Introduction:
Contemporary Muralists range from trained professionals to students of art to non-professionals with inspiration to record their images on often very unpermanent walls and surfaces recorded only by a photograph or discovered by a passer-by. Mural painting is not learned in controlled studio courses, and rarely mentioned in art—history courses. Most muralists learned in the streets by doing it. A great number of murals began to appear on city walls during the sixties, particularly in Los Angeles, California, and then in many of the major cities across the United States in the seventies.
Actually through my own exposure to murals in New York, Boston and New Haven, I became interested to research further and develop this unit for my students. In developing this unit I recalled that I had designed and executed a billboard mural in New Haven in 1975 through a grant from the Connecticut Union of Visual Artists (no longer in existence) in cooperation with the Garnett Outdoor billboard company. It was a tremendous experience taking a one by three inch design and enlarging it to 8 feet by 20 feet. It actually was able to be viewed from Route I-95N out of New Haven on the Branford line.
Images of the people’s own story, their history and struggles, their dignity and hopes are expressed in these contemporary wall records. Another name for the art of the mural makers is “People’s Art”. Often missing in any study of contemporary art is the art which is not for the art buying public, but the art of the inner-city reflecting everyday images of humanity. Brian O’Doherty, director of Visual Arts Program for the National Endowment for the Arts, writes: “Equally important has been the recognition of the inner city mural phenomenon, which was carried through in an irrefutable sweep of feeling not by a single artist, but by groups of artists, and not just by artists, but by an entire class, one that is usually far removed from privilege . . . its search [was] not for an audience, but for an arena to display the values of its audience . . . “
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The murals we will tour through the slides accompanying this unit are not the same in intent as the idealization of small town America in the W.P.A. murals nor the historical, politically influenced, murals of Diego Rivera. However, in viewing some of the Los Angeles murals by contemporary Chicano artists there is definitely a reflection of Rivera’s humanistic and social concern.
I have not included the graffiti artists in this unit except for Keith Haring whom is now known throughout the world for his incredibly prolific style and his initiation of his work outside the mainstream. The art establishment eventually came to him and he enjoyed a celebrated status with numerous gallery shows, permanent installations, and on-site painting commissions on five continents. I highly recommend “Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography” (see Bibliog.) for further understanding of the distinct vitality of his contribution.
I would encourage discussions with students at points of interest when they respond favorably to a given mural. Rather than spell out a series of questions to ask, I feel it necessary to bring out the reactions from the particular group of students participating in this project. The images will naturally give them many ideas of what they might like to create because of their relevant nature.
You can review the slides with your students as if you are touring the United States. The slides are arranged in sequence beginning in California and ending in New York (see Slides #35-69). Although I intended to have more representative slides from a greater variety of cities I became more concerned with a choice of imagery than a geographical approach. I have included some notes in the Slide Reference section at the end of this unit which you may find helpful.
