Art Décor

“It’s a technique that Michelangelo used, that has been used for five or 600 years. It’s pretty old,” quipped artist Richard Wright upon winning last year’s Turner Prize. The work in question—a glittering, decorative gold leaf painting that embellished a whole wall of London’s Tate Britain—was something of a surprise winner in a competition more typically noted for its shock value. Though it’s a sad fact that the age of frescoes on a grand scale is over (the aristocratic patrons and religious fervor of the Renaissance are in short supply these days), Wright’s win testifies to another truth: the 20th century has its own impressive set of artists who have plastered ceilings and floors with brilliant creations. The boom period for the medium came in the 1920s and 30s, as Diego Rivera and the Mexican muralists, inspired by the greats of Italy, writ their social concerns large on the walls of public institutions. This movement subsequently prompted the WPA public murals program mounted by the US government during the Great Depression in the 30s, a project aimed to reinvigorate a languishing community of out-of-work artists. Later scrawlers included minimal artist Sol Lewitt—whose geometric wall drawings are still frequently recreated according to the meticulous instructions he left behind after his death in 2007—and Bridget Riley, who even wielded her brush on the inside of the Royal Liverpool Hospital in 1983. As a timely reminder of the power of paint-meets-wall, we present a gallery of our favorite interior interventions from the past 100 years.