- Title
- Untitled (School of Education Murals)
- Artists
- Charley Brown (U.S.A., b. 1945) and Mark Evans (U.S.A., b. 1950)
- Date
- 2002
- Media
- Acrylic on canvas
- Titles
- Mosaic, Forum and Mosaic, St. Peters & Vatican
- Artist
- Cesare Roccheggiani (active in Rome, mid-to-late nineteenth century)
- Date
- 1874
- Media
- Minute tesserae made of opaque enamel, or “smalti” (It.)
- Titles
- Happy Hour and Road Signs
- Artist
- Patricia Sherwood (U.S.A., b. 1933)
- Date
- 1998
- Media
- Oil on canvas
The five 9-foot-high murals that were created to enliven the lobby of the Graduate School of Education illustrate the school’s programmatic themes, such as the arts and sciences in education, international education, collaborative learning and diversity in education. Their creators, Charley Brown and Mark Evans, owners of the San Francisco mural and wall-covering firm Evans & Brown, strove to create imagery that was consistent with the school’s contemporary values, including cultural diversity, but was also true to the building’s 1938 style. To evoke the past, they imbued the imagery with a romantic quality in a manner that recalls the work of N.C. Wyeth, an early 20th-century illustrator.
The exquisite and intricate mosaics depicting the Roman Forum and St. Peter’s Square have adorned the lobby of the School of Education building since its erection in 1938. The painterly quality of the pieces is impressive given that they are actually composed of innumerable tiny pieces of colored opaque enamel. They were created by Cesare Roccheggiani, a master mosaicist active at the Vatican Mosaic Workshop from 1856 to 1864. They were donated by Mary Kellogg Hopkins, wife of Timothy Hopkins, one of Stanford’s earliest trustees and supporters, founder of the city of Palo Alto and endower of the Hopkins Marine Laboratory.
The abstracted landscapes Happy Hour and Road Signs churn with thickly layered swaths of earth-toned paint. The glow of mysterious jewel-toned objects escapes the dusty turbulence. Patricia Sherwood has been painting in California since 1955 and has taught in the California College System, at Foothill College, De Anza College and West Valley College, for 30 years. Her work has been displayed at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, the Pratt Institute and the Columbia Museum in South Carolina, among other galleries across the U.S. and Europe. The School of Education purchased Happy Hour and Road Signs in November 1999 when the works were part of a Stanford Art Spaces exhibition.
