International Museum Day 2022 - Millard Sheets Mural at CSULB
Let’s celebrate International Museum Day 2022 with a short post covering this week’s visit to view a Millard Sheets mural at Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum.
The museum, located on the campus of Cal State University Long Beach (CSULB) reopened in February 2022 after a renovation and expansion by Pfeiffer, a design studio of Perkins Eastman. Detailed project info can be found HERE
The Sheets mural is installed near the interior entry to the museum within Horn Center.
The mosaic mural was gifted to Kleefeld Contemporary from its original owners, Farmers & Merchants Bank.
Sheets constructed the untitled mosaic from 1975 to 1977 as part of a commission to design large mosaic murals for Southern California Home Savings Banks.
The 14-by-11 foot mosaic is one of two works installed at the former Home Savings and Loan Building off of Lakewood Boulevard.
Though not at its original location, how fortunate that this mural is preserved. There’s a YouTube video showing the delicate process to cut/disassemble the original mural before it was transported and installed at its new home.
By chance, I managed to be given a “tour” of the mural by someone very knowledgable, the director of the Kleefeld!
A panel will be installed with information about the artwork and a small program held this Friday to mark this occasion.
Near the bottom left the initials MS (Millard Sheets) and SH (Susan Hertel) appear. Hertel collaborated with Sheets for 26 years on many of his projects. All the while, she continued as a painter and until her death regarded this as her primary work as an artist.
