Thursday, May 28, 2020 WPA MURALS

By admin

THURSDAY
May 28, 2020 

 RIHS’s 64th Issue of

PART 1
THE GOLDWATER MURALS
DISCOVERY
REMOVAL

PART   2
TOMORROW:
RESTORATION
RE-INSTALLATION

ILYA BOLOTOWSKY

Born to Jewish parents in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bolotowsky lived in Baku and Constantinople before immigrating to the United States in 1923, where he settled in New York City. He attended the National Academy of Design.He became associated with a group called “The Ten Whitney Dissenters,”or simply “The Ten,” artists, including Louis Schanker, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, and Joseph Solman, who rebelled against the strictures of the Academy and held independent exhibitions. Bolotowsky was strongly influenced by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian] and the tenets of De Stijl, a movement that advocated the possibility of ideal order in the visual arts. Bolotowsky adopted Mondrian’s use of horizontal and vertical geometric pattern and a palette restricted to primary colors and neutrals. Having turned to geometric abstractions, in 1936 Bolotowsky co-founded American Abstract Artists, a cooperative formed to promote the interests of abstract painters and to increase understanding between themselves and the public.

Images during 2001 restoration

After the 2001 restoration

JOSEPH RUGOLO

American Artist, 1911 -1983

The day Room as it looked before the Joseph Rugolo mural was removed
from multiple layers of paint after the hospital closed in 2013.

ALBERT SWINDEN

Albert Swinden was born in Birmingham, England in 1901.When he was seven, he moved with his family to Canada, and in 1919 he immigrated to the United States. He lived in Chicago, where he studied for about a year and a half at the Art Institute. He then relocated to New York City, where his art education continued briefly at the National Academy of Design. He soon changed schools again, to the Art Students League, which he attended from 1930 to 1934. He studied with Hans Hofmann and gained an appreciation for Synthetic Cubism and NeoplasticismAccording to painter and printmaker George McNeil, Swinden “could have influenced Hofmann … He was working with very, very simple planes, not in this sort of Cubistic manner. Swinden was working synthetically at this time.”While still a student, Swinden began teaching at the Art Students League, in 1932. Swinden married Rebecca Palter (1912–1998), from New York. Their daughter, Alice Swinden Carter, also became an artist. Carter, who attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, received an award from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston for her large sculptures.

The conceptual image of the B-11 day room mural “Abstraction”

DANE CHANASE

He was born in Palermo, Italy. He exhibited at the Salon d’Automne. He served in World War I. He married artist Sheva Ausubel (1896–1957). He was a member of the Federal Art Project. He created a mural for the School of Industrial Art, Brooklyn. His work is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Dane Chanase  mural was never found.  As with the others, it was probably painted over and eventually removed from the walls during the 70 plus years Goldwater was open.

Conceptual Image of mural

REMOVING BOLOTOWSKY MURAL FROM
GOLDWATER UNIT B-11

The murals were peeled off the walls onto wheeled tubes. Some pieces were placed on the floor to have the first layer of lead paint and contaminates removed. The murals then went to conservation studios where they were further cleaned and restored.

The room was sealed off from the rest of the area.  Some images were shot thru the window from the hallway.

The conservators worked in the rooms for months to remove the 3 murals.  Each mural was on a different floor of the hospital.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

What is this and where is it located?
E-mail answer to jbird134@aol.com
Win a kiosk trinket

Yesterday’s Photo of the Day

Yesterday’s photo was the Elevator Storehouse Building, with the  smokestack from the steam plant that serviced the buildings on  Welfare Island. The winner is JAY JACOBSON!!!

EDITORIAL

When we were walking the halls of the empty Goldwater Hospital, occasionally we would spot a piece of abandoned art. On bulletin boards there were religious metals, buttons. small signs and prayer cares.  When we walked into the unit where the Bolotowsky mural  there was a small pastel artwork on the wall, framed and matted hanging by the doorway,  The sweet picture of the two parrots was just left there, in the empty hallway.     I returned with a screwdriver and have adopted the picture.  It is now in my home freshly matted and framed, a reminder of the artistic residents of Goldwater.  Goldwater had a wonderful art program with annual exhibits and classes led by the then director of therapeutic recreation Ron Becker.

Judith Berdy
212 688 4836
Jbird134@aol.com

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff


All image are copyrighted (c)
Thanks to the RIHS Archives for Images
NYC Municipal Archives
Cornell University Johnson Museum

FUNDING PROVIDED BY:
THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS

CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS ADMINISTERED BY NYC DIVISION OF
YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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