Post #567733 by mrsmiley on Sun, Dec 5, 2010 7:01 PM

Artist Biography

Frank BOWERS
1905 - 1964

Frank Howard Bowers was born in California on November 20, 1905. He was active in Los Angeles from the 1930s when he painted murals for the Federal Art Project in the Ruth Home School and the Fruit Growers Exchange (Orange Harvest). He died in Long Beach, California on December 11, 1964.

I also found this on the web about a modern restaurant in Richmond, Virginia named Balliceaux ;

"There are many, from the porthole-style windows along some of the booths that feature resin-printed photos he took in Haiti, the Bahamas, Cuba and Hong Kong to the racy Frank Bowers mural in the back room that originally hung in a West Hollywood bar. Gratz found it at an antiques shop in San Francisco".
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Images of his Sunkist murals (done with Arthur Prunier) here; http://citrusroots.com/paper1a.html
More about the Sunlist murals ;"ConservArt Associates, headed by Duane Chartier, have been conserving the 1935 mural paintings in the Sunkist Corporate Headquarters in Sherman Oaks, CA, since December , 1994. The paintings represent allegorical California scenes amid orange groves and were painted by Frank Bowers and Arthur Prunier. They are oil on canvas improperly mounted with contact cement on 3/4" plywood. The marouflage was done in the early 70's when the paintings were moved from the original downtown building to the present site. To add insult to injury, two out of four have a double polyurethane varnish which has become so discolored that the color scheme is indiscernible. Treatment included contact cement removal from the face, varnish removal using novel mechanical methods, injections of hot BEVA 371 into large detachments using a specially designed heatable syringe and remounting of the paintings in the company boardroom."
More info: Restoration information from Susanne of conservartassoc.com ---Friend Sunkist Growers, Inc. -- WPA Mural Conservation - Sherman Oaks, CA - August 1994 - March 1995
Conservation of the four murals by Frank Bowers and Arthur Prunier, 1935, presently in the main boardroom. The murals had been exhibited externally for many years before being deinstalled from the old Los Angeles downtown headquarters and marouflaged onto plywood in the early 70's. Two of the panels have a polyurethane coating and are differentially discolored. All the paintings were damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Work includes a new mounting system, cleaning and reinstallation.

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Craiglist Indiana ad from Mid Novemeber 2010 (John-o's earlier post);
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/clt/2066798069.html
"This is a Big Mural, By Frank Howard Bowers, 1905-1964
Measure 55 inches tall by 128 inches long
Would look great behind a Bar or in a game room

I found that he was from California and did do some paintings for the Federal Art Project in the Ruth Home School and for the Fruit Growers Exchange, Plus a few other murals to pay off bar tabs.

Make me an offer. Please put Frank in subject line.
Sorry for the garage door track in the middle of the pics. "

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[ Edited by: mrsmiley 2010-12-05 23:18 ]

[ Edited by: mrsmiley 2013-03-12 01:39 ]