Murals by LA Fine Arts Squad (Terry Schoonhoven and Victor Henderson) 1969-1974

This page is an homage. I loved these, and so did all my friends in Santa Monica and Venice.
It was wonderful to come upon a shred of fantasy in the urban wilderness.
I've read that the painters didn't care that these were temporary.
I care. Here are photos of them, most now gone or unviewable. Click to see larger.


   
         
1969
"Brooks Avenue Painting"
Venice, California - back wall
of Henderson's Venice studio.
Portrait of his one-time girlfriend,
who lived upstairs from us.
(The house, a few blocks from
the beach, has been replaced by
condominiums.)
  1969-1970
"Beverly Hills Siddhartha"
covered the whole exterior
of The Climax, a circular
La Cienega Blvd nightclub,
was an homage to Siddartha,
as written about by Herman Hesse;
(painted out 1972 by new owner).
The Climax was one of the first
psychedelic clubs to open with
pillows on the floor and blacklights.
Their ads for events always said
"The Climax is Turning On."
  1970
"Venice in the Snow"
Ocean Front Walk, Venice
(obscured 1972 by an apartment
building constructed next door)
The building shown at the front
had been a number of different
freaky stores, including one of
the first head-shops.
         
     
1970-1972
"Isle of California"
1616 Butler, Santa Monica
A chunk of broken freeway overpass
looms precariously on a precipice
over a pounding Pacific surf and
beneath a placid, Tiepolo-like sky.
This totally fit with the idea of
getting rid of the city's ugliness.
(Faded.)
 

1972
"Ghost Town"
Thousand Oaks
Urban Los Angeles has fallen into
the ocean after the massive earthquake
it will someday have.

  1978-79
"St. Charles Painting"
Windward Avenue, Venice.
Side of former apartment building
An exact mirror image of the street
freezing a moment for eternity,
while the world it faithfully reflected
slowly changed.

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I never saw these, as I moved away, but they sound great:
Terry Schoonhoven went on to paint, by himself:
1979 "Downtown Los Angeles Underwater" - now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

1984 Olympics, painted above the 6th Street bridge over the Harbor Freeway in downtown Los Angeles -
" knits the Roman Colosseum and Greek sculpture into a mirror image of the city's skyline".

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You can read more at:
http://www.lamurals.org/MuralistPages/LAFineArts.html
http://www.lamurals.org/Newsletters/0202Newsltr/0202A.html
http://w3art.com/hv01/bio.html - Victor Henderson

If you have more or better pictures to post, contact me.