A Texas/Arizona Road Trip 9.1 - Brownfield

My first stop on this ninth day of my road trip was Brownfield, Texas, only 27 miles east of the New Mexico border.  Stopping in Brownfield with the hope that since I had missed the other famous mural in Odessa that my luck would hold out in Brownfield.  Boy, were my hopes dashed when I pulled up to the old post office building.  I had known that at some point in the past the City of Brownfield had purchased the former post office when the town got a new building but that they had also purchased the mural which was intact in its original place in the new location for the police department.  Imagine my dashed hopes when I discovered the building was now vacant and the sign on the door stated the police department had moved to a new location.  I continued to have hope that the mural had moved also so I went to the new police station where I was informed that the mural still hung in the now vacant building.  I presumed it could take days to make arrangements to see the mural, if at all, so as I prepared to leave, a young woman at a nearby window motioned for me to wait a moment.  She was behind a glass window and I couldn't hear her but she made a phone call but apparently got no answer on the other end.  She arose from her desk, pulled her purse out of a drawer, picked a sweater off the back of her chair, opened the window, and said "If you want to see it, come on."  I'm sure my smile was as wide as the plains surrounding Brownfield.  I was getting a private showing of this beautiful but highly controversial painting.

Many of you I'm sure may be disturbed at the subject matter of "Ranchers of the Panhandle Fighting Prairie Fire with Skinned Steer" by Frank Mechau.  The subject matter bothered many people as well back in 1940 when the mural was painted but Mechau convinced the powers that be that back in early ranching days one authentic way of fighting prairie fires was to actually drag a dead steer through the flames.  It was perhaps the most controversial mural to be included among the Post Office murals in Texas, but the citizens fell in love with Mechau when he visited the town prior to the installation of the mural and the controversy soon died out.  I suppose the beauty of the scene exceeded the gruesome details of the reality of the history.  I do love all the colors and the way Mechau has captured the swirling smoke, the winds and flames that fed these fires which could easily devastate a hundred square miles a day on the grassy lands of the plains.

The mural is in excellent condition today having been restored in the 1980s through citizen fund-raising efforts.  It measures 12 feet in length and is 5 feet 6 inches tall.  Mechau was a nationally recognized artist from Colorado who taught at Columbia University and other art schools.  He received a total of 11 commissions from various New Deal programs during the Roosevelt administration and his work is still highly acclaimed today.  He died prematurely at the age of 42 from a heart attack.  He was paid $750 for this mural.

Driving through Brownfield I also found these murals - or perhaps it is one mural with four different panels - above the marquee at the old Rialto Theater.

The paintings appear to be quite faded but a little enhancement in the exposure and saturation departments actually brings out more of the details.

The Rialto started operations in 1928, was closed in the '70s, refurbished in the '90s with the hope of it becoming a cultural venue but today it doesn't look very prosperous.