URI project finds early 1900s murals

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – A renovation project at a University of Rhode Island auditorium unearthed murals painted during the early 20th century, and as a result workers moved them to safety this week.
The university said contractors from Calson Corp. of Johnston discovered the murals during repair work at Edwards Auditorium, a 900-seat facility on the edge of the Quadrangle. The oil-on-canvas paintings by Providence artist Gino Conti feature figures symbolizing air, fire, water and working with the earth. The university speculated the work was commissioned during the late 1930s and paid for with money during the federal New Deal programs. The murals were covered up during renovations in 1960s.
“To have this reappear adds to the relatively small number of works that exist on walls from the period,” URI art professor Ronald Onorato said. “To have these in place for so long, we are lucky. Many of these types of pieces have been lost all around the country.”
A two-person team from the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, Mass., was scheduled to remove them earlier this week. Thomas Branchick, director and conservator of paintings at Williamstown, said the murals appeared attached to the walls with wallpaper paste.
“The nice thing about that kind of adhesive is that it desiccates with time, meaning it will be very brittle,” he said. “That will allow us to insert a spatula or some other cutting piece of metal that will allow us to shear the adhesive between the fabric and the wall.”
The university said plans call for the restored artwork to hang again in the lobby of the building undergoing a $1.5 million renovation. Coincidently, the renovation is being paid for with federal dollars meant to stimulate the economy, similar to the New Deal designed to pull the country out of the Great Depression.