University of New Mexico Art Museum: Willard Nash Murals – Albuquerque NM

Description

This series of six murals by Willard Nash was designed for the old UNM Library and completed with PWAP funds in 1934. The murals “originally hung for five years opposite six Raymond Jonson murals in Zimmerman Library. These two sets of large paintings were done to portray the physical and spiritual side of mankind. Nash’s works depicted the physical side via various athletic activities and later ended up in Carlisle Gymnasium for a number of years. Nash, like Jonson, was a modernist, but his experiments with human form were more moderate and possibly inspired by Cezanne and Picasso” (Flynn: 25).

Nash’s murals depict “Students Going to Class,” “Shotput,” “Football and Boxing,” “A Swimmer,” “Track and Tennis” and “Women’s Sports.”