[untitled - symbols]
Artist
Gerald Nailor
Year1940
Classification
painting
Medium
oil on plaster
Dimensions3 ft. 8 1/8 in. x 14 ft. 11 1/8 in. (112.1 x 201 cm)
Credits
Commissioned through the Section of Fine Arts, 1934 - 1943
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Above the doorway, Navajo artist
Gerald Nailor painted a series of Navajo symbols that closely relate to the
Rain and Cloud symbols he included in his three other murals. As stated by the
artist, the “symbols are taken from a Navajo Sand Painting.”
Gerald Nailor, also known as Toh Yah, which
translates to “Walking by the River,” was commissioned in 1939 to create a
series of murals at the new Department of the Interior building in Washington,
D.C. He was one of four Native American artists who painted 2,200 feet of
murals for the penthouse, which served as the employee lounge. Zia Pueblo
artist Velino Herrera painted the north corridor, and Potawatomi artist Woody
Crumbo covered the south corridor. In the main room, the walls were divided
between Nailor and Chiricahua Apache painter Allan Houser. The Secretary of the
Interior, Harold Ickes, insisted on commissioning artwork
by Native American artists. Because of this mandate, the Section of Fine Arts
invited Herrera, Crumbo, Houser, and Nailor to participate in the penthouse
project and contacted two Kiowa artists, James Auchiah and Stephen Mopope, to
paint murals for the cafeteria.
