John Ward Lockwood (September 22, 1894–July 6, 1963) was an American painter, art teacher and veteran of two world wars. During the New Deal era of public artwork commissions for new federal buildings, Lockwood was hired by the Treasury Department

Section of Painting and Sculpture The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury. Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...

to paint murals at the new post office buildings in

Edinburg, Texas Edinburg ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. Its population was 74,569 as of the 2010 census, and in 2019, its estimated population was 101,170, making it the second-largest city in Hidalgo County, and the ...

, and

Hamilton, Texas Hamilton is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Texas, United States, located in the state's central region. Its population was 3,095 at the 2010 census. Geography Hamilton is located in central Hamilton County at (31.703274, � ...

, as well as at Taos County Courthouse,

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College (FAC) is an arts center located just north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located on the same city block are the American Numismatic Association and part of the campus of Colorado ...

, in the lobby of the federal courthouse in Wichita, Kansas, and in a courtroom at the federal courthouse in Lexington, Kentucky. He also created two murals for what was then the Post Office headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Lockwood wrote that the mural in the Hamilton post office, ''Texas Rangers Singing in Camp'', was “the most popular one I have done.” The murals in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, on theme of “classic American theater,” will be removed sometime during or after 2022, “due to racist imagery and damage accumulated from their location in a food service area.” The Post Office (now Clinton Federal Building) murals were challenged for their depiction of Native Americans in the early 2000s. Lockwood advocated strongly for the only abstract art post office mural that was ever commissioned by the Section, Lloyd Ney’s ''New London Facets'' in

New London, Ohio New London is a village in Huron County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,461 at the 2010 census. The village motto, "The Right Place at the Right Time", was chosen in the late twentieth century by former Mayor Dorothy Sholes. New Lon ...

. He studied at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Academy Ransom An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

in Paris. He taught art at both

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

and the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. The

Norton Simon Museum The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Sim ...

in Pasadena hosted a show of his work in 1960, one of more than 30 one-man shows of his work. Born in Atchinson, Kansas, he served in both the 89th Division of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I and in the Army Air Corps during World War II, retiring as a lieutenant colonel (possibly full colonel) in 1954. Involved with the Taos Artists Colony in the 1920s and 1930s, he died in

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando C ...

shortly after his retirement. His wife was Martha Clyde Bonebrake (1891–1969).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lockwood, John Ward 1894 births 1963 deaths 20th-century American painters American muralists Section of Painting and Sculpture artists 20th-century American male artists

Further reading

References