Getting A Face Lift

I just found this on the web. It's an old article I wrote. Thought I would post.

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Restoration begins on the Olmstead Murals

Ronnie Goodman and Lisa Honda labor meticulously on the $50,000 restoration of Fred Olmstead's 1941 mural, "Theory and Science," to be completed by the end of September, 2002.

Two historic City College murals, painted by artist Fred Olmstead are currently undergoing a meticulous, labor-intensive restorative process. The murals, located directly inside the front doors of the Science Hall, depict themes of theory and science.

Jointly organized, the restoration project will cost approximately $50,000, with an estimated completion by the end of September 2002.

The murals, created in 1941, which depict women and people of color practicing science, were visionary at the time. Olmstead was not painting present day 1941; he was painting the future. This type of revolutionary thinking is in every way representative of City College of San Francisco.

Olmstead, (1911-1990), who was academically trained, wanted to create murals with science-related subject matter, the idea being to integrate art with science, emphasizing both disciplines with equal importance.

Members of the physics department, notably Will May-nez, helped to create an intriguing juxtaposition of the murals next to practical applications of science and theory: a real-time seismograph, digital downloads of space imagery, a Muon apparatus that detects actual particles coming down from the atmosphere are just a few of the various displays that sit adjacent to the murals.

"One of the important things about this project is that the Science Building was intended to be and still is the official front door to this campus," said Julia Bergman, who chairs the visually educative CCSF Outlook program. "A dirty, vandalized entrance will impress negatively upon first time students...The completion is absolutely symbolic to student success."

The murals, painted during World War II, were commissioned as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1935 Works Progress Administration (WPA), a social program aimed to create jobs during the Great Depression. The program funded more than 2,500 murals for public schools, hospitals, and public centers around the nation, including the Coit Tower murals, where Olmstead contributed a three-foot piece above the main entrance.

Dating back to prehistoric cave painting in France, mural painting is one of the oldest forms of artistic expression. The word "mural" is derived from the Latin word murus, meaning "wall."

The Mexican mural movement, led by Diego Rivera and his compatriots Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, strongly influenced American mural painters of the 20th-century. Using a decorative, animated Mexican folk art style, they typically drew the figures flat on the picture surface, filling areas with bold colors, immense in size and shape. The subject matter of the Mexican muralist is socially and politically conscientious. Rivera's work especially was considered revolutionary and, at times, controversial.

Clearly Olmstead's work is influenced by stylistic traits developed by the Mexican muralist. But unlike Rivera's Pan American Unity mural, which is painted as a fresco (application of earth pigments to wet plaster), the Olmstead Theory and Science murals were painted on dry plaster with watercolors.

In addition to painting the two murals for City College, Olmstead also sculpted out of tufa stone two busts, or upper heads, of Leonardo da Vinci, and Thomas Edison, both remarkable scientists. They are located on the east side (rear) of the Science Building.

Founded in 1935, City College officially opened its Ocean branch in 1940 with three buildings: the North Gymnasium for women, the South Gymnasium for men, and the Science Hall. Back in 1940, the Science Hall served as a student center with lounge, cafeteria, library, and administration, all in one.

Timothy Pflueger, the original architect of City College, was instrumental in integrating art into the college. Taking advantage of the WPA and heading up a program called Art in Action, which took place at the World's Fair of 1939 and 1940 on Treasure Island, allowed Pflueger the necessary connections to bring works to the college like the Olmstead sculptures and murals, the Rivera mural, the Volz Mosaics, Sergeant John-son's bas relief sculptures, and Dudley Carter's "The Ram."