In 1941 Peter Ruta studied fresco painting at the League. His instructor was Jean Charlot, a French painter who had been in Mexico in the 1920s and taught wall painting techniques to the Mexican muralists. While in his class at the League, Ruta painted a mural in the basement, a highly charged political mural about a strike at the Ford factory in Dearborn, MI. It showed union leader Walther Reuther taking a beating from thugs. As Ruta recalls, each year’s fresco class erased their work to give the fresh surface to the next group of students.But as 1941 – on the verge of US entry into war – was the last year fresco was taught at the League, his fresco and parts of another still remain on the wall but the public is not currently invited to visit these miraculous survivals. Here however is the charming sketch for a fresco that Jean Charlot produced in 1941, a portrait of his class. Ruta is second from left, with pencil.
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