Canoga Park High School Mural – Canoga Park CA
Helen Lundeberg, "Quests of Mankind"
Description
In 1940, Helen Lundeberg painted a set of murals, “Quests of Mankind,” for Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, CA. She received funding from the Work Projects Administration Art Project (WPAAP).
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.
-
-
Helen Lundeberg, “Quests of Mankind”
Canoga Park High School Mural – Canoga Park CA
Helen Lundeberg, "Quests of Mankind"
Source notes
"Our History, 1940 to 1949," Canoga Park Senior High School (accessed Mar. 29, 2023)
"The WPA Projects: Public Art Throughout the San Fernando Valley," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 13, 1994 (accessed Mar. 29, 2023).
Sylvia Moore, Yesterday and Tomorrow: California Women Artists (New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1989).
Project originally submitted by Shaina Potts on July 15, 2010.
Additional contributions by Natalie McDonald.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
SUBMIT MORE INFORMATION OR PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS SITE