Santa Monica High School: Palo-Kangas Sculpture – Santa Monica CA

Description

Several New Deal art works grace the Santa Monica high school campus, including a 7-foot-high cast stone sculpture titled “The Viking.” Located on the patio between the Art and History buildings, the sculpture was created by John Palo-Kangas in 1937 with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). “The sculpture is set upon a rectangular concrete basin which has been capped. The backdrop for the sculpture is composed of patterned blocks with a stylized wave design”—blocks which “also appear in the foyer of Barnum Hall and around the main entrance of the History Building” (HRG Report, p. 24).