Three Murals Missing*

The Taggers Have Won

Frank Romero's "Going to the Olympics,"  Willie Herron's "Luchas del Mundo," and Glenna Boltuch Avila's  "L. A. Freeway Kids" are no more.   The iconic Los Angeles murals––completed for the 1984 Olympics–– have been completely painted over in solid coats of Caltrans gray and judging by the paint, it looks like it was an official wipe-out.  Located alongside the 101, they were important enough be conserved, but evidently the constant tagging made it too costly to consider restoring them yet again.

Add 9.28:  LAT supplements a story about Sheriff Lee Baca's new program to address tagging with recent pics of the now gone set of murals. Also used are photos of Judy Bacas "Hitting the Wall" that was recently restored after years of raising funding for conservation.  [Baca: 'shame' on taggers' parents]

[Mourning the loss of L.A. Freeway Kids] BloggingLA 

Below, the former site of "L.A. Freeway Kids" and after the jump,  "Going to the Olympics" is gone. 

[Going to the Olympics] City of LA

Mural at [View From a Loft]

[LA Freeway Kids] City of LA

Mural at [You-Are-Here]

[Las Luchas Del Mundo] City of LA

Mural at [USC Public Art in LA]

Photos: Ed Fuentes

Comments

[Militant Angeleno]

:(

[chimatli]

I was never a fan of those murals, I always thought the kids were kinda ugly. They were definitely preferable to a gray wall, though.

[Browne]

Chimalti I know what you mean. The proportions were off. It was one of the worse murals. In general muralist are so good at bringing to life a slice of life in a hugh way.

I still would prefer it to just a gray wall.

I thought they had that new super power coating that prevented people from being able to tag on murals...or maybe I just imagined that.

Browne sick in bed.

[Dennis Smith]

Speaking of muralists who have had their works whitewashed in Los Angeles, did you see the great matrimonial portrait of David Alfaro Siquieros and his bride after their civil ceremony held at City Hall. It appears on pg. A10 of today's Los Angeles Times.

[Alan Boltuch]

It was my sister, Glenna Boltuch Avila, who designed and executed the L.A. Freeway Kids mural, and I spent many smog choked hours alongside that freeway with scraped and bloody knuckles helping her, her husband, and crew clean and prepare that wall for painting. So its with a heavy heart that I found out about the story this week.

The story that was not told, and the real travesty here, however, was that just a few years ago, the City of L.A. raised a huge amount of money to restore these murals, and paid the artists to do just that, and to APPLY AN ANTI GRAFFITI WAX COATING! As I understand it, all Caltrans had to do was melt off that wax to remove the graffiti, then recoat it for future protection! Not much more time, money or effort would have been required.

Now chimatli and browne, of course, are entitled to their opinions, but my guess is that many many more Angelenos greatly loved those murals, will miss them terribly, and would be as outraged as I am, if they knew the truth here.

[David A]

I am so upset about these murals(especially LA Freeway Kids) being painted over. I am from Portland Oregon and the mural of the children is one of my earliest memories of LA. Once I saw a t-shirt that featured the jumping boy - does anyone else remember that or know where I could get one now? Thanks!
David

[David A]

Sorry - T-shirt! Oops!

[freeway runner]

I resent being called ugly and unproportioned.

[celebrity videos]

They loose. I won!

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