Public Library: Macdonald-Wright Mosaic (demolished) – Santa Monica CA

City:
Santa Monica, CA

Site Type:
Mosaics, Art Works

New Deal Agencies:
Federal Arts Project (FAP), Arts Programs

Completed:
1937

Artist:
Stanton Macdonald-Wright

Quality of Information:
Moderate

Site Survival:
No Longer Extant

Description

In 1937, Stanton Macdonald-Wright (assisted by Albert King) completed a tile mosaic wall panel for a drinking fountain at the old Santa Monica Public Library in Santa Monica, CA. He received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP).

The mosaic panel was presumably lost during the demolition of the old library (located at 503 Santa Monica Boulevard) in 1974.

However, Macdonald-Wright painted a mural, “Invention and Imagination” (1935), in the library’s reading room that has subsequently been reinstalled at the new Santa Monica Public Library, one block away.

Macdonald-Wright was supervisor for the Southern California division of the FAP from 1935 to 1943. He is considered “an important proponent of the nonrepresentational styles of art on the New Deal projects” (Kalfatovic, p. 370). His other New Deal–funded works in Santa Monica include a mural at City Hall. He also completed mosaics at Edison Middle School and Hooper Avenue School in Los Angeles, CA, and at the Community Center in South Gate, CA.

Source notes

Martin R. Kalfatovic, The New Deal Fine Arts Projects: A Bibliography, 1933-1992 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994).

"Mural Decorations - Completed and in Progress - by Federal Art Project in Northern Southern California (April 1, 1937)," Marjery Hoffman Smith AAA Reel, www.wpamurals.org/CA37art.pdf

Site originally submitted by Natalie McDonald on March 2, 2023.

Location Info


503 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Los Angeles County

Location notes: This was the location of Santa Monica's Main library from 1927 to 1974.

Coordinates: 34.0176, -118.4942

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