For almost a year, between midnight and 4 a.m., conservator Gillian Randell, of the restoration firm EverGreene Architectural Art, examined and, with surgical precision, scraped away at the walls of the Goldwater Memorial Hospital, Roosevelt Island, New York City, in anticipation of its demolition. She worked at night because many of the day rooms were still used by patients. Alone in what had been a filming location for The Exorcist, Randell was in search of two 50’ x 7’ oil-on-canvas murals that had been commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and installed in 1942—and painted over fifteen years later.
The search for, and preservation of, WPA artworks doesn’t normally entail oversight by the New York City Arts Commission. But what set the two Goldwater Memorial Hospital murals apart is that they don’t look like normal examples of WPA art. As Arts & Antiques Magazine, which recently covered this story, notes, these pieces, by Albert Swinden and Joseph Rugalo, “were forerunners in abstract mural painting.” (A third, by Ilya Bolotowsky, was uncovered in 2001 and removed from the hospital). These artworks, that is, go against the grain of the typical WPA aesthetic, with its figurative scenes of local color and heroic workers. And in this way, Swinden’s and Rugalo’s murals suggest the kinds of free expression that were promoted by the federal government under the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt and became the training ground for mid-century artistic experimentation. They provide a capacious vision of the messages art can convey to the people.
This also made recovery difficult. As Randell attests, “Because these are abstract pieces, layers of color don’t necessarily make sense…. It’s not like you would find a bird, for instance.” It was difficult, that is, to know what to look for. Ultimately, Randell found two pieces that, though abstract, are clearly indebted to their environment. In the words of Art & Antiques, they “play off the presence of the East River, which was visible through the windows of the day rooms, and draw upon the peacefulness and kinetic energy of water.” Oh, and Rugolo’s mural has what looks like a shark.
As to their future: In April 2014, a fifteen-person team, employed by EverGreene, carefully removed the murals, rolled them into tubes, and transported them to their headquarters, where they remain as of this writing. Perhaps Cornell Tech, which will soon inhabit the site, and has already signed on to house the Bolotowsky mural, will install these other two. If you have any ideas for a future home for these murals, or if you’d like to keep tabs on this story as it unfolds, please contact [email protected].
Thanks to Oliver Williams, Living New Deal Research Associate and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, for relaying this article, which is worth reading in full!