Gifted in 2017 by New York-based gallerist Deedee Wigmore of D. Wigmore Fine Art, Gardner Hale's epic canvas Triumph of Washington gets a conservation grant just prior to its first public showing since the 1930s. It is now set to star in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's new exhibition Renewing the American Spirit: The Art of the Great Depression, opening November 2.

Measuring about 14 feet high and 24 feet wide, the 1931 painting was one of the last works by Gardner Hale. The artist died in December 1931 at the age of 37 when his car plunged 500 feet off a cliff near Santa Maria, California.

Hale's massive Washington mural was displayed at the Smithsonian in 1932, and then a previous owner had it rolled up. Eight decades later, the piece will be renewed and on view.

This month, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art was selected as a 2019 Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant recipient to conserve Hale's Triumph of Washington. The grant funding will help preserve the monumental mural for future generations.

This large-scale painting—measuring 165” x 293”—has not been exhibited publicly since George Washington’s Bicentennial exhibition in 1932. Upon unrolling, abrasions and losses to the paint surface, stains, tears to the canvas, and water damage were discovered that require treatment before it can be publicly displayed in the upcoming exhibition Renewing the American Spirit: The Art of the Great Depression.

“The Museum’s holdings in the area of American art of the Great Depression remains one of the strengths of its collection, beginning with twenty-eight works created as part of the W.P.A.’s relief efforts during the second half of the 1930s,” said Dr. Michael Anderson, Interim President and C.E.O. “Completed during the early stages of the Great Depression, Hale’s Triumph of Washington features General Washington on horseback, leading his troops before a modern cityscape. Thanks to Bank of America, the conservation of this work will further a preexisting area of strength in the Museum’s collection—providing new avenues for interpretation of both Washington’s legacy and the role of the arts in the Great Depression.”

On view through April 26, 2020, the exhibition examines the diverse responses of artists to the social upheaval and economic distress that characterized American life in the 1930s. Together, the aesthetically and politically varied works produced in the 1930s paint a revealing portrait of the nation’s evolving psyche as it sought to move ahead through one of the country’s most challenging periods.

The conservation of Triumph of Washington by Gardner Hale is one of 22 Art Conservation Projects announced at this year’s recipient announcement event hosted by Bank of America on October 16 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Recipients in 10 countries and 11 U.S. cities are receiving grant funding through the 2019 Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Triumph of Washington by Gardner Hale is in select company as a 2019 recipient. The selection of works being recognized as 2019 ACP recipients includes The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh and The Bather by Paul Cezanne – The Museum of Modern Art, New York.