Kent Twitchell

From the aging homages to Chicano history on the Eastside to Shepard Fairey's towering "Peace Goddess" watching over downtown, Los Angeles has earned a reputation as the street mural capital of the world. But for nearly a decade, much of this artwork has been done illicitly. City ordinances make it illegal to create murals on the vast majority of private properties. Officials estimate that more than 300 murals have been painted over in the last several years, a fact that has frustrated artists as well as property owners who commission the murals.

From the aging homages to Chicano history on the Eastside to Shepard Fairey's towering "Peace Goddess" watching over downtown, Los Angeles has earned a reputation as the street mural capital of the world. But for nearly a decade, much of this artwork has been done illicitly. City ordinances make it illegal to create murals on the vast majority of private properties. Officials estimate that more than 300 murals have been painted over in the last several years, a fact that has frustrated artists as well as property owners who commission the murals.

Summer 2006 is shaping up as problematic for public art in downtown Los Angeles. On Thursday, attorneys representing artist Kent Twitchell filed a claim against the U.S. Department of Labor in connection with Twitchell's large-scale mural "Ed Ruscha Monument" -- a six-story portrait of fellow artist Ruscha on a building owned by the federal agency -- being painted over in early June. Twitchell said he received no notice, as required by law, that the paint-over would take place.

There haven't been any takers yet -- but the Look Gallery in downtown L.A. is offering Kent Twitchell's 100-foot-tall mural of Michael Jackson, originally intended for display on the side of a Hollywood building but never mounted, for sale for $1 million. The Jackson mural had its first public exhibition at the gallery, which is located in L.A. Mart Design Center, in April as part of a display of Twitchell's unseen works, titled "Thriller: The King of Pop Meets the King of Cool." Although Jackson's death may have had some effect on asking price and expectations, the decision to sell the Jackson mural is not really new. With few exceptions, everything in the April show was, and is, for sale, including a mural of Steve McQueen, which gallery director Jerri Levi says can be had for $100,000.

Nearly six years after her untimely death at the hand of a billboard painter, Kent Twitchell's "Old Woman of the Freeway" is coming back to life in a resurrection that is being hailed as pivotal in preserving other California public artworks from destruction.

Once a favorite public mural, Kent Twitchell's so-called Freeway Lady was destroyed twice -- painted over by a billboard company in 1986, then vandalized while being restored in 2000. But now it appears that the 1974 "Old Woman of the Freeway," as the work is named, will rise again. And in a most unlikely place: on the side of the Valley Institute of Visual Art gallery in Sherman Oaks. "A second chance.

Kent Twitchell, standing on a hotel roof, used his left hand to blast scorching hot air on what had been a mysterious-looking grandmother. With his right hand he took a metal spatula and dug in, scraping away paint that had hidden her face for more than a decade. "She's looking better now," he said Saturday, noting the return of a pinkish tone to the face. "It takes a lot of patience, but she'll be back up soon."

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra took to the street Tuesday to establish a new prominence in the city with the first portion of a huge downtown mural depicting most of the acclaimed orchestra's 40 members. Painted by famed Los Angeles muralist Kent Twitchell, the eight-story high "Harbor Freeway Overture" is planned to sprawl over at least four walls on the multi-sided parking structure at Citicorp Plaza, facing the northbound Harbor Freeway at 8th Street.

Americans don't much like art. They never have. Art remains a minority interest, despite exponential growth in the size (and number) of museums and the market during the past 50 years. That popular indifference pretty much explains the wanton destruction last week of one of the best public murals in Los Angeles. Between 1978 and 1987, Kent Twitchell painted a gigantic work on the north side of an older downtown office building at 1031 S. Hill St., near the intersection with Olympic Boulevard.

Some of Kent Twitchell's murals are best known because they no longer exist. His "The Old Lady of the Freeway" greeted travelers along the Hollywood Freeway from 1974 until it was painted out by a billboard company in 1986. More recently, "Ed Ruscha Monument," a six-story portrait of artist Ruscha on the side of a government-owned building in downtown L.A., was painted over, in June 2006.

Some of Kent Twitchell's murals are best known because they no longer exist. His "The Old Lady of the Freeway" greeted travelers along the Hollywood Freeway from 1974 until it was painted out by a billboard company in 1986. More recently, "Ed Ruscha Monument," a six-story portrait of artist Ruscha on the side of a government-owned building in downtown L.A., was painted over, in June 2006.

Los Angeles artist Kent Twitchell has settled his lawsuit against the U.S. government and 11 other defendants for painting over his six-story mural "Ed Ruscha Monument," painted on the side of a federal government-owned downtown building, for $1.1 million.

About eight months after it was abruptly painted over, a small portion of Kent Twitchell's six-story "Ed Ruscha Monument" -- part of a hand, about 18 by 18 inches -- has become visible as the result of testing to determine whether the mural can be saved.

There has been no recent progress for artist Kent Twitchell in the legal battle involving his large-scale mural "Ed Ruscha Monument," a longtime fixture on the side of a building in downtown L.A. owned by the federal government that was painted over in early June.

As the latest step in an ongoing legal battle, artist Kent Twitchell -- whose large-scale mural "Ed Ruscha Monument" was painted over in early June -- has filed a lawsuit against several nongovernmental entities the suit contends "willfully and intentionally desecrated, distorted, mutilated and otherwise modified" the work. Twitchell has said he received no notice -- as required by law -- that the artwork, on a downtown building owned by the federal government, would be painted over.

Summer 2006 is shaping up as problematic for public art in downtown Los Angeles. On Thursday, attorneys representing artist Kent Twitchell filed a claim against the U.S. Department of Labor in connection with Twitchell's large-scale mural "Ed Ruscha Monument" -- a six-story portrait of fellow artist Ruscha on a building owned by the federal agency -- being painted over in early June. Twitchell said he received no notice, as required by law, that the paint-over would take place.

A colorful, informative fold-out map and guide to 200 Los Angeles murals will be unveiled this morning at a downtown news conference led by Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs and muralist Kent Twitchell. Produced by the Los Angeles Mural Conservancy, the handy guide will be made available to the general public for $2 as soon as funding for reproduction and distribution is found, say conservancy officials, which could be within the next month.

AGAIN, Los Angeles leads the nation in destroying historic public artworks ["Popular 'Ed Ruscha' Mural Abruptly Painted Over," by Scott Timberg, June 3]. No amount of jury-awarded compensation can repay artist Kent Twitchell for his work, and no amount of apology from Robert Bustamante can repay a community robbed of a hauntingly beautiful image in a less than beautiful city. RODNEY KEMERER Beverly Hills

One mural was a six-story portrait of an artist, painted on the side of a Job Corps training center in downtown Los Angeles. The other was a colorful explosion of faces and figures stripped around a one-story Silver Lake furniture store. What these two works by Los Angeles muralists have in common is that they are gone -- painted over recently within days of each other.

AGAIN, Los Angeles leads the nation in destroying historic public artworks ["Popular 'Ed Ruscha' Mural Abruptly Painted Over," by Scott Timberg, June 3]. No amount of jury-awarded compensation can repay artist Kent Twitchell for his work, and no amount of apology from Robert Bustamante can repay a community robbed of a hauntingly beautiful image in a less than beautiful city. RODNEY KEMERER Beverly Hills