Cedar Rapids Gazette 061408

                THE GAZETTE
                                                Cedar Rapids ■ Iowa City ■ Eastern Iowa
                                                                www.gazetteonline.com

Marion painstakingly preserving Depression-era art

June 14, 2008

By Meredith Hines-Dochterman
The Gazette

MARION — The interior of Marion’s former City Hall is covered in dust as Tony Rajer and his crew work to extract Dan Rhodes’ mural, Communication by Mail, from its home of 69 years.
“It’s a painstaking process,” Jason Houge said. “You have to take it piece by piece. You can’t rush it, much like creating art itself.” The project began in January. Rajer, an art conservator from Madison, Wis., placed protective tissue over the mural. The multiday process is essential in protecting the mural against damage during the removal process.
It’s unknown how long it will take to remove the mural from the wall. Rajer and Houge, along with Leif Larson, began work Monday. The mural is dirty, with some minor damage, but stable.
However, Communication by Mail is a true fresco mural, meaning it was painted directly to a plaster wall.
“There are only three true fresco murals in all of Iowa,” Rajer said. “The project would be much easier if this had been on canvas.”
Once the mural is cut from the wall, it will be

Fresco project
■ The old Marion post office, built in 1937, was purchased by the city in the 1970s and served as City Hall more than 30 years.
■ The building is currently owned by Farmers State Bank.
■ Tony Rajer will be speak about the project, “Free the Fresco,” at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Marion Heritage Center. Rajer, an art conservator from Madison, Wis., will lead a discussion on Communication by Mail and its historical significance.

	Leif Larson prepares to begin removing the original plaster from the molding along the edge of the ceiling. Larson is helping to remove the fresco mural “Communication by Mail” from its home of 69 years in the former Marion City Hall. It will be moved permanently to the Marion Heritage Center.

boxed for travel.
It will weigh several thousand pounds, requiring use of a crane and a flatbed. The painting will be taken to the Area Ambulance Service, where it will remain while it is cleaned and restored. Afterward, it will be moved one last time to its new — and permanent — home at the Marion Heritage Center.
“It’s a big, complicated, stressful project,” Rajer said. “You only do it in extreme circumstances.” This is an extreme circumstance.
Communication by Mail was a Works Progress Administration Section of Fine Arts Commission, one of 1,371 murals installed in post offices across the country from 1935 through 1943 in an effort to provide economic relief, increase art appreciation among the common man, and inspire hope in the federal government during trying times.

“It was the only time the government commissioned artwork,” Rajer said. “I call these ‘artitacts.’ ”
Rhodes, a student of Grant Wood, received two solo commissions in Iowa: Storm Lake for the Storm Lake post office in 1937 which, incidentally, Rajer relocated from the old post office to the public library, and Communication by Mail in 1939. Rhodes partnered with Howard C. Johnson for a third commission in 1937, creating a mural for the Agriculture Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Titled Where tillage begins, other arts follow, the project was met with public complaints about factual inaccuracies. The mural was removed in 1946. According to reports, all that remains of it are photographs.
Rajer said about 200 of the New Deal murals have been destroyed.

Most were lost as their buildings were torn down. Preserving the murals is a timely and costly process, with some people deciding that the effort isn’t worth the price.
It will cost between $35,000 to $40,000 to save
Communication by Mail. Victor Klopfenstein, vice president of the Marion Historical Society and chair of the campaign to save the mural, said more than $30,000 has been raised to date.
“If I was the artist, Dan Rhodes, I’d be thrilled to know someone was taking care of my art this way,” Larson said.
“I’m just so pleased with this project and how the community stepped up,” Klopfenstein said. “Our effort from the very beginning was to keep the mural, retain it, and not let it out of our city.”

Contact the writer: (319) 398-8434 or meredith.hines-dochterman@gazcomm.com