Murals






	"La Fiesta" 59 " x 31 1/4 " Oil on Panel (c. 1934) (Collection, Lukits Art Trust)

During the years that he lived in Chicago, Theodore Lukits studied with Edwin H. Blashfield, the foremost turn-of-the-century American muralist and a leading figure of the American Renaissance. Apparently the young artist assisted Blashfield on one of his mural commissions in the Midwest, probably an arrangement that was organized by one of the instructors at the Art Institute, where Blashfield had delivered the prestigious Scammon Lectures. Because Lukits had arrived in Chicago to study art in 1912, there is also a possibility that he attended Blashfield’s lectures, sparking his life-long interest in mural painting. Lukits held Blashfield in high esteem and used to quote the great muralist’s opinions on the proper nature of mural painting. Unfortunately, Lukits' involvement in mural painting was limited by circumstance and changing artistic tastes. He spent a great deal of time in Santa Barbara and contemporary publications credit him with painting a Spanish-themed mural at the Barbara hotel in the late 1920s. When Dean Cornwell received the commission to paint the cycle of California history in four major murals at the Los Angeles Public Library, he asked Lukits to collaborate with him, and a copy of the complex compositional cartoons remained in Lukits’ studio until the end of his life. In the early 1930s he received a commission for a large mural on the theme of an old California Fiesta, apparently from the eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. The mural was never completed - whether this was because of the artist’s eccentricities or those of his patron is unknown. However, one of the uncompleted panels, a series compositional cartoons and a number of studies survive, giving us a firm grasp of what his mural – featuring Californio figures bathed in light from colored lanterns – would have looked like. [Scroll down for image gallery below]


	Dean Cornwell's Rotunda Murals Los Angeles Public Library

	Vintage photograph of Dean Cornwell and Theodore Lukits working on murals at Los Angeles Public Library

		Mechanical Reproductions for the Los Angeles Library Murals. In 1927 Dean Cornwell (1892-1960) was awarded the commission for four large, tapestry-like murals for the rotunda of the historic Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924) designed Los Angeles Public Library. The murals wrap around the distinctive pyramidal tower that tops the Los Angeles landmark. Each of the murals was devoted to four great epochs of the West - "The Founding of Los Angeles", "The Discovery Era", "The Mission Era" and "The Americanization of California." Cornwell was a well-known illustrator who took a crash course in mural design with the brilliant British muralist Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867-1943). In Los Angeles, Cornwell met Theodore Lukits, an exceptional young draftsman with an interest in mural painting. Lukits collaborated with Cornwell on the incredibly complex library murals, apparently in both the design process and in some of the actual painting. Lukits retained some drawings and copies of the final black and white compositional drawings, which are known as "cartoons" in the vernacular of art. The murals were actually presented to the city in February of 1933.
"The Founding of Los Angeles" [enlarge image]



"The Discovery Era" [enlarge image]


"The Mission Era" [enlarge image]

"The Americanization of Los Angeles" [enlarge image] All: Collection, Lukits Art Trust; photos courtesy Jeffrey Morseburg