Post Office Mural – Wynne AR

Description

The Section of Fine Arts commissioned this mural: “Cotton Pickers” for the Wynne, Arkansas post office. Painted by Ethel Magafan in 1940, the mural is 12′ long and about 4′ high, painted in oil on canvas.

“Ethel Magafan was commissioned for $560 to create a mural for Wynne, Arkansas as a result of an Honorable Mention in a Section of Fine Arts competition. She visited town and composed numerous sketches of the people as they worked in the cotton fields. Magafan installed the mural with the help of her twin sister Jenne. The color sketch for the composition was exhibited at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the black and white cartoon was displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art in 1988.

“Set against the Delta landscape in the left background is a large cotton field with pickers. The colored man and woman in the left foreground carry their loaded bags to a wagon where a group of workers are having their bags weighed and emptied.”

(uca.edu)