- City:
- Los Angeles, CA
- Site Type:
- Bas Reliefs, Art Works
- New Deal Agencies:
- Federal Arts Project (FAP), Arts Programs
- Completed:
- 1938
- Artist:
- Bartholomew (Bartolo) Mako
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Unknown
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
In 1938, artist Bartolo Mako created a bas-relief sculpture for Hollywood High School in Los Angeles, CA. The relief is located above the entrance to the liberal arts building, which was constructed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding.
Cast in concrete, the relief features historically important intellectuals—scientists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers, astronomers, and philosophers— including Euclid, Archemedes, Plato, Aristotle, (Luigi) Galviani, (Isaac) Newton, (Benjamin) Franklin, (Antoine) Lavoisier, (Leon) Foucault, and Galileo (Galilei).
Mako was likely commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP), as sculptor Merrell Gage had been two years earlier to create a frieze and free-standing pylon for the south entrance to the science building.
Source notes
C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown, Public Buildings: Architecture Under the Public Works Administration, 1933 to 1939 (United States Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1939).
Public Works Administration, "List of all Allotted Non-Federal Projects, All Programs, by State and Docket, as of May, 30, 1942,” entry A1, no. 59, record group 135. Washington D.C.: Federal Works Administration, 1942. Located at the National Archives II, College Park, MD.
Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on September 19, 2022.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker & Natalie McDonald.
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