Tile Town: Will Unique Downtown Mural Be Saved? - Ben Tyjeski - Jun 21st, 2023.We’d then crate the pieces for transport and storage.” The sections would be 4 tiles high by 6 tiles wide. John Padburg of Berglund Construction, one of several contractors Docomomo-WI has contacted, agrees that “It would be very difficult to remove the tiles individually without breaking them so we’d cut the pieces in sections with the travertine attached. “The artwork wall is cut out, lifted, and positioned into a custom metal frame to transport.” “The most straightforward and cost effective approach would be cutting the entire work out of the wall, intact,” Sizemore suggests. The Cathony mural is one of many pictorial tile and mosaic murals completed in the 1960s and 70s, including works by artists Mary Blair and Millard Sheets, whose murals have been relocated.Ĭutting out each tile one-by-one appears to be cumbersome and would increase the chances of damaging the tiles.

Sizemore, based in Madison, is also an independent researcher and writer on Modernist mosaics, and says that the process of removing and relocating this type of mural, “can and has been done.” One project she helped spearhead was the relocation of the 1968 mosaic Brotherhood of Man by Anthony Stellon in San Francisco.

Winterhalter has been collaborating with architect Justin Racinowski and mosaic artist Lillian Sizemore, both members of Docomomo-WI, on gathering research and information on the Cathony mural to advocate for its preservation, as well as finding potential contractors to safely remove the mural. Member and architectural historian Shannon Winterhalter believes that “The Cathony mural seemed like a continuation of this thread and an important piece of Milwaukee history that maybe not a lot of people knew about.” This week, on June 20, the organization hosted an Allen-Bradley Mosaic Tour at Rockwell Automation. Their preservation work has included the War Memorial Center, the State Office Building, and the Mitchell Park Domes, each having mosaic installations as well. According to an undated/unnamed biography about Cathony, the tiles were “fired and cut in Canada under the supervision of Cathony.” Allen-Bradley’s sales brochure described them as “hard, dense, vitreous, high-fired ceramic” tiles that were offered in a wide spectrum of colors and textures, suitable for indoor and outdoor applications in any climate. TEGA tiles were developed by an affiliated company in Canada in 1961. Three years after the mural was completed, the company’s director of marketing Wilbert Kedrow wrote in a letter to Cathony, “We believe your mural on the building … has continued to enhance us as an institution in the world of the arts and city beautification.”Ĭathony executed his design using only TEGA tiles from the Allen-Bradley Co. was titled People Helping People, and for the company was a proud display of their philosophy. The artwork Cathony created for the Milwaukee Insurance Co. She was a pioneer in woman-owned art galleries and helped Cathony receive a number of commissions painting watercolor graphics of Milwaukee landmarks in 1969, including the War Memorial Center, City Hall, Marquette University, and many others. How the painter from Illinois was even considered for such a project was due to Huetta Manion, owner of Landmarks Gallery (1966-2020) at 231 N.

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