Skirball Center Symposium Features Mural Artists

The Skirball Cultural Center on Saturday will present a symposium featuring two Los Angeles artists known for their political, historical and social paintings.

Gronk and Terry Schoonhaven will discuss “Modern Art: Murals as History” with Al Boime, a UCLA art history professor, and Barbara Gilbert, the Skirball’s curator of fine arts.

Among the murals to be discussed is Larry Rivers’ “History of Matzah: The Story of the Jews,” currently on display. Painted in the 1980s, Rivers’ 450-square-foot mural is considered a phenomenon of modern art.

Gronk, a Los Angeles native, was among the leaders of the Chicano art movement in the 1970s. He is known internationally as a painter, lecturer and performance artist. His works have been exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. His most recent commission is for a mural at San Francisco International Airport.

Schoonhaven is a full-time mural artist who co-founded the Fine Arts Squad in Venice in 1968. He is currently working on a 12-by-17-foot mural for the Harvey Morse Auditorium at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

Admission to the event, which runs from 2-4 p.m., is $8 general, $6 for members and $4 for students.

The Skirball Cultural Center is at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. in Sepulveda Pass. For more information, call (310) 440-4500.