“It will wake people up,” artist Rita Letendre said about her work back in 1965. “We go along with gently rolling fields and green grass around us, never seeing. If once a week something makes us wake up and really see, then other things fall into focus and we start living,” she told the Press-Telegram in an interview about the California International Sculpture Symposium at Cal State Long Beach that year.
That symposium was one of the first large-scale projects in the country that connected artists with industry in a major effort to explore new technology and materials during one historic summer.
The Canadian artist’s contribution to the symposium was not sculptural, however. Her mural, “Sun Forces,” is still above a walkway connecting classrooms and faculty offices on the bridge of Liberal Arts Building 5. Aggressive black, yellow and green forms fight with each other for the attention, if only but a glance, of the students walking beneath it.
Cal State Long Beach announced Friday morning that thanks to a grant provided by the Long Beach Navy Memorial Heritage Association, the 22-by-21-foot mural will be conserved, extending its life on campus. The University Art Museum will lead the project as part of its conservation initiative which began 4 years ago.
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“The Letendre mural is a striking piece and we are thrilled to continue this work, building on the experience we have had in analyzing paints and assessing the condition of murals in Los Angeles,” Tom Learner, head of science at the Getty Conservation Institute, said in a statement.
Letendre’s 1965 interview with the Press-Telegram continues, “I want people walking in and out of my painting. It must not be static—it must be dynamic with action and an interaction that continues in the mind of the spectator.”
The mural has elicited a mix of reactions from students and faculty alike. A 2002 article from the 49er describes an English class’s work researching the mural, as well as writing their feelings about the campus fixture, some thinking the “outdated” art should be replaced with one by CSULB students, others thinking it should remain untouched as a valuable piece of art history.
“Sun Forces” is the seventh artwork on campus to be restored through the University Art Museum’s Conservation Initiative and its partners at the Getty Conservation Institute and RLA, according to a news release from CSULB. Conservation work will begin on Monday, where microscopic samples of the paint will be taken to send to the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles for experts to analyze in preparation to conserve the mural next summer.
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The 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium was the seventh to take place worldwide and the first to take place in the country, according to the release. It was spearheaded by sculpture professor Kenn Glenn who, while abroad on sabbatical in Israel, met an artist who told him about the sculpture symposium movement. Ten artworks were added to Cal State Long Beach’s campus that summer, nine sculptures and Letendre’s “Sun Forces,” which are now a part of the university’s Outdoor Sculpture Collection.
“Navy Memorial Heritage welcomes the opportunity to expand historic preservation grants to include the unique sculptures and mural on the campus,” Renee Simon of the heritage association said in a statement. “These historic works of art are no less essential to our community than the more typical grants to restore historic architecture and historic neighborhoods.”