A 30-Year Rescue Mission

Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros conceived and painted his Los Angeles masterpiece--an 18-foot-by-80-foot painting known as “America Tropical”--in a mere two months during the late summer and early fall of 1932. Commissioned by the owner of an art gallery on the city’s historic Olvera Street, Siqueiros designed a vast painting for an exterior, second-floor wall of Italian Hall, facing a rooftop beer garden that overlooked the pedestrian zone lined with Mexican shops.

With the help of other artists, he painted images of a pre-Columbian pyramid and statuary in a jungle-like setting dominated by a huge twisting tree. But on the night before the Oct. 9 unveiling of the mural, Siqueiros worked alone, quickly adding the explosive, central motif: an Indian peon lashed to a double cross with an eagle over his head and two Mexican revolutionaries off to the side, one of whom aims a rifle at the eagle.

The mural’s depiction of exploitation--which some see as an indictment of Mexican history and others as an attack on U.S. policies--provoked an immediate reaction. Siqueiros had applied for an extension of his six-month visa, but permission was denied after he finished the mural. By the end of the year, the portion of the artwork that could be seen from Olvera Street was whitewashed; the rest was covered two years later.

But since then, almost everything concerning “America Tropical” has occurred with glacial speed. Although the painting is recognized by scholars as a major work by Siqueiros (a founder of the Mexican muralist movement with Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco), and although it’s his only surviving public mural in this country, efforts to restore the artwork and put it back on view have dragged on for 30 years.

The last decade or so has seemed particularly glacial. The Getty Conservation Institute--a branch of the J. Paul Getty Trust devoted to preserving the world’s cultural heritage--joined the rescue effort in 1987 and subsequently committed staff, expertise and about $1.1 million to what will be a $3.7-million project (other funders are the city, the National Endowment for the Arts and local foundations). Thirteen years later, the mural’s conservation is essentially complete--although badly weathered and a ghost of the original artwork, it has been cleaned and stabilized--but still no one can see it. A campaign to raise an additional $1 million to pay for a protective canopy, a viewing platform and an explanatory exhibition has yet to be launched. In the meantime, the mural is shielded with a fiberglass cover.

If recent predictions by both the city and the Getty are accurate, the public may actually get to see the mural before the next Ice Age--spring 2002 to be exact. Skeptics aren’t holding their breath, however: Completion of the project has been forecast every year or so since 1990.

Nonetheless, there will be something to see soon. “The Preservation of ‘America Tropical’: A 30-Year Project”--a temporary exhibition that is expected to provide some insight into the fitful restoration effort--is being installed at Pico House, a former hotel across the plaza from Olvera Street, and, like the mural and Olvera Street, part of the city’s El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument.

The show will be inaugurated during the Democratic National Convention, as part of a slate of private events at El Pueblo, but it will be on view to the public for two to three months starting Aug. 16.

The display of 28 photographs and drawings, eight text panels and a 2 1/2-foot-by-10-foot reproduction of the mural “will tell people what’s been going on for the past 30 years,” said Jean Bruce Poole, director of El Pueblo Historic Museum. “It doesn’t cover everything, but it shows some of the things we tried to do.”

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Rallying support for the mural has been “hideously frustrating,” Poole said, “but with the city, you have to learn to be patient.” When people burst into her office demanding to know why the mural project is taking so long, she answers: “In governmental circles, everything takes long.”

The drive to save “America Tropical” began in 1969, with Los Angeles-based art historian Shifra Goldman leading the way. Filmmaker Jesus Salvador Trevino furthered the cause by documenting the artwork’s importance and fragility in a KCET-TV film that aired in 1971. After Poole arrived at her museum job in 1977, she joined Goldman and Trevino in organizing a committee to save the mural. “We weren’t very effective,” Poole said. “It took more political clout and money than we had.”

But “everything changed” with the entrance of the Getty, Poole said, because the wealthy institution not only had the resources and expertise to get the job done, but the prestige to persuade city authorities of the artwork’s importance. Poole appealed to Miguel Angel Corzo in 1986. Then president of the Friends of the Arts of Mexico Foundation and director of special projects at the Getty Conservation Institute, he would take charge of the institute in 1990.

“I’ve always felt that he was like a knight riding on a white charger because finally someone recognized the importance of the mural and offered to do something to help,” Poole said. The Getty formally announced its participation in 1987.

Pressed to account for the long timeline since then, everyone involved points to the complexity of the conservation work itself and to delays for seismic upgrading, but they also blame the difficulty of working out public-private partnerships--particularly when many agencies and interest groups are involved--dealing with the city’s bureaucracy and persevering through changes in management in both sectors.

“When there are too many chefs, it kind of spoils the broth,” said Sheila Grether, acting president of El Pueblo Park Assn. As the official nonprofit support group for the historic district, the association has periodically raised funds for the mural and is gearing up for the final campaign.

Preliminary work began in 1987, when Getty conservation scientists took samples from the mural and determined that the paint binder, probably cellulose nitrate, had contributed to the deterioration of the surface. With funds from the Friends of the Arts of Mexico, Corzo hired a conservator to test methods of treatment, but actual work on the Siqueiros mural didn’t begin until 1990, when Corzo became chief of the conservation institute.

During the first phase of treatment, conservators used a relatively mild solution of formic acid to remove the white paint applied in the 1930s, but they had to employ a powerful solvent to get rid of thick black roofing tar that covered the mural’s base, said Francesca Pique, an institute project specialist. They consolidated the original pigment with a thin coat of polyvinyl acetate spray and reattached loose plaster to the brick wall by drilling tiny holes and inserting liquid lime-and-sand mortar with a syringe. In 1991, an environmental monitoring system was installed near the mural; for the next year and a half, the station measured wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature, humidity and the movement of sunlight so that conservators could devise a long-range plan to protect the painting.

That was the easy part, according to the conservation institute’s current director, Timothy P. Whalen. “The bigger issues here are how you allow the public up onto a rooftop and how you work this through with our partners in the city.”

A shelter was designed in 1994, but rejected because it didn’t provide sufficient protection or blend in with the historic architecture. The same year, funds became available for long-delayed seismic stabilization of masonry buildings on Olvera Street. The mural project was put on hold until 1996, when the seismic upgrading of Italian Hall was completed. As the years stretched on, the mural project also had to contend with changes in safety and disabled access rules, the shifting needs of its neighbors on Olvera Street and a mountain of approvals needed from various agencies.

The mid-’90s was also when serious administrative shifts began to take a toll on the Siqueiros project. El Pueblo, which had been administered by the city Parks and Recreation Department, was designated a separate Los Angeles department in 1995 but no permanent manager was named for the next five years. And in 1998 at the Getty Conservation Institute, Corzo resigned and Whalen took charge. The mural wasn’t the top priority at either organization.

Then last fall, Whalen appointed Kristin Kelly, then manager of administration of the Getty Museum, to coordinate the institute’s work with city agencies and fund-raisers on the mural effort. And, more importantly to most observers, in January 2000, the city finally appointed a permanent head for El Pueblo, naming Sam Luna general manager of the 44-acre site. Suddenly, the pace picked up for historic renovations, including the Siqueiros project.

“People keep asking why things didn’t get done before now,” Luna says. “I guess we were waiting for a permanent [El Pueblo] manager. That seems to make a difference in everyone’s mind-set.”

To the delight of weary mural watchers, he says he is “in a hurry to get a lot of things done around here. You don’t really have an impact on a place by getting it done over a 20-year span,” he said. “You create a three-year plan, at most, and prioritize. The mural is one of our highest priorities.”

Luna is overseeing a $20-million, city-funded effort to renovate the entire historic district--rehabbing 27 buildings, installing new lighting and street-scaping. In the works since the city took charge of El Pueblo in 1991, the renovation got a giant push from plans to showcase the district during the Democratic National Convention.

And while the institute’s Whalen and Kelly admit that it has taken some time for both of them to “get up to speed” on the mural, they recently achieved something that had never been done before: all the mural partners convened in the same room at the same time instead of talking individually.

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So what should happen next at the Siqueiros mural?

First, as Luna says, “We need the viewing platform; we need the interpretive center.”

Under the auspices of IQ Magic, a design firm in Santa Monica, the architectural and engineering firm Pugh + Scarpa is revising plans for the mural’s protective canopy and viewing platform. One problem in the most recent design was that structural supports for the canopy--which will protect the mural from birds and rain--made it impossible to get an unobstructed view of the entire mural. The revision will be submitted to the Los Angeles Conservancy--which oversees historic structures--as well as to city agencies, Whalen said. Installation of the platform and mural shelter is scheduled to begin next spring.

The interpretive exhibition, which will provide a historic and artistic context for the mural, will be installed in Sepulveda House, adjacent to the viewing platform. In contrast to the upcoming temporary show at Pico House, organized by Poole, the permanent display is being designed by Tom Hartman, president of IQ Magic.

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Conceived to tell “a complicated tale of art, politics and censorship in 20th century Los Angeles,” his project will begin by “giving people an understanding of what Los Angeles was like in the ‘30s, when the mural was painted,” he said. Despite the Depression, “Los Angeles was being marketed as a new kind of garden city.”

Then visitors will be introduced to Siqueiros, “his early life and his sojourn in Los Angeles,” Hartman said. Another section, devoted to Siqueiros’ art, will present some of his themes--struggles involving assimilation and empowerment--as well as information about his techniques and approaches to composition. Finally, the show will examine his influence on other artists, both during the era of WPA murals and the Chicano movement of the 1960s.

“Siqueiros was such a powerful, dynamic figure everywhere he went,” Hartman said. “He also wrote the manifesto that created the mural movement in Mexico. I would say he was the most influential of the three leading muralists, but probably the least understood.”

The challenge is “to present a very simple story that people can walk through in 30 minutes and understand in a fun and easy way, but also to provide resources for those who want more details,” Hartman said. However the exhibition shapes up, the script and preliminary design are due Oct. 1. Final plans will be presented in January and installed during the following eight months, he said.

The fund-raising campaign for the mural--intended to provide money for the canopy, platform and exhibition--is also coming right up, at last. El Pueblo Park Assn. plans the launch for October. “We will do some homework with professional fund-raisers in the next two months and we are building up our board,” acting President Grether said. As is customary, large donors will be solicited during “a quiet phase” prior to the public announcement, she said.

The goal is about $1 million, but the exact figure has not been established. “We want to raise enough to provide for an endowment to maintain and staff the viewing platform, so we don’t have to rely on public funds,” Grether said.

A stockbroker and former professional fund-raiser for cultural organizations, Grether characterized herself as “just a volunteer” who has been involved with El Pueblo since 1978 because of her love for the city. But she also said she will cheerfully step aside to make way for someone “more powerful in the community” to head the association.

Luna said he expects the city’s investment in El Pueblo to stimulate contributions to the mural, and Grether indicated that several potential donors have expressed interest in the project. “I think there is tremendous support for Siqueiros,” she said. “There just has to be an effective campaign to raise awareness about it.”

And the final steps in unveiling the Siqueiros mural will come once the fiberglass shield is removed. According to the Getty’s Pique, a team of two conservators and two assistants has about three months of work left. First, they will clean the surface of the mural with dry, soft brushes. If they find dirt embedded, it will be removed with a gentle solvent. The conservators will also check for any remaining flecks of white paint. And if they find spots where the paint applied by Siqueiros is still not strongly bound to the plaster, loose flakes will be reattached with an adhesive. Finally, areas of lost paint that have been filled with a creamy white mortar will be toned down to blend in with the mural, she said.

What exactly will the public see? Everyone emphasizes that the mural is being conserved not repainted, in keeping with the best practices of the day. “That which remains, remains,” as Whalen explains. “We will not be returning any of the mural’s legibility to it.”

But even without the original colors, says Grether, “there’s so much potential for this to be a shining star for Los Angeles. The Siqueiros mural is a landmark for the city. Those who help to complete it will have a permanent place in the city’s history.”

Luna agrees: “The mural is an important piece of work that will expand public understanding of the significance of the Mexican muralists.”

For El Pueblo, he says, it’s “a jewel hidden inside the jewel.”

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“The Preservation of ‘America Tropical’: A 30-Year Project,” Pico House, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. Beginning Aug. 16, daily, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Information: (213) 628-1274.