Udall Department of the Interior Building: Fiene Murals - Washington DC

State:: WASHINGTON-DC
Site Type:: Art Works, Murals
New Deal Agencies:: Arts Programs, Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA)
Completed:: 1938
Artist:: Ernest Fiene
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Yes
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior building contains one of the largest collections of New Deal art in Washington DC by some of the finest American artists of the time.

In 1938, Ernest Fiene painted a set of four oil-on-canvas murals depicting the land management functions of the Department of Interior, with funding from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. They are: “Winter Roundup,” “Placer Mining,” “Replanting Wasteland” and “Fighting Forest Fire.”

They are installed on the Second Floor main corridor, north of the Grand Staircase.

The Department of Interior Museum offers regular mural tours; check their website for information and registration.

For more information on the Interior building, its art and the artists, see Look and Perrault 1986 (below – available online). Artworks begin on p. 110.

Source notes

Look, David and Carole Perrault. The Interior Building: Its Architecture and Its Art. Washington DC: US Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1986. pp. 110-172. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015029850214&view=1up&seq=1

Department of the Interior

Site originally submitted by New Deal Art Registry on December 30, 2014.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.