NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine department wrapped up conservation work on three New Deal-era murals and a John Rhoden sculpture held at its Harlem hospital on Wednesday, October 14.
Located in the hospital's indoor mural pavilion, the Great Depression-era works were made during a pivotal period in United States history when Black artists advocated for and gained unprecedented access to major public commissions through the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project. Among the commissioned works were Charles Alston's two companion murals, "Magic in Medicine" (1940) and "Modern Medicine (1940)," and Hayes's eight-panel mural, "Pursuit of Happiness" (1937), which have been restored as part of the preservation effort in Harlem.
"In 1936, when these designs were submitted, administrators at the time objected to them because they said there was 'too much black subject matter,'" Larissa Trinder, head of the Arts in Medicine program, told Hyperallergic in a phone interview. After artists publicly protested the verdict, the hospital commissioner reversed the decision.