City of Hope: Shaffer Mural (former) – Duarte CA In 1936, Myer Shaffer painted a mural, "The Social Aspects of Tuberculosis," for the Los Angeles Tubercular Sanatorium in Duarte, CA, the site of today's City of Hope. The 7 by 18 foot mural received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), the American Artists' Congress, and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Shaffer was a 23-year-old student of Mexican social realist artist David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles, CA, when he was hired. "Unlike many WPA muralists who painted anonymous subjects or imagined suitable subject matter without doing the research to support their choices,...