Semester
Summer
Date of Graduation
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
College of Creative Arts
Department
Art History
Committee Chair
Rhonda Reymond
Committee Co-Chair
Janet Snyder
Committee Member
Kristina Olson
Committee Member
Robert Bridges
Committee Member
Joseph Lupo
Abstract
Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956), a native of West Virginia and graduate of West Virginia University, was an early practitioner of Modern art in America. Lazzell was employed by the government-sponsored Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1934 in Morgantown, West Virginia. During her time with the program, Lazzell completed three wood-block prints and painted Justice, a mural for the Monongalia County Courthouse. This thesis examines Lazzell’s courthouse mural and discusses Lazzell’s selection of three themes, education, religion, and industry, and why they are significant to the Morgantown area. This thesis demonstrates that although the PWAP stipulated that there was to be no European modernist characteristics evident in work produced for the project, Lazzell’s courthouse mural exhibits traits of European modernist aesthetics.
Recommended Citation
Martin, Kendall Joy, "The Monongalia County Court House Mural: Blanche Lazzell and the Public Works of Art Project in Morgantown, West Virginia" (2012). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7803.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7803