Evening star., 1935-12-19
MURAL PAINTERS
HIT i. S. CONTEST
Description of Competition
for Justice Department
Declared Hay.
BY LEILA MECHLIN.

In a letter to the painting and
sculpture section of the Procurement
Division, Treasury Department, the
Society of Mural Painters of New York
has characterized the recent mural
paintings competition in the Justice
Department a colossal and expensive
failure"
This letter, signed by the secretary
of the mural painters, William C..
Palmer, and the reply of Olin Dows,
representing the Government, are pub
lished in bulletin just issued in null
tigraph form by the section of paint
ing and sculpture.
The grounds on which the mural
painters make their charge is that in
this competition SIS artists took part,
submitting 80 deSigns-all of which
we're rejected-for the making Of
which each gave four months of his
time. The failure of this competition,
the mural painters declare. was due,
in large part, to the "inadequacy of
the program given out" They contend
it neither adequately described the
spaces to be filled nor fully defined
the desired subject matter to be
treated.
Haziness Is Charged.
The statement follows:
I'VE wish to point out that the sec
ton of painting and sculpture, in
forming the program for such an i'm
portant competition as the Justice
Building, failed to furnish adequate
@T 10 INu 6nR-
Grated an failed to supply competitors
with adequate architectural drawings
of the spaces to be decorated.
Complete subject matter was given
out for the post office competition
while this was but hazily suggested in
a single line in the program for the
Justice Building. The subject matter
of these murals should deal with some
phase of the administration Of justice
in relation to contemporary American
life 1t is obvious that the section
was in no way clear as to what 1t de-
sired"
Then comes a definition of the place
and function of mural painting as held
by the mural painters and recon-
First Principle Held Sighted.
"This committee is led to believe
that too much stress has been laid on
subject matter in all past competitions,
thereby neglecting, or avoiding, the
first requirement of wall decoration,
viz: That it be an elaboration, or
furtherance, of the architectural style
of the building-entirely in harmony
and subservient to that style, COM
pletion and enrichment of the room.
Subject matter within these reStric-
tions is all important; without them
it has little value.
In view of this failure of the JUS
tice Building competition and the
failure in the Newark Court House
competition. we recommend that for
the protection of future competitions,
no further competitions be formulated
on any Justice problem until a clear,
satisfactory statement of what con-
stitutes an adequate approach or solu-
ton is put on paper by those in au-
thority."
In answering, Mr.. Dows discussed at
&OAASCAA CA4C NOAAIPCIAeAO1S AOA PdAAIAlSS
and sculpture for the Post Office
rather than the charges involving the
Justice Department. He pointed to
the fact that in connection with the
former, there were 20 winners out of
a possible % and that 62 appointments,
not guaranteed at the time, have since
been made. He noted the fact that all
of these competitions set up by the
Painting and Sculpture Section were
inter-related; in other words, that un-
successful competitors for muralS in
the Justice Building might have been