By Daily Press staff
A mural originally painted in the 1930s at the Santa Monica Public Library is being checked back in following a 40-year absence.
The mural created by Stanton Macdonald-Wright is the topic of a visual presentation by Ilene Susan Fort to be held on Jan. 28.
A pioneer of Modernism, Macdonald-Wright created one of the largest murals completed during the 1930s New Deal at the Santa Monica Public Library. After 40 years, the mural series (on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum) has returned to the new Main Library which recently opened. Dr. Fort, mural consultant and curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, describes the mural and its significance in her talk entitled: “The history of humankind through the eyes of Stanton Macdonald-Wright: The library mural series.”
Recently conserved and reinstalled, through funding provided by the California Cultural and Historical Endowment (CCHE) and the City of Santa Monica, the mural series is on view on the second floor of the Main Library. Fort’s talk will be held at 2 p.m. in the Main Library’s Martin Luther King Jr. auditorium, located at 601 Santa Monica Blvd. For more information on this free public program, call (310) 458-8600.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 27, 2006. Read the original PDF.