Isabel Bate (1909–1995)[1] was an American artist known for her work with the Works Progress Administration (WPA). She was married to fellow artist Harold Black (1913–1993). The couple lived in New York City. They were commissioned by the WPA to complete eight murals for the U.S. Post Office in Salina, Kansas. The couple completed the murals and sent them to Salina, but they were never installed.[2] The couple also illustrated the 1941 book The Kaw: The Heart of a Nation by Floyd Benjamin Streeter.[3] Bate's work was included in the 1940 Museum of Modern Art exhibition and competition The Artist as Reporter.[4]
Isabel Bate | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1909 |
| Died | 1995 (aged 85–86) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Muralist |
| Spouse | Harold Black |
Salina post office murals
editEight murals completed by Bate and Black were shipped from New York in 1942. A 2019 article How Murals In 26 Kansas Post Offices Tried To Cheer People Up During The Great Depression by Rylie Koester states that the murals were never received in Salina.[5] In the Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945) Susan Craig states that the murals were never installed.[6] An article in Time magazine stated that the murals were received in Salina, but that the Postmaster, Robert Pafford disliked the panels and consigned the crates to storage claiming that the post office did not have time to install them during the beginning years of World War II. Seven years later, at the request of the now divorced couple Bate and Black, the Post Office Department asked that the murals be installed. As of the writing of the article in 1949, Pafford still hadn't installed the murals claiming that "Salina had the most beautiful post office in the state; he was not going to have it ruined with pictures of 'privies and funny-looking women.' "[7]
References
edit- ^ "Bate, Isabel". ULAN Full Record Display (Getty Research). Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ "Isabel Bate - Biography". AskArt. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ Reynolds, Horace (2 March 1941). "The History of Kansas Flows With the Kaw River; Mr. Streeter Presents That Story as a Trilogy of Border Wars, Cow Towns and Wheat The Kaw: The Heart of a Nation. By Floyd Benjamin Streeter. Illustrated by Isabel Bate and Harold Black. 371 pp. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. $2.50". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ "Isabel Bate". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ Koester, Rylie (18 August 2019). "How Murals In 26 Kansas Post Offices Tried To Cheer People Up During The Great Depression". KCUR 89.3 - NPR in Kansas City. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ Craig, Susan V. (11 August 2006). Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945). Univ. of Kansas. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-936153-00-8.
- ^ "Art: We're All Christians". Time. 9 May 1949. Retrieved 7 October 2022.