One of the Los Angeles Public Library's largest pieces of outdoor art can only be appreciated in photos now, after becoming a victim of Southern California's weather. Bison Hunt, a 50-foot-by-26-foot fresco by painter/printmaker/lithographer/woodcutter Charles Kassler Jr., once graced a patio wall at Central Library. The fresco, commissioned by the Library Board of Commissioners and approved by the Municipal Art Commission, was part of the New Deal program known as the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP).
It took Kassler and his assistant, "Judy" Williams (aka Julian Evans Williams), just twenty-four days to complete the mural, which was painted on the east wall of the (now demolished) Children's Courtyard. The artists were employed by PWAP, and the library provided scaffolding and $60 for materials. Author/art collector/book designer Merle Armitage (then head of PWAP in Southern California) stated in a letter to City Librarian Everett R. Perry that Kassler's library fresco "would be one of the most important works of art created in the United States under the Public Works of Art Project."
During the summer of 1934, Kassler taught fresco painting at Chouinard Art Institute. His fresco method, also used on the library mural, involved applying watercolor directly to wet lime plaster. Unfortunately, the weather proved too much for Bison Hunt. Kassler's mural deteriorated in the elements and was ultimately painted over in 1963.
Charles Kassler II (aka Charles Kassler Jr.) was born in Denver, Colorado, on September 9, 1897. When he was 14 years old, he set up a lab in the family garage, and one unfortunate experiment mixing potash and sulphur in a gas pipe caused an explosion that resulted in the amputation of his right hand. After high school, he briefly attended Princeton and later studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and at the Church School of Art. While touring Europe with his first wife, Kassler apprenticed with a fresco painter and researched fresco methods. In the early 1940s, Kassler moved away from the art world and focused instead on engineering and industrial design. He passed away in April 1979.
The Treasury Department-funded Public Works of Art Project was short-lived, lasting from December 1933 until June 1934. Kassler completed another PWAP mural at Fullerton Union High School in 1934 and a mural, under the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), at the Beverly Hills post office in 1935. Both of these works still exist and have been restored. A March 1934 review in the UCLA Daily Bruin called Kassler's work at Central Library "a mural of striking freshness and originality," praising its color and rhythmic mass movement. Hopefully, a color photo of Bison Hunt will turn up someday so we can see it as the artist intended.