Exhibition - Louise Emerson Ronnebeck: A New Deal Muralist in Colorado December 10, 2010

Byers-Evans House Gallery presents “Louise Emerson Ronnebeck: A New Deal Muralist in Colorado”
DENVER— Louise Emerson Ronnebeck: A New Deal Muralist in Colorado, will be on view in the Byers-Evans House Gallery, located at 1310 Bannock Street in Denver, December 10, 2010 through February 28, 2011. A free opening evening reception from 5 – 9 p.m. on Friday, December 10, will be held in the gallery.
Every November, the start of the holiday season is signaled by the decorations and lights display at Denver’s City and County Building. Although the inclusion of secular and religious figures has been a continual source of controversy for decades, the tradition of Christmas decorations at the City and County Building is over 70 years old.
In 1935, three years after the completion of the building, the city hired one of Denver’s leading muralists, Louise Emerson Ronnebeck, to create a giant mural to fit inside the neo-classical pediment. The 76-foot long painting depicted the Nativity scene and was the centerpiece of the city’s lavish decorations. The City cleared out a large flat basement room in the city auditorium so Ronnebeck and her two assistants could work on the canvas while it was on the ground. It was so large that it had to be painted in sections and then assembled on the pediment.
To see more paintings by this significant Denver artist, visit the Byers-Evans House Gallery’s show titled, Louise Emerson Ronnebeck: A New Deal Muralist in Colorado.
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901-1981) was a pioneering woman artist. She expertly juggled a professional artistic and teaching career while raising a family.
During the Great Depression, the Federal Government created three distinct programs under President Roosevelt’s New Deal to support fine arts to help struggling artists: The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the Federal Art Project (FAP) and the Treasury Section of the Fine Arts (the Section). Ranging from private portraits to Post Office murals, artwork created under these programs is generally referred to as New Deal art. The programs employed or commissioned over 10,000 artists between 1933 and 1943.
Ronnebeck completed two murals for the Treasury Section of the Fine Arts, a federal art program that awarded commissions to artists based on anonymous, public competitions decided by a jury composed of a local chairperson and artists. Her two murals were completed for the Grand Junction Post Office and the Worland, Wyoming Post Office. They are both American Scene style representations of western themes and subjects. Ronnebeck submitted a total of 13 entries to the Section from 1937 to 1943. The majority of the works in this show are color sketches that were conceived specifically for New Deal art programs and competitions and returned to Ronnebeck after the selection process.
During her time in Denver, Ronnebeck was one of the city’s most sought after muralists. However, over the last eighty years, Ronnebeck’s murals in the USO Building on California Street, the Albany Hotel, the Bamboo Lounge in the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and the garden fresco in the Kent School for Girls have been destroyed. Ronnebeck’s fresco murals for the 1940 Speer Memorial Hospital are still in place but have been badly damaged. Her in situmurals at Morey Middle School and the Episcopal Church of the Holy Redeemer are well preserved reminders of her talent and influence.
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901-1981) spent her formative years in New York and Europe. After graduating from Barnard College, she studied at the Art Students League in New York with Kenneth Hayes Miller and the American Academy at Fontainebleau with Paul-Albert Baudouin. Ronnebeck met her future husband, Arnold Ronnebeck (1885-1947) at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s artist enclave in Taos, New Mexico in 1925. The Ronnebeck’s lived in Denver from 1926 until 1952. Ronnebeck taught painting at the University of Denver. She moved to Bermuda in 1953 after her children married. There she taught at the Bermuda High School for Girls and painted until she returned to Denver in 1973.
Snapshot
What: Louise Emerson Ronnebeck: A New Deal Muralist in Colorado
Where: The Byers-Evans House Gallery, 1310 Bannock Street, Denver
When: Dec. 10, 2010- Feb. 28 2011 Gallery open daily, Mon. –Sat., 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Special events: Opening reception on December 10 from 5-9pm;
receptions during the Golden Triangle Museum District’s First Friday Art Walks, January 7 from 5-9pm and February 4 from 5-9pm.
Cost: Gallery admission and all special events are free!
Byers-Evans House Museum
Open daily, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Sundays.
Guided house tours 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Admission charged for tours.
For further information, visit www.historycolorado.org/be or call (303) 620-4933.
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