The Origin Of Murals
Murals may well have been the one of the first works of art mankind ever created, or at least one of the few that endured long enough for future generations to discover. Exactly how long murals, in some incarnation, have been a part of society is debatable, but most scholars maintain that 32,000 years ago, when prehistoric man created images of horses and lions on the walls of Chauvet cave in what is now France, they were creating what would become the oldest preserved piece of art in human history.
Since those days of murals made with crushed colorful minerals, murals have only increased in complexity. The image above left is one akin to what you might find in murals early prepubscent stage in the Upper Paleolithic times. While there exists a plethora of cave paintings similar to those found in France that an interested party could speak on for hours, the next developments of murals occured with the rise and fall of several ancient civilizations in Greece, Rome, Pompeii, and also wall adornments from both the Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
Murals saw a large upswing in the renaissance era with artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo being commisioned to paint large masterpieces in both public and private areas. More recently the United States exploded with murals during the period following the great depression in the 1930's and 1940's when Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of his "New Deal" agenda established the Federal Art Project which lowered the unemployment rate by commissioning unemployed artists to paint over 1,000 murals in public government facilities across the nation.
Shortnorth.com states that there exists a blessed dichotomy which continues to evolve in the world of murals where new ones are continually being commissioned and created while old ones are constantly being rediscovered and restored, thus ensuring that murals will live on indefinitely, so for this reason it is important that we, as cultured citizens in the cities these murals adorn, begin to understand them and the reason for their existance.
The purpose of this exhibit is not to offer a complete history of murals, or identify the ten most famous murals, or any idea akin to those. The purpose of this exhibit is to serve as a foot in the door for those new to the world of murals, to open the viewers minds and eyes to a style of art that they may see on a daily basis but not be familar with. The format of this exhibit is to offer cross sections of murals that fall into one of five classifications: Recreations of famous artwork, Political Murals, Environmental Murals, Historical Murals, and Religious Murals. This system of classification of murals is not a definitive one, and undoubtedly there exists other classifications which could be examined, but those five themes often found in murals are the ones upon which this exhibit is based.
