Flavio Cabral; Popular L.A. Muralist
Flavio Cabral, a popular Los Angeles artist and muralist in the 1960s, has died of heart disease. He was 73.
The Agoura resident died Thursday at Westlake Medical Center, according to a spokesman for the Armstrong Family mortuary in Los Angeles.
Cabral’s work ranged from large murals for public buildings to portraits, and from streamlined figures to surrealism.
Former Times art critic Henry J. Seldis praised Cabral’s “extremely skillful stylizations, which appear nostalgic at first glance (and) project an aura of timelessness.” Seldis commented that Cabral’s “craftsmanship and sense of composition deserve wide approval.”
In 1964, the Los Angeles City Council purchased Cabral’s portrait of the late Rufus B. von KleinSmid, former chancellor of USC and president of the city’s Library Commission, to hang in the Central Library, which is currently under renovation.
While working as an art instructor at Valley College in 1962, Cabral painted a 66-foot mural on panels for the library of Fulton Junior High School in Van Nuys, where he had previously taught. The mural depicted the evolution of water navigation from early Egypt to modern times.
Cabral’s work was exhibited by the Stendahl Galleries, the Dalzell Hatfield Gallery and the Heritage Gallery.
He is survived by his wife, Louise.
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