SURFACE DEPTH

The Edison Brothers mural occupies three sides of a former warehouse building in downtown St. Louis, presenting a painted-on facade of Beaux-Arts inspired ornament to the adjacent highway and train lines.  It was completed in 1985 by Richard Haas, a New York muralist whose work features trompe l’oeil, an illusionistic painting technique that translates to “fool the eye.”  This project attempts to classify the mural within the tradition of trompe l’oeil painting and position it within contemporary art practices.  The project explores the interaction between art and architecture in the piece by considering aspects of the trompe l’oeil technique and the iconography of the mural that affected the lasting image of the Edison Brothers building, transforming it from a warehouse into a protected local landmark.

The original building was originally constructed in the late 1920’s, and subsequently served as a distribution center for Edison Brothers, a St. Louis footwear retailer, beginning in 1967.  Richard Haas was brought to St. Louis to imagine a piece for the building in 1982.  The design for the mural was derived from imagery of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, which Haas considered one of “the city’s greatest moments.” Design elements were drawn from the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy, which featured a pair of grand obelisks flanking its main entrance. 

The Edison Brothers mural was completed in 1984.  However, the tradition of trompe l’oeil painting traces back to the Renaissance.  Early uses of trompe l’oeil were assisted by advancements in perspective projection, and tended to extend space by “opening up” walls and ceilings with vibrant frescoes.  A more subtle form of trompe l’oeil can be found in seventeenth-century Dutch painting, which depicted objects at full scale and projected them into the space of the viewer.  Haas’ mural, while grand in scale, is more like a dutch still-life in execution, using light and shadow to posit its architecture in real space at the scale of the city.

Kitsch objects can loosely be characterized as attempts to replicate the emotional or sentimental response to a genuine work of artistic expression, while eschewing the critical depth of the original.  Kitsch objects often substitute popularity for critical acclaim by appealing to stock sentiments and immediate emotional responses.  The mural engages qualities of kitsch in its orientation and technique. The orientation of the building toward moving traffic, especially interstate traffic, begins to suggest the mural functions as an advertisement, projecting a monumental image of the city through reference to the World’s Fair.  The technique of trompe l’oeil itself strikes at the popular appeal of spectacular illusions.  The fleeting nature of the way in which mobile observers encounter the mural from automobiles or trains enhances this sense of exhilerating deception.