Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
The painted mural inside the New Rockford Post Office was initially envisioned very differently than what graces the wall today. Each artist was required to visit the locality for whose post office mural he was competing, and to discuss possible subjects for mural treatment with local townspeople.
The United States Postal Service recently released a set of stamps celebrating the New Deal era post office murals that were federally commissioned during the Roosevelt Administration. Though the mural that graces the walls of the New Rockford Post Office titled "Advance Guard of the West" wasn't featured on any of the stamps, it provides a shining example of the Roosevelt Administration's depression era public art program.
According to its registration form for the National Register of Historic Places, the New Rockford Post Office was built in 1939 and "Advance Guard of the West" was painted by Edward Buk Ulreich in 1941. Curiously enough the signature of "H.B. Barton 1961" appears in the lower right hand corner of the piece. According to the listing on the National Register, it is believed to be bear the signature of its restorer and not the original artist.
Bartron was a native of Eddy County and his work can be seen at both the Eddy County Museum and Hanson's bar in New Rockford, along with murals from the same era by "Cowboy" Joe Breckenridge, who gained the moniker "fastest painter in the west" at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.
Ulreich was born in Koszeg, Hungary in 1889 and moved to the United States as a child. According to The Annex Galleries, he studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and designed a number of art pieces during the Works Progress Administration era.
"Advance Guard of the West" was funded by a post New Deal program that was overseen by the U.S. Treasury from 1934-43, the program was called "the Treasury Section of Fine Arts" (TSFA). According to livingnewdeal.org, the intent of the TSFA was, "to secure for the Government the best art which this country is capable of producing, with merit as the only test."
According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's website, Ulreich was the winner of the 48 states competition, 972 artists from throughout the lower 48 states heeded the call and submitted 1475 design entries. The artists chose the state for which their work was designed. According to americanart.si.edu, "entries were not evenly distributed among the 48 post offices, and those designed from some areas did not measure up to Section standards. As a result the Section simply assigned winning designs to post offices for which no outstanding entries had been received."
Ulreich's original composition featured a group of cowboys from the southwest and was designed for the Safford, Ariz., post office. According to americanart.si.edu, "Upon accepting the commission he wrote that he hoped the people of North Dakota would enjoy his Arizona cowboys." He eventually redesigned the piece to depict a group of Dakota warriors "arrayed in their hunting regalia."
Interestingly enough when the winners were announced in "LIFE Magazine" on Dec. 4, 1939 in a photo feature titled, "Speaking of Pictures...This is mural America for rural Americans" the photo spread included a thumbnail of the proposed mural and a brief description of each of the winning pieces. It also stated that, "Each artist was required to visit the locality for whose post office mural he was competing, and to discuss possible subjects for mural treatment with local townspeople."
No wonder Ulreich changed his design!
Also according to the article the average commission for these pieces was $725. The photo layout shows the original proposed design instead of the design that has graced the walls of the New Rockford Post Office for the past 80 years. Interestingly enough, his wasn't the only piece that had undergone a design revamp. There were a number of entries that were rejected because the townspeople didn't feel like the subject matter best represented them.
The same article stated, "Apparently rural Americans are artistic 'stay-at-homes,' with a preference for paintings that reproduce experiences and scenes and parts of history with which they are familiar. In spirit, many of these sketches are local American epics."
