Murals

by David McShane

There's a mural on my dining room wall of the railroad tracks at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. I love having my hometown with me out here in California.” Jill Scott

Asked to list the ten athletes I most enjoyed watching, number one in terms of chronology is Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Richie “Whitey” Ashburn, who batted at the top of the order for the pennant-winning 1950 “Whiz Kids.”  Disparaged as “the foul ball king” who couldn’t hit for power, Ashburn often led off a game fouling off pitch after pitch to wear down the pitcher and coax a walk. Like many teammates, the two-time batting champ and Hall of Famer played the entire decade of the 1950s with my home town team, and I can still name at least a dozen core players, starting with pitchers Robin Roberts and Curt Simmons, catchers Andy Seminick and Stan “Stosh” Lopata, colorfully-nicknamed infielders “Granny” Hamner and “Puddin’ Head” Jones, and frequently booed home run hitter Del Ennis. Grandpa Elwood Metzger took me to many home games; we’d get off the train at 30^th Street station. Ashburn played two years with the Cubs before ending his playing career with the expansion Mets, whose games he’d go on to announce until his death in 1997.  He was a class act.

Murals serve many purposes, from purely decorative to propaganda. Often they commemorate celebrities (such as Gary’s Jackson Five and Seymour’s John “Hoosier” Mellencamp) or victims (i.e., George Floyd, murdered by a Minneapolis cop). Two famous muralists, Mexican communist Diego Rivera and American regionalist Thomas Hart Benton, were contemporaries who attempted to capture historic trends between the world wars.  Rivera’s most controversial mural was “Man at the Crossroads,” commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation for New York City’s Rockefeller Center.  Contrasting capitalism and socialism, Rivera included a portrait of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, which Foundation director Nelson Rockefeller ordered to be painted over; the entire mural was ultimately replaced.  Rivera subsequently installed a similar mural in his native Mexico.

Thomas Hart Benton is perhaps most famous for murals depicting the history of his native Missouri, but he also designed a series of Indiana murals for the Century of Progress exhibition at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.  One showed Ku Klux Klan members in full regalia along with images on behalf of freedom of the press, which exposed the venality of Klan leaders of the hate group.  Benton’s Indiana murals found a permanent home at Indiana University in Bloomington.  In 2017 students petitioned to have the one depicting the Klan removed from a large lecture hall.  Provost Lauren Robel called the mural a national treasure and opposed its removal, issuing this statement: “Like most great art, Benton’s murals require context and history.  Many well-meaning people, without having the opportunity to do that work, wrongly condemn the mural as racist simply because it depicts a racist organization and a hateful symbol.” Since then, things have remained at a stalemate, with the mural not removed but with classes no longer held in the lecture hall. What an opportunity for a teachable moment squandered.

 

In Northwest Indiana the leading muralist is Felix “Flex” Maldonado, who started as a graffiti artist and whose portraits have been exhibited at Gary Public Library and other local venues.  I’ve met Maldonado on several occasions, and he truly is committed to capturing the diversity of life in the Calumet Region. His works have helped beautify numerous neighborhoods, including Miller and his home town of East Chicago.  His current effort, commissioned by the East Chicago Parks Department for its greenhouse, is a beautiful depiction of the wonders of nature.