Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Lakewood Library Quijote

 Don Quijote with windmills
panels 4 and 5 of 12 by Reed Alan Thomason
Carroll, Irving, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Longfellow
Mad Hatter and Dormouse, Ichabod Crane, Three Blind Mice, Quijote, Bottom&Titania&Puck, Hiawatha
These were painted in 1977 and 1978 and hung above the bookshelves of the east wall of the children's wing of the Lakewood Ohio Library on Detroit Avenue. In 2008 the library was expanded, and remodeled and thee murals were split up and ten are inside of an often locked children's reading room; two are by its outside doors. The new neo-classical library fits  in with the two buildings across the street, a vacant Christian Science church, and a Masonic temple.

click here for the library's panels

They are beautiful. The website lists the scenes and characters, but they need to be seen and recognised. The artist was asked to paint an historical review of the Western Reserve. Thomason had a better idea. Some of the greatest characters in literature are painted. Some see this as children's literature, but it is more than that it.

No comments:

Post a Comment