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Spotlight
In late September, Rescue Public Murals assessed Homage to Seurat: La Grande Jatte in Harlem (1986, Eva Cockcroft, 115 Hamilton Place, New York, New York). This is the only remaining New York City mural by the late Eva Crockcroft, an artist, art historian, and author instrumental in the national community murals movement. The assessment was conducted by conservator Harriet Irgang of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates, New York, and muralist Janet Braun-Reinitz of Artmakers, the New York based, artist-run community mural organization of which Cockcroft served as the first president.
At left, the right wall of the mural, 1986, photo by Eva Cockcroft. At right, the right wall of the mural, 2007, photo by Tomie Arai.
By using a conservator and a muralist for assessments, Rescue Public Murals brings the best technical and artistic knowledge together to document the mural’s condition and determine the most appropriate way to preserve it. The Homage to Seurat assessment also benefited from the attendance of several community residents.
Harriet Irgang and community residents
look for the artist's signature on the mural,
2007, photo by Kristen Laise.
Homage to Seurat interprets Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 pointillist style and images. Rather than using small points of color, Cockcroft painted the larger textured surface of the wall to create shapes. Some of the paint has chipped away or radically faded, giving the mural the appearance of being painted in the pastel colors of the Impressionists. In actuality, the mural was painted using bold jewel tones reminiscent of the Caribbean and the American South, where many West Harlem community members were born. Figures in the painting are depicted as people of color, which also makes the mural representative of its diverse community.
Read more about Homage to Seurat....
The photographs in the top and left bars of this page are of Against Domestic Colonialism by Arnold Belkin, one of the most important 20th century muralists. This mural, painted in New York City in 1972 (left) and measuring approximately 60 by 70 feet, is the only surviving mural in the United States by this Mexican master. It is also significant because it calls attention to the struggle between communities and urban renewal programs, one of the most common mural themes for the first phase (1965-73) of the community mural movement. The detail at the top of this page, taken in 2007, shows the wall's serious drainage and surface flaking problems.