- City:
- Lancaster, CA
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA), Arts Programs
- Completed:
- 1941
- Artist:
- Jose Moya del Pino
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Lancaster CA post office contains a striking oil-on-canvas mural by Spanish-born painter Jose Moya del Pino, who moved to San Francisco in the 1930s and worked on the famous Coit Tower murals. It would have been commissioned, like all post office murals, by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, and was installed when the post office was completed in 1941.
The mural is called “Hauling Water Pipe through Antelope Valley” and depicts a long mule-team hauling carts full of pipes through the Mojave Desert. This theme is quite distinctive compared to most historical murals showing scenes full of local notables and lush landscapes. It refers to the famous mule-teams that hauled silver and borax from the Owens Valley and Death Valley, helping to build early Southern California and to the vital role of water for irrigation and urban development.
Source notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Moya_del_Pino
Site originally submitted by Andrew Laverdiere on March 3, 2010.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.
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