Mother Goose Controversy
1937: I don't know how Khrushchev would have felt about the Mother Goose mural painted on a wall at the Glenn Dale Sanatorium outside Washington D.C., but health officer Dr. George Rhuland felt it was "grotesque" and ordered it painted over. I think he was eventually overruled.
I'm not sure what he found objectionable about it. Perhaps he didn't like the modernist style.
Meanwhile, the Glenn Dale Sanatorium has since become an abandoned relic, which remains standing, rather than being torn down, because of the asbestos remediation costs.
I'm not sure what he found objectionable about it. Perhaps he didn't like the modernist style.
Meanwhile, the Glenn Dale Sanatorium has since become an abandoned relic, which remains standing, rather than being torn down, because of the asbestos remediation costs.
North Adams Transcript - Nov 19, 1937
11/19/37: Berenice Cross, young Washington, D.C., artist, working on a WPA mural in Washington, Nov. 19th, which she hopes will not become another bone of contention. The fate of her "Mother Goose," the mural in the Glenn Dale Tuberculosis Sanitarium, which was ordered painted over by Dr. George Rhuland, District of Columbia Health Officer, after it had been up for a year. He characterized it as "grotesque" and unsuitable to the dignity of a public institution. Miss Cross modestly admits that it has its faults, but that the children in the sanitarium like it. Russell Parr, the District WPA art project head, is indignant over Dr. Rhuland's order and claims that it is illegal, as the mural is government property.
Comments
Yeah, everyone is a critic.
Posted by KDP on 05/12/22 at 08:46 PM
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Category: Art | Censorship, Bluenoses, Taboos, Prohibitions and Other Cultural No-No’s | 1930s