• City of Hope: Shaffer Mural (former) – Duarte CA
    In 1936, Myer Shaffer painted a mural, "The Social Aspects of Tuberculosis," for the Los Angeles Tubercular Sanatorium in Duarte, CA, the site of today's City of Hope. The 7 by 18 foot mural received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), the American Artists' Congress, and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Shaffer was a 23-year-old student of Mexican social realist artist David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles, CA, when he was hired. "Unlike many WPA muralists who painted anonymous subjects or imagined suitable subject matter without doing the research to support their choices,...
  • Mt. Sinai Home for Chronic Invalids (former) Mural – Los Angeles CA
    In 1937, Myer Shaffer painted a mural, "The Elder in Relation to Society," for the Mt. Sinai Home for Chronic Invalids in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The 400 square foot mural received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). "Shaffer used his artwork to draw attention to social crisis, this time that of eldercare. He explained in the Hollywood Citizen-News that he placed biblical figures Judas Maccabee and King David in the foreground to illustrate 'that age does not incapacitate.' Yet the mural delivered a much stronger social message; in the upper detail of the fresco...