Recreation by Dunbar Beck

"Recreation" by Dunbar Beck
This piece like Dunbar's "Sleep", was also created for the 39-40 World's Fair, who's location is in question.
This mural has a great feel of motion and a nice overall sense of kinetic movement.
I think this one has an especially modern feel to it. The strong shadows in this mural give a feel of bright sunshine, which imbues the piece with an overall feel of health and well-being
The nudity of a number of figures in Beck's mural work (and in the mural work of a number of other world's fair artist's murals) is something I find really interesting. Interesting because it was something that at that time--in the late 30's and early 40's, nude figures in art--even in public places such as a World's Fair, was obviously something that was acceptable (at least overall) at that time and under those circumstances.
In our era I think there would be a lot of complaints about it, and I don't think that artists would be allowed this sort of freedom today.
At this point it might also be mentioned that it is also a sorry state of things when today (and for many previous decades) commissioning artist to create murals or sculpture for a World's Fair or Expo is no longer very important. That is an unfortunate reflection on what we value in our culture. During the Fairs of the 30's and 40's art was very important in these venues, partly because creating beauty was thought to be more important than saving a buck and cheaping out on what you provided the public.
It was almost a given that an architect would often include art in his/her creations, added to inspire and uplift and make people think--or to simply create more beauty in a given space. The recognition and acclaim of creating these sort of grand spaces was more important than saving a few thousand dollars. The artists of this era were indeed lucky to have these sort of opportunities. Today, most of these sort of commissions,when they actually are available, often go to large mural painting firms.
Photo: NYPL

Sleep by Dunbar Beck

"Sleep" Mural by Dunbar Beck.
For the 1939-40 World's Fair New York.
I don't know what building this was on, but I really like the feel of this one. The figure of sleep is especially nice due to, I think, all of the pleasing geometric shapes within it. It's almost a shame that it is sideways as it makes you really want see it vertically. The overall egg-shaped design adds to a general feeling of peace and calm.
Although this photo is in black and white you can still see how Beck made use of color in the shaded tones of this piece. He was an excellent colorist--and here you can see how he adapted his coloring skills to a format in which it looks like he could do very little if any blending. (or chose to do little or no blending) The overall areas of color, and the color/shadow areas are so simple and clean,and add so much to the piece.
Also note that in "Sleep" and "Recreation" that Beck's style of execution is far different than his work for "Genius of Business Administration". "Sleep" and "Recreation" are in a modeled in a flatter simpler more "cartoonish" sort of style" for lack of a better word. Perhaps he chose this look because it would carry better visually from a great height or distance? No matter why he did it was a nice clean straight-forward look. In contrast,the elegant yet powerful figure that is central to "Genius of Business Administration" is executed in a far more realistic manner.
Photo: NYPL

Dunbar Beck

Dunbar Beck: 1903-1986
Master draftsman and painter, Beck painted several murals for the 1939-40 World's Fair in New York. It's too bad these photos are not in color as Beck was also an amazing colorist. I have not been able to identify the location/building on which his murals "Recreation" and "Sleep" were located. However the third mural "Genius of Business Administration" was located (outside?) along the courtyard wall of the Business Systems and Insurance Building.
Beck designed the central six-armed figure to represent, in his opinion, how many arms the modern office worker would need to handle all of his duties if it were not for the assistance of modern office machinery.
One of the three photos shows an original study for the mural in whole.
This mural was 75ft long and 19ft tall. Interestingly, it was executed in the same new "rubber based" paint that was used on a number of murals at the NY 39-40 Fair. The use of this early latex/acrylic type paint for these murals were among the first known artworks created with this then new paint...which to me makes these works even more exciting and interesting!
This new paint was created in part by the artist Dominico Mortellito. He himself also created murals for the fair--and many artists at the fair used his paint for the creation of their murals. I will cover more about Mortellito in a future post.
Somewhere around 110 murals were commissioned for the fair. Amazing!
Photos: NYPL

Santiago Martinez Delgado Mural

Santiago Martinez Delgado: 1906-1954
Delgado was a student in Chicago of Ruth VanSickle Ford, who was also one of the teachers of Walt Disney. As I understand, through his connection with Ford, Martinez was commissioned to do (at least one) mural for the Century of Progress 1933-1934 in Chicago. His Mural "Columbia Evolution" as seen here is probably one of his most famous works for which he was awarded the Logan Medal for the Arts in 1933.
This piece has so much texture and area of great rhythm. The horses alone are stunningly beautiful and so dynamic and elegant, that they could stand as a great piece even if separated from the rest of the work. The background with the trees/birds/wavy lines/chains is even more compelling than the sensual dynamic figures that populate the foreground.
This is the only photo I have seen of this piece unfortunately. I say unfortunately partly because I don't think that this is the mural in full. I think that we are only seeing part of it here. In fact I would really go out on a limb and venture a guess that this may even be only half of the original mural. However we are really blessed to have an actual color photo of the mural which in my research is quite rare.
According to his Wikipedia entry ( and several other sources), he executed a second mural at the Century of Progress--this one being for the General Motor exhibit. However I have not been able to locate a photo of this mural. However I think that he may have had a part in either the design and or execution of the GE House of Magic murals. I wonder if as time has passed if the names General Electric and General Motors haven't been confused.
Photo: Wikipedia

Century of Progress Mural

The Sower By Bourdelle

Here is another mural for the same Food Building as "The Reaper" This one is "The Sower" This is really such a dynamic simple design! The lines in the field that has been sown behind the figure draw you into the piece, the strong figure pulls you down into the feet and to the seeds that are being scattered--and the same pull you back up into the center again. The seeds have an interesting almost animated feel to them.
Photo: NYPL

Century of Progress Chicago Fair

This set of murals is one of my all time favorites. I think it is absolutely amazing. First of all, you rarely see murals on curved surfaces like this. Not to mention the sheer size of the curved surfaces. In my opinion I would think that they were probably painted off-site and installed later.
I really love how the curved wavy lines in the upper areas of each mural, further enhance the curve of the walls. Also this element of the design also pulls the murals together, giving a nice feeling of harmony to the design even though the murals are all on separate walls. I have to say that I'm not absolutely sure if these are walls or columns of some shape or another.
I wish I had other photos of this set of murals from another angle. I think it is really extraordinary. It was painted for the GE House of Magic for the Chicago Century of Progress 1933-1934. I have been unable to find out who the artist or artists were for this piece...BUT at some point I did locate some information that led me to believe that the artist, or one of the artists who created this piece was Santiago Martinez Delgado.

The Reaper by Bourdelle

Here is another mural by Bourdelle on another Food Building ( I don't think that this is part of the round building with the mural) This one is "The Reaper" It is described as one of a series of food production themed murals. Executed in raised cement, red is the dominant color, as the building was in the "red zone" of the exhibition.
I think one thing that makes this particular mural interesting is the bold abstraction of the buildings in the background. Bourdelle was an intersting artist who enjoyed working in unusual materials. There are great line in this piece and the "record groove" type lines in it really add to a feeling of movement.
Photo: NYPL