Harvest of the Rio Grande Valley (mural study by Ward Lockwood for Edinburg, Texas Post Office)

John Ward Lockwood (September 22, 1894–July 6, 1963) was an American painter, art teacher and veteran of two world wars.[1][2][3]

During the New Deal era of public artwork commissions for new federal buildings, Lockwood was hired by the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture to paint murals at the new post office buildings in Edinburg, Texas, and Hamilton, Texas, as well as at Taos County Courthouse,[4] Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, in the lobby of the federal courthouse in Wichita, Kansas, and in a courtroom at the federal courthouse in Lexington, Kentucky.[3][5] He also created two murals for what was then the Post Office headquarters building in Washington, D.C.[5][3]

Lockwood wrote that the mural in the Hamilton post office, Texas Rangers Singing in Camp, was “the most popular one I have done.”[6] The murals in Colorado Springs, on theme of “classic American theater,”[7] will be removed sometime during or after 2022, “due to racist imagery and damage accumulated from their location in a food service area.”[8] The Post Office (now Clinton Federal Building) murals were challenged for their depiction of Native Americans in the early 2000s.[9]

Lockwood advocated strongly for the only abstract art post office mural that was ever commissioned by the Section, Lloyd Ney’s New London Facets in New London, Ohio.[10]

He studied at the University of Kansas, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and Academy Ransom in Paris.[11] He taught art at both UC Berkeley and the University of Texas.[1]

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena hosted a show of his work in 1960, one of more than 30 one-man shows of his work.[12][3]

Born in Atchinson, Kansas, he served in both the 89th Division of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I[13] and in the Army Air Corps during World War II, retiring as a lieutenant colonel (possibly full colonel[14]) in 1954.[3][13] Involved with the Taos Artists Colony in the 1920s and 1930s, he died in Taos, New Mexico shortly after his retirement.[3]

His wife was Martha Clyde Bonebrake (1891–1969).[13][15]

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 "Ward Lockwood | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  2. ↑ "John Ward Lockwood (American, b.1894, d.1963)". McNay Art Museum. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "University of California: In Memoriam, April 1964". texts.cdlib.org. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  4. ↑ "Taos County Courthouse (former): Lockwood Murals - Taos NM". Living New Deal. Archived from the original on 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  5. 1 2 Park, Marlene; Markowitz, Gerald E. (1984). Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-348-3. OCLC 10877506. Archived from the original on 2022-01-09. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  6. ↑ Williams, Art (2019-06-24). "Vintage Mural in Hamilton Post Office Depicts Texas Rangers Singing in Camp". Texas Highways. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  7. ↑ "Classic American Theater Characters - PeakRadar.com". www.peakradar.com. Archived from the original on 2021-10-18. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  8. ↑ "Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center to remove controversial murals | Arts & Entertainment | gazette.com". gazette.com. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  9. ↑ Shott, Chris (2005-08-26). "Mural Dilemma". Washington City Paper. Archived from the original on 2022-10-04. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  10. ↑ Marling, Karal Ann (1982). Wall-to-wall America : a cultural history of post-office murals in the Great Depression (Third Printing, 1992 ed.). Minneapolis. pp. 296–297. ISBN 0-8166-1116-5. OCLC 8223038.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ↑ Division, Procurement (1935). Bulletin, Section of Painting and Sculpture. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  12. ↑ "Paintings by Ward Lockwood". Norton Simon Museum. 1960. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  13. 1 2 3 "Parsons: Taos Art in Taos - Ward Lockwood in Taos". www.parsonsart.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-24. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  14. ↑ "Untitled by John Ward Lockwood - oil painting Kirkland Museum". Kirkland Museum. Archived from the original on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  15. ↑ "Girl in New Mexico (Portrait of Clyde Lockwood) | National Portrait Gallery". npg.si.edu. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
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