- City:
- Newark, NJ
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Arts Programs, Work Relief Programs, Federal Arts Project (FAP), Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Artist:
- Michael Lenson
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
The New York Times wrote the following in 2003 in a retrospective article of New Jersey-based artist Michael Lenson:
“[Mr. Lenson] moved to Newark and applied at the W.P.A. office on Halsey Street … Soon, Mr. Lenson was designing and executing murals for the state W.P.A. program. He went on to become assistant state supervisor in charge of the other muralists in the agency.”
While not confirmed, Michael Lenson purportedly painted a mural at Newark’s Chancellor Avenue School:
“[A]nother Lenson mural might be hiding behind the wall paint in a windowless room at the Chancellor Avenue School in Newark. According to a retired teacher who worked there for many years, sometime in the 1940s Lenson painted an “astronomical mural” on the walls and ceiling of a room in the school. The room, she further reports, was converted into a storage room and the murals were painted over.”
Source notes
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/nyregion/creating-murals-with-paint-and-purpose.html https://www.michaellenson.org/morenews.htmlSite originally submitted by Evan Kalish on December 7, 2013.
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This school is in Newark, not Irvington. I remember seeing this mural still visible on the ceiling in the 1960’s when it was used as a classroom.
Deb, thanks very much for the correction!