Project Literally Revives Lost Art

A decades-old mystery about a hidden treasure in the west wall at Plummer Auditorium finally is being uncovered.

Using toothbrushes, water and acetate, volunteers are washing and scraping off several layers of paint that have veiled a vibrant 1,204-square-foot fresco since 1939.

A scene has begun to emerge of Pio Pico, California’s last Mexican governor, listening to concert hall singer Laura Moya, the model for whom may have been singer Linda Ronstadt’s aunt, Luisa Espinel. There also are depictions of women washing and wringing laundry around a stream and of ranch owner Antonio Yorba lassoing a horse.

“It’s just amazing,” said David Zenger, a local resident who walked by the wall for years, wondering if a mural really was hidden there under drab beige paint. “To take a paint brush to this beautiful piece of art is an act of criminal stupidity, absolutely inexcusable in any age or time.”

Charles Kassler Jr. painted “Pastoral California” in 1934 as part of a U.S. Works of Art Project. The federal government paid a number of artists to paint murals on public walls and buildings during that era.

Five years later, the local school board, which governed Fullerton Union High School where Plummer Auditorium sits, decided to cover up the fresco.

The mystery behind that action has yet to be solved, although some speculate that school board members may have objected to scenes of buxom women in the mural.

Jane Reifer, a local preservationist, has been researching the fresco, its creator and its contents and is interviewing the children of the 1939 school board members as she tries to find out the reason for their parents’ decision.

“It was a big deal in those days,” Reifer said. “I’m sure they discussed it with their families.”

Meanwhile, scores of volunteers, including dozens of students enrolled in a special summer art program at Fullerton High, are meticulously lifting off nearly 60 years of water- and oil-based paint.

“I’ve heard people talk about frescoes all my life, but I never saw one,” said David Lane of Venice, a UCLA art student who is volunteering on the project. “These colors are so bright and resilient.”

Experts say the colors are still vibrant because Kassler used a difficult technique rarely employed by artists today. With water colors, he painted the 15-foot-by-80-foot fresco directly on wet lime plaster. When the plaster dried, the painting became part of the wall.

Only a handful of such frescoes can be found in the country today, said Melissa Santala, of ConserveArt Associates.

The Culver City-based ConserveArt was hired to oversee the $40,000 uncovering project, which is being funded by the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency, private donations and a state Historical Foundation grant.