to amuse audiences who wish to momentarily
forget the difficulties of life. Each village had its own unique
farmer band, such as the one depicted, which entertained the
townspeople at local events.
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5.
Earth Memories (1996).
Belmont High School, playing field wall on Beverly Boulevard at
Loma Drive, Echo Park. Eva Cockcroft's mural is no small feat:
the history of life as we know it, from the Big Bang to the
freeways of modern-day Los Angeles. "It was a nice big
wall, so we needed a large topic," she says of the
580-foot-long mural that slopes up from 3 to 45 feet high.
Working with graffiti artists, Cockcroft and her team designed
the important Earth story elements, capping off with the dawn of
man represented near the end. "If you look at the
background in the mural and then look up, you'll see the same
landscape," she says. "In a way, we are all in this
mural."
6.
Party at Lan-T'ing (1991).
Los Angeles Public Library, 850 Yale St. facing College
Street, Chinatown. The artist, Shiyan Zhang, is a master
lacquer painter in China and lived in the United States
for five years before returning to his homeland in 1993.
This mural is composed of non-paint materials—including
inlaid costume jewelry, porcelain and glass—and the
result is a glistening piece of art that is best viewed in
the morning when the sun hits just right.
The mural depicts the famous party given by Chinese poet
Wang Xi-Zhi nearly 1,700 years ago. For the gathering, he
invited all the important artists, musicians and writers
of the day to discuss art and philosophy. The party is
such an important part of Chinese art history that it is
the subject of murals, paintings and artwork all over
China. This is the artist's only American mural.
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7.The
Pope of Broadway (1985).
Victor Clothing Co., 240 S. Broadway, between 2nd and 3rd
streets, Los Angeles. This impressive five-story-tall
mural features actor Anthony Quinn, who seems to be taking
an emotional curtain call. "I found the photo of him
in the pose," says artist Eloy Torrez. "His
outstretched arms seemed Christ-like, and given the
homeless in the area, [the gesture] seemed warm and
appropriate."
Owners of the Victor Clothing Co., a longtime clothing
store that mostly caters to Latinos, commissioned the
mural as a way to say "thank you" to people in
the community for their patronage. Quinn grew up in East
Los Angeles. The nearby Bradbury Building inspired the
background arches and floor tile work.
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8.
Harbor Freeway Overture (1991-1993).
Citicorp Plaza parking structure, exterior wall, 8th
Street and the Harbor (110) Freeway, Los Angeles. Artist
Kent Twitchell calls this the most detailed mural he's
ever done: Members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
look down upon north-bound freeway commuters near
downtown.
He first painted
Ralph Morrison, lead violinist and concertmaster (who is
the only member in the mural not still playing with the
orchestra). The following year, he added orchestra member
Julie Gigante. (Yes, her real name.) The middle ensemble
came last, and located three rows back is a non-musical
addition—Tachi Kiuchi, the CEO of Mitsubishi Electronics
of America, the sponsor of the mural. Twitchell added him
as a way to acknowledge Kiuchi's support of the
arts.
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9.
Freedom Won't Wait (1992).
54th Street and Western Avenue, Los Angeles. "This
mural reminds us of the early murals of the 1960s,"
Dunitz says. "It's raw, powerful emotions."
Artist Noni Olabisi created this artwork after the 1992
acquittals of the police charged with beating Rodney King
and the subsequent riots. Here, among images of lynching,
police brutality and protests, are faces crying out for
freedom and an end to oppression. This was the artist's
first mural.
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10.
Hog Heaven (Pig Paradise) (1957-present).
Farmer John Packing Plant, Soto Street between Vernon and
Bandini boulevards, Vernon. A truly unusual, ironic and
somewhat creepy mural—images of happy frolicking pigs
set in blissful pastoral scenes when, just steps away,
others are slaughtered and turned into bacon, sausage and
hot dogs. Hollywood movie scene artist Les Grimes worked
on the mural for 11 years, then fell to his death from a
scaffold in 1968. Another artist, Arno Jordan, continued
the work, and today it is constantly added to and
retouched. The mural has a three-dimensional look as it
winds around the exterior of the 10-acre processing
house.
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11.
Vision and Tradition (1995).
South Gate Park, parking lot near golf course, Pinehurst
Avenue between Southern Avenue and Tweedy Boulevard, South
Gate. Artist Jane Boyd teaches at South Gate Middle School
and was stunned when her students exhibited no sense of
direction—literally. "Living in the city, you don't
know which way is north or south," she says.
When designing this small 3-feet-high circular mural, she
created it as a compass—a reminder of physical and
spiritual direction. The artwork honors the indigenous
people of North and South America, including Mayans,
Navajos and Chumash Indians. Boyd used her students as
models, adding that they too, like the Indians here, are
"looking with their own traditions into the
future."
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12.
Spirit of Aerospace (1996).
South Bay Masonic Lodge, 520 Main St., near Mariposa
Avenue, El Segundo. Hughes Aircraft sponsored this mural,
which depicts the history of flight from the Wright
Brothers to the space program. Ironically, the mural was
dedicated the day Raytheon Co. purchased Hughes. Floating
among the images of Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart are
satellites, rockets and space shuttles. "There is
also a blueprint for a floating city," says artist
Scott Bloomfield, who was inspired by the concept from the
1984 William Hartmann book "Out of the Cradle."
"I wanted to touch the time, scale and spiritual
aspects of space," Bloomfield says. "Even though
it has a nostalgia feel to it, there is that mysterious
future."
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13.
Whaling Wall Number XXXI (1991)
Redondo Generating Station, 1110 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo
Beach. The artist, Wyland, is on a quest to create a
series of a hundred life-size "Whaling Wall"
murals in a hundred cities by the year 2011. Painting
whales is "a hobby that got out of control," he
has said about the murals he creates to raise awareness of
ocean life and the plight of whales. So far he has
completed murals in Japan, Australia, France, Canada,
Hawaii, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Orange County, putting
him at about 67 completed. Here, swimming and breaching
among the palm trees, are a dozen migrating whales,
including a mama and baby.
More on Murals
For a more complete list of murals in Los Angeles, check
out Dunitz's book, "Street Gallery" (RJD
Enterprises, 1993) or visit the conservancy Web site: http://www.lamurals.org
Both the Social and Public Art Resource Center and the
Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles offer mural bus tours
throughout the year. Some upcoming tours include Murals of
the 1920s, '30s and '40s (April 25), Murals of Asian
American L.A. (May 17), the San Fernando Valley Tour (June
20) and the Great Wall of Los Angeles (July 26). Tours
generally are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with lunch stops. They
are $25 per person, $20 for members. For a schedule, call
the center at (310) 822-9560 and the conservancy at (213)
481-1186.
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