Post Office Mural - Columbus Junction IA

City:: Columbus Junction, IA
Site Type:: Art Works, Murals
New Deal Agencies:: Arts Programs, Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA)
Completed:: 1942
Artist:: Sante Graziani

Description

“Titled ‘Lover’s Leap,’ the mural was painted in 1942 by Graziani. It portrays an early gathering that was held to raise funds for the city’s swinging bridge.

Graziani was influenced by American artists Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. He once said the three artists were the Holy Trinity of art while he was in school.

Kathleen Almelien, art teacher at Columbus Community High School, said the work is a classic example of the type of mural painting popular in the United States in the 1930s and ’40s. Many of the artists were funded through related initiatives of the Works Progress Administration, a government program to help stimulate the economy during the Great Depression.”

(muscatinejournal)