The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Study for Transportation Mural (146 of 150)

Study for Transportation Mural (146 of 150)

c. 1920s–1940s
Location: not on view

Description

During the early years of the Great Depression, Sommer found himself unemployed and nearly drank himself to death. His financial situation began to improve after he received a series of mural commissions from the Public Works Administration Project (PWAP), established in 1933, and its successor, the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The museum recently discovered a group of works by Sommer that suggest studies for a WPA mural. Several studies feature a squaring grid typically used for transposing a composition to a larger format. The train and ship in this study are made of pieces of newspaper or magazine illustration, cut-and-pasted onto the surface, creating the only known example of a collage by Sommer. The studies in this series are united around the theme of transportation, an appropriate subject for a post office mural. One study features an airplane identified with the letters “U.S. Mail.”
  • Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; March 28 - July 18, 2004. "Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age", no exhibition catalogue.
  • {{cite web|title=Study for Transportation Mural (146 of 150)|url=false|author=William Sommer|year=c. 1920s–1940s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.153.146