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