Blashfield (1848-1936) was one of America’s leading muralpainters at a time when public buildings of all sorts had elaborate stories totell. Edited by Mina Rieur Weiner, EdwinHowland Blashfield: Master American Muralist (W.W. Norton), offers animplicit argument against the white boxes of modernism and in favor of thefusion of architecture and art that Blashfield represented. The function of publicspace a century ago wasn’t merely to house offices or accommodate a crowd, butto teach the buildings’ users the civic values of America.
Whether the images chosen were always the mostrepresentative or apt is a question for another book. Master American Muralist is a succinct overview of Blashfield’swork, illustrated by dozens of color photographs of murals from courthouses,capitols and colleges. Gazing at them allowed triggers the thought thatgraduating from collegeand even mailing letters at the post officeis achapter in a mythic cycle of human progress.