Apr 05, 2018 - Sale 2472

Sale 2472 - Lot 27

Price Realized: $ 4,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
THELMA JOHNSON STREAT (1911 - 1959)
The Meatpacking District (Study for The Negro in Professional Life).

Ink, crayon and watercolor on assembled wove papers, 1944-45. 381x445 mm; 15x17 1/2 inches.

Provenance: the estate of the artist, Oregon.

Thelma Johnson Streat developed a number of studies and maquettes that were submitted designs for mural projects after she left San Francisco. The artist's estate also includes the large drawing or mural cartoon The Negro in Professional Life that was entered to a juried contest at the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago in 1944. Newspapers described a series of 12 more murals. According to Judy Bullington, Streat's work tied for first place. A 1945 article in The Oregonian newspaper sheds more light on this educational series and describes what Streat was planning: "Her plan is simple. Through the medium of murals painted with a simplicity which will have appeal to all children, regardless of race or creed, exactly what her people contribute to industry." Bullington pp. 97-99.