Out in the middle of nowhere in Butch Cassidy’s and the Sundance Kid’s
country in South Central Utah surrounded by dinosaur bones and red earth table
top landscape, there is an old coal mining town with a surprisingly good
quality WPA mural.
Its like an old movie, walking
along the WPA artwork that is 4'
high and 200' feet long that shows the settling of this area of the Old West.
Renown artist, Lynn Faucett, a
native of Price, Utah was just the
right person in 1938 to pull together the history of his country.
During the Depression of the
pre-war 1930’s, the Works Projects
Administration funded a municipal building in Price that was the perfect
place for his talents and vision for the mural. He formulated this historical
rendering of his town for the mural based on photos, entries in archives and
his own personal experiences. Within this loooong mural, there are dozens of
wonderful, smaller pictures that make up the composition.
Today, we look back at the Old
West's history thinking that it was romantic and full of folklore, novels,
movies etc. But back then, Faucett had lived this life, been in these buildings
and knew these people. This mural is an authentic historical record of actual
people (whose names are written below their portraits), buildings, customs and
the process of taming the Wild West. The mural is a documentation of the
pioneer settlers, the beginnings of society in the newly constructed town and
the development of the area and its industries.
35 years ago my painting conservation career in the USA (I studied
and started working in Italy) started in Utah and I’ve known Lynn Faucett’s
painting style, having worked on the restoration
of his paintings previously and looked at many others. And to tell you the
truth, I wasn’t previously impressed with his painting style compared to the
other Utah Impressionists that came
before him.
When I first saw this mural, I was
surprised... this mural may have been the masterpiece of his early career. The
faces were very well done and reflect feeling and expressions that were quite
realistic.
This mural was considered so well done
and so historical that it was a main reason why the entire WPA funded building
was added to the US Register of Historic
Properties, a considerable honor... but then something happened...
Faucett was employeed to “touch up” the murals in the 1960s and,
as is almost always the case, artists don’t respect the qualities of the
earlier work and has to change or update it. This happened on this mural when
Faucett repainted most of the faces and much of the composition. The result was
a change in style and, in my opinion, a reduction in the quality of the mural.
The result of Faucett’s repainting in
oil, today, is a blotchy discoloration of the retouchings as they have aged at
a different rate than the original mural. This is especially noticeable in the
sky. Touch up of the seams of the canvas glued to the wall are discolored as
are many other details.
 |
|
Entrance lobby to City Hall
for Price, Utah with the panorama murals by Lynn Faucett 1938-1941
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It is presumed also that he varnished the
murals, and likely didn’t clean them first. So, a gray layer is trapped. Then
add to that the following 40+ years of grime deposited on the surface and that
brings us to today’s appearance: considerably muted, flattened depth of field
and contrast in the composition and an overall grayish appearance.
Fine Art Conservation
Laboratories
is honored to have been called and entrusted with the health and art
restoration
of this historical mural, so
important to the City of Price and
to the area. We removed the last 40+ years of grime which brightened the
painting considerably, without risk to the paint layers. However, we were
hesitant to remove the old varnish as, according to preliminary tests, it would
be hard to remove without damage to the original paint and would result in
disturbing the retouchings that Faucett put on the mural in the 60’s thereby
opening the proverbial “can of worms” during the cleaning and causing a real
mess, even seriously damaging the mural.
Water damage infiltrations have occurred
in the last years that have stained the front of the painting in several areas.
So, these areas were cleaned. Then whatever was left of the stains and all of
the blotchyness of Faucett’s retouchings were glazed and toned to blend in
better and not be noticeable. We never
do retouching in oils for the very reason now noticeable from Faucett’s
1960’s work. All of our materials are conservation grade, chemically stable,
reversible materials that will be easily removable without damage to the
original painting far into the future.
Our varnishes are also conservation grade
and have gone through extensive testing to determine their reversibility and
removability, color fastness and compatibility with the work of art. They will
not yellow and will always be easy to remove.
In the end, we have stabilized the
deterioration of the painting, returned it to it’s best appearance and
protected it for many generations into the future... which should help make some more history. I love my job. It feels like my work is
socially conscious! Here is a short video about the mural’s restoration
process: Click on the
picture
If you would like to know more about our
background in mural restoration:
For general mural conservation
capabilities videos:
For our written mural capability
statement:
For our written mural consultation
statement:
Name:- Scott M. Haskins
Phone:- 805 570 4140
Email:- faclartdoc@gmail.com
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