- City:
- Santa Monica, CA
- Site Type:
- Murals, Art Works
- New Deal Agencies:
- Federal Arts Project (FAP), Arts Programs
- Started:
- 1938
- Completed:
- 1939
- Artist:
- Stanton Macdonald-Wright
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Two large petrachrome murals by Stanton Macdonald-Wright flank the entrance to Santa Monica City Hall. Each one is two-stories high and wraps around a corner of the lobby. The murals would have been funded by the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), since Macdonald-Wright was supervisor for the FAP’s Southern California division from 1935 to 1943.
Macdonald-Wright pioneered the petrachrome method, whereby a mural is painted with a liquid mixture of materials including crushed tile, marble and granite.
The mural on the south side of the lobby is entitled “Recreation in Santa Monica” and represents popular spectator sports of the time, such as tennis, golf, polo, car racing, and sailing. It was intended as publicity for a city on the make and to reinforce the idea of Southern California as a land of leisure.
The mural on the north side is titled “History of the Santa Monica Bay Region.” The mural depicts the arrival of the Portola Expedition at the Kuruvungna Springs, site of a Tongva village. This encounter was friendly; the natives were hospitable and offered food, water and gifts. (The Kuruvungna Springs still exist today on the campus of University High School in West L.A., set aside as a historic site and restored to celebrate the Tongva tribal community past and present.)
Both murals have generated controversy recently, criticized as misrepresenting Santa Monica’s history. The Recreation mural shows only white, prosperous-looking people; yet, in the 1930s Santa Monica had a substantial industrial belt, working class residential areas, and Mexicanos living on the south side of the city. (Ironically, recent gentrification has made Santa Monica’s racial and class make-up more like that depicted in the mural!) The History mural has been criticized for showing the Portola group standing and on horseback, while the Tongva people are on the ground in what looks like a supplicant position.
Source notes
Nina Fresco, local historian
Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on May 9, 2023.
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