The WPA Projects : PUBLIC ART THROUGHOUT THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

It was the worst of times for money, but one of the best for art.

During the Great Depression, artists who were literally starving were kept alive and working by government programs that paid them to make murals, sculptures, mosaics and other works that could be seen and enjoyed by the public.

These programs, like many of the New Deal era, were primarily aimed at putting food on the table, but left a staggering legacy: 18,000 sculptures, 4,000 murals and more than 100,000 easel paintings, photographs and posters.

The works constitute an unprecedented public art movement in the United States. Although the works are commonly called WPA art, the Works Progress Administration was only one of several federal agencies that sponsored artists.

The Depression era programs were enormously popular with the public. One exhibit of paintings sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project at the Los Angeles Museum of Art attracted 33,000 visitors, breaking all attendance records for a California art exhibition. And communities that previously had no public art treasured the subsidized works--sometimes by well known artists--that adorned their post offices, schools, parks and government buildings.

But a number of the murals and sculptures were controversial because they were viewed as having leftist or risque content. Some were dismantled not long after they were installed.

Many others have disappeared in the decades since the Depression art programs ended, often from neglect. “After World War II, people wanted to forget the Depression,” said art historian Orville Clarke Jr., who is writing a book about the public art movement in Southern California.

“No one cared very much about these works, many of which are just incredible,” he said.

For example, a mural depicting “San Fernando Indians” by well known painter Fletcher Martin has long since disappeared from the wall where it hung at North Hollywood High School.

A Brief History

But at least five of the artworks in the San Fernando Valley have survived and can be viewed anyone wishing to seek them out.

Canoga Park High School: Two large, outdoor murals hang on the walls of the Assembly Hall, a Spanish-style building that was also a government project. The murals were created by Helen Lundeberg, whose numerous well-known public works also include a 240-foot-long wall mosaic in Inglewood.

The high school murals, made of cement and crushed stone in a process called Petracrome, show progress in scientific discoveries from prehistoric to modern times. The work can be seen through the school gates at the corner of Topanga Park Boulevard and Vanowen Street.

Glendale Community College: According to Clarke, not much is known about an unpretentious fountain in the campus quad near a bookstore and administration building. Created out of small tiles, this charming work about five feet tall has three tiers. The bottom square shows fish frolicking in the ocean, the middle, six-sided tier shows prehistoric villagers, and the eight-sided top depicts birds in flight.

The work, which Clarke said is by Archibald Garner, no longer functions as a fountain, but structually appearts to be in good shape. The college address is 1500 Verdugo Road.

Burbank Post Office: One of the “People of Burbank” murals by painter Barse Miller offers a reminder of the industry that made this community a boom town. High up on the southern lobby wall of the post office at 135 E. Olive Ave. is Miller’s 1940 stylized depiction of an airplane factory scene. The other mural in the set shows a dance scene being filmed for a movie, an early reflection on the media industry that still thrives in Burbank.

San Fernando Post Office: Well-known artist Gordon Newell worked with Sherry Peticolas to create several post office murals during this era. Their murals were wood reliefs, rather than paintings or mosaics.

This seven-panel work on the post office lobby at 308 S. Maclay Ave. is entitled “Transportation of the Mail” and depicts a truck, ship, horse, airplane, train and stagecoach. The work is in wonderful condition and is treasured by postal workers, who said they made sure it was well protected when the interior of the building was recently painted.

Canoga Park Post Office: Maynard Dixon, one of the most famous of all West Coast painters, was near the end of his career at the time of the Depression-era art programs, but in 1942 he contributed the spectacular “Palomino Ponies--1840” mural that can be seen in the lobby of the small post office at 21801 Sherman Way.

Against a pure blue sky, the mural depicts a horseman chasing a pack of sand-colored ponies across a bleak plain. On either side of the mural, which is in pristine condition, are strips of geometric patterns in a Southwestern design.

Sources: “The New Deal for Artists,” by Richard D. McKinzie; “Democratic Vistas,” by Marlene Park and Gerald Markowitze

Researched by DAVID COLKER / Los Angeles Times