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(continued from page 23)

Stempler of his department to inventory these elements for the Art Committee's files.

It was in the process of this inventory that Stempler, knowing of the Gorky search, was able to locate the two remaining panels when he noticed a small exposed thread. Majewski returned shortly thereafter and, through painstaking application of proper solvents in several areas, was able to establish that indeed the panels were there--under fourteen layers of paint! Unfortunately, in addition to the layers of Army housepaint, alterations had been done to expand the second story office space, thereby destroying the four smallest panels on the interior south walls. And Majewski found no trace of the canvases on either the north or the west walls.

Because the edge of one of the canvases was exposed to passers-by, this author and Saul Wenegrat were extremely concerned that pieces would be torn off and destroy what might be remaining. They began immediately to seek funding for the rescue of the murals.

The Port Authority initiated negotiated with the Government Services Administration in Washington so that rescue could begin. Month anfter month the GSA delayed decisions concerning who had jurisdiction over the murals. Finally, late in 1975, the Port Authority was given the go-ahead and was able to make a financial commitment toward the removal and cleaning of the murals.

Transported on Rollers

The National Endowment for the Arts made a substantial matching grant and a contract was consummated in 1976 with Oliver Brothers of Boston. Conservators Carroll Wales and Constantine Tsaousis came to Newark in November of that year and removed the heartily paint-laden canvas panels from the plaster walls. They transported them face-up on giant rollers to their studios on Ipswich Street where they began a painstaking cleaning, beginning with the adhesive on the back. Then came the harrowing layer by layer removal of the surface housepaint. By the middle of the winter they determined that the giant paintings were in almost complete good health after their 35 years of disappearance. There were a few holes drilled near the top of one for a lighting conduit and at the bottom stair rails, and there was some abrasive and loss on the lower edges, but the panels were saved, their colors rich and luminous--red, yellow, blue, brown, black, white and gray.

Thanks to four sketches in the collection of Gorky's nephew, Karlen Mooradien, the NYU painting and the Museum of Modern Art sketch, we have a very clear idea of how seven of the ten panels must have looked on the wall.

In December of 1935 Frederick Kiesler, the education, architect and stage designer, had written an article for Art Front entitled "Murals Without Walls: Pertaining to Gorky's Newark Murals." What an appropriate and prophetic way for him to focus attention on his friend Gorky not only then but now, when through modern archaeology and the skills of conservation, this concrete evidence of Gorky's genius has been returned to all of us.

Ruth Bowman, whose involvement in the uncovering of the Gorky murals is related above, is a visiting curator at The Newark Museum where an exhibit featuring the story of the murals, "Murals Without Walls," will open in November.

24 metro-Newark! 1978