Canoga Park High School Mural – Canoga Park CA

Description

In 1940, Helen Lundeberg created a mosaic mural, “Quests for Mankind,” for Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, CA. The mural was funded by the Work Projects Administration Art Program (WPAAP).

The mosaic depicts three stages in the progress of humankind: a family of early cave dwellers, a Hellenistic teaching scene, and Renaissance intellectuals with Pisa’s Campanile in the background. A second, smaller panel depicts three founding fathers signing the Declaration of Independence and three students looking at a globe.

According to the school website, “the murals originally hung as five separate pieces on the outside north wall of the Assembly Hall. Today, they are displayed on the Oral Arts Building, which was built against the Assembly Hall in 1978.” The murals—made of cement and crushed stone in a process called Petrachrome—are visible through the school gates at the corner of Topanga Park Boulevard and Vanowen Street.

Lundeberg’s FAP-funded works include the mural History of Transportation (1940) at Edward Vincent, Jr. Park in Inglewood, CA; History of Southern California and History of Early California (1941), murals at Venice High School; History of California (1941), a mural at the Fullerton City Hall (now the Fullerton Police Department) in Fullerton, CA; and a series of three murals, Preamble to the Constitution, Free Assembly, and Free Ballot (1942) for the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in Los Angeles, CA.

Lundeberg said, “The FAP made it possible for me to work full time as a professional artist at a time when the ‘art market’ was extremely depressed. It also…gave my general self confidence a boost…obliged me to undertake things I might not otherwise have dreamed of doing” (qtd. Moore, p. 23).

Note: In 1939, the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project (WPA-FAP) was renamed the Work Projects Administration Art Program (WPAAP) as the result of a federal reorganization.