![]() ![]() The work survives today only in photographs and a memorial plaque on Venice Boardwalk.Unfortunately the mural has since been destroyed. Popular in its day the work was featured in several films, notably Agnes Varda’s poetic mural documentary, MurMur. By then Wehrle was living and working primarily in Northern CA, and was not present to witness the slow demise and eventual obliteration. Icarus held up well for 10 years before it was tagged an early graffiti, “fifth and hill” applied with a brush, before aerosols spray cans became the taggers choice. In subsequent works the Artist used more permanent materials, notably Keim Silicate paint and some of those have fared better. Daedaulus sees his son’s wings floating in the water and goes down to bury Icarus’s body. Icarus flaps his bare arms, then falls, drowning in the sea. The heat from the sun softens the wax that glues the wings together, and the wings fall off. The color was brilliant at first, but unfortunately linseed oil binder reacts chemically to sunlight, fading and peeling, and the painting was doomed from its inception. Icarus soon gets adventurous and flies towards the sun. The Fall of Icarus was executed in oils using glazing techniques, layering thin transparent colors over underpainting. During this same year, Terry Schoonhoven was painting his solo magnum Opus on the opposite wall facing Windward Avenue. Permission was obtained from Fern Violette, the building owner and Carl Borack, a film producer, her tenant. The work was funded by a special projects grant from the California Arts Council. Los Angeles is, of course, a desert, and generally under populated by angels…” The artist admits to a certain influence from Pieter Bruegal “ I intended Icarus to be a metaphor for the City of Angels at a time of denouement following a period of social change. It contains the islands of Samos, Cos, Patmos, Leros. It is described as the part of the Aegean Sea to the south of Chios, to the east of the Eastern Cyclades and west of Anatolia. Prescient in its desert LA landscape setting, the painting features the Art Deco Design Marquee from the local Fox Venice Theater. The Icarian Sea ( Greek:, Ikario Pelagos) is a subdivision of the Mediterranean Sea that lies between the Cyclades and Asia Minor. This magical daytime projection is being observed by a couple of Cowboys and several Angels. When the king turned against Daedalus and imprisoned him, Daedalus secretly made wings for himself and his son Icarus, intending to escape to Sicily. ![]() He was credited with building for King Minos of Crete the Labyrinth in which the Minotaur was kept. The work posits a deserted drive in theater with an onscreen apparition of an astronaut floating upside down near the planet Mars. Daedalus, In Greek mythology, a brilliant architect, sculptor, and inventor. The Fall of Icarus is an allegorical mural of Los Angeles painted by John Wehrle in 1978 at the end of Market Street. ![]()
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