Official Cover-Up

When artist Hugo Ballin unveiled his “Four Freedoms” mural in 1943, he intended it to delight and inspire. But for the past two decades, the work of art has been unable to do either--because no one can see it.

The mural, which hangs in Burbank’s City Council chambers, has been partially hidden by construction completed in the mid-’70s. Last year, when Burbank City Hall was named to the National Register of Historic Places, art aficionados stepped up pressure to have the mural fully revealed. Early this year, long-awaited plans to remove a dropped ceiling and finally restore Ballin’s vision to full view are expected to begin.

The artwork was commissioned for Burbank’s City Hall during World War II. It illustrates the “Four Freedoms” outlined in President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 speech at the signing of the Atlantic Charter. Ballin, a Pacific Palisades-based artist, wove large figures representing the freedoms of religion and speech as well as freedom from want and fear into the top of his colorful tapestry of ordinary citizens enjoying those liberties.

Between 1974 and 1976, the council chamber was renovated to improve the acoustics and accommodate an air-conditioning system. The 22-by-11 1/2-foot canvas was covered when architects installed a dropped ceiling. As a result, the four godlike freedoms depicted in Ballin’s work cannot be seen.

The artist never saw what Burbank did to his work; he died in 1956. Ballin, who trained at New York’s Art Students League and later studied frescoes at the Vatican, painted murals for the Griffith Park Observatory and the San Francisco World’s Fair as well as the Los Angeles Times’ downtown office building.

Recommendations on how best to restore the view of the mural should reach the council’s desk by February, according to Rich Inga, Burbank’s deputy city manager. The city is getting estimates from Pasadena-based La Cunada Design Group.

“We have options,” said Inga. “One is removing a portion of the ceiling over the nonpublic area of the chamber; the other is removing all of the dropped ceiling.”

Raising the roof will involve modifying the room’s lighting, public-address system, heating and air conditioning, as well as rewiring the video system used to broadcast council meetings. The cost of structural changes could reach $200,000. The city manager’s office is considering spending an additional $15,000 for cleaning and minor restoration of the mural.

Burbank City Manager Bud Ovrom said the artwork would be worth the expense. “It’s a real asset to the building, and it’s one of Burbank’s signature pieces.”

Ovrom’s office has been drawing plans for the past two years and decided that 1998 would be an appropriate time to carry them out.

“The truth is, with the upswing in the economy, Burbank can afford to do this,” Ovrom said. “It won’t mean any fewer police officers or services, and it would be good for the city as a whole.”

Respect for Ballin’s work is long overdue, according to some Burbank locals. Over the years, respect for “Freedoms” has not been universal. Mary Jane Strickland, president of Burbank’s Historical Society, said former mayor Charlie Compton took particular offense at the artist’s placement of a donkey in the mural.

Compton, Burbank’s mayor from 1962 to 1963, said that whenever he sat in his mayoral seat, the animal’s ears seemed to sprout out of his own head.

“Charlie insisted that the donkey ears looked like they belonged to him,” said Strickland. “It was so silly, but they ended up putting draperies over it.”

The curtains remained for years, and when a more permanent obstruction was proposed, few objections were raised.

“When they lowered the roof, I was having a fit,” said Strickland, acknowledging that “only those who really appreciated it were upset.”

“It’s a shame,” she said, “because you just don’t find a lot of buildings with murals of this caliber.”

Vance Pomeroy, another local historian, suggested that the mural may have upstaged council members.

“It’s a spectacular work. Councils in the past understood how much Ballin’s work dominated the room. The construction made it so the council dominates the room.”

Ovrom added that the zeitgeist also played a part in the decision.

“There was a time there in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s where everybody wanted to modernize. Dropped ceilings were put in to do that. Back then it was just in vogue to want to modernize. Now it’s more in vogue to get back to the historic roots.”