1939, Philip Guston, Untitled (Study for Queensbridge Housing Project Mural) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: The WPA sponsored the creation of tens of thousands of murals in government-owned buildings across the country. Guston's study for one such mural-for the Queensbridge Houses Community Center in Queens, New York-explores themes of urban poverty, idleness, and pollution through references to depression and death. The scene in the foreground, of children wielding a repurposed trash can lid and other urban debris as weapons in their play fight, is the only motif to appear in the realized mural, whose focus shifted to community activities, such as sports and dance, projecting a less ominous tone than that of this study.
1939, Philip Guston, Untitled (Study for Queensbridge Housing Project Mural) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: The WPA sponsored the creation of tens of thousands of murals in government-owned buildings across the country. Guston's study for one such mural-for the Queensbridge Houses Community Center in Queens, New York-explores themes of urban poverty, idleness, and pollution through references to depression and death. The scene in the foreground, of children wielding a repurposed trash can lid and other urban debris as weapons in their play fight, is the only motif to appear in the realized mural, whose focus shifted to community activities, such as sports and dance, projecting a less ominous tone than that of this study.