Sticking to the post office muralist theme (there are a lot of post office muralists), today’s card is about Robert Gwathmey. He created the post office mural, The Countryside, for the Eutaw, Alabama post office.

Gwathmey was an interesting guy. He allegedly destroyed works he created when he was young as he felt they were derivative (he would not have liked COVID cards!). He didn’t like talking about his art and, perhaps because of this, didn’t get a lot of attention. He made some really wonderful social (again, not socialist) realist paintings during his career. He was very interested in bringing issues of social justice to light via art (maybe he would have liked COVID cards 😉 ).

Jstor.org has some fantastic books about Gwathmey. You may be able to access them for free via your public library log-in. You can find out by searching for your library here. Some good titles: Examining Prejudice Through Art, Robert Gwathmey: Harvest of Black and White, and Art for Art’s Sake.