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Homage to Seurat: La Grande Jatte in Harlem
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On Friday, December 5, 2008, artist David Fichter and paintings conservator James Squires visited Seminole Peace Mural to document its condition, meet with neighborhood leaders, and develop a plan to restore it. The mural is in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta and it has fallen victim to the graffiti that covers much of the surrounding buildings and fences. Tagging has virtually obliterated the portraits of Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, and images of peace, justice, political activism that are woven through mural.
Just as community members came together to commission the mural when it was painted in 1984, they came together to nominate the mural for a Rescue Public Murals assessment. The mural, painted as part of a citywide cultural festival for nuclear disarmament, depicts the history of the development of the atomic bomb and the anti-nuclear movement. The mural site is near the former Little Five Points Pub, which was the neighborhood epicenter of the disarmament movement in the 1980s.
During the assessment, James R. Squires, Associate Conservator of Paintings with the Atlanta Art Conservation Center, a subsidiary of Williamstown Art Conservation Center based at the High Museum of Art, tested several methods of graffiti removal. He determined that some of the graffiti might be removable particularly where the tagging is more recent or where the mural coating of Soluvar is still intact. For the remaining areas, repainting by the artist will be necessary.
Neighbors and passersby were heartened to see Seminole Peace Mural being assessed and to hear that the mural may be saved. The assessment included a meeting of community members, some of which were involved in the fund-raising, planning, and painting of the mural in the early 1980s. The group discussed posting a sign explaining their hope to restore the mural and generated several ideas for raising funds.
Seminole Peace Mural was the first U.S. mural painted by artist David Fichter, who has been recognized internationally and has completed more than two dozen murals in the Boston area. It was also the first mural that Fichter did in Atlanta. Others include Singing in Dark Times (1992) on 7 Stages Theater in Little Five Points and the 340 foot Watershed Mural (2006) at the edge the Lake Claire neighborhood on DeKalb Avenue. Fichter’s 1988 Freedom Quilt Mural about the Civil Rights Movement on the former American Friends Service Committee building at Piedmont Avenue and John Wesley Dobbs Avenue NE is also threatened. Georgia State University now owns the building and may raze it. During the assessment day, the artist, community leader, Bill Fleming, and Heritage Preservation representative were also able to visit this mural.