A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

, mosaic, graffiti and

marouflage Marouflage is a technique for affixing a painted canvas (intended as a mural) to a wall, using an adhesive that hardens as it dries, such as plaster or cement. History A French word originally referring to sticky, partly hardened scraps of pain ...

Word mural in art

The word ''mural'' is a Spanish adjective that is used to refer to what is attached to a wall. The term ''mural'' later became a noun. In art, the word mural began to be used at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1906,

Dr. Atl Gerardo Murillo Cornado, also known by his signature "Dr. Atl", (October 3, 1875 – August 15, 1964) was a Mexican painter and writer. He was actively involved in the Mexican Revolution in the Constitutionalist faction led by Venustiano Carra ...

issued a manifesto calling for the development of a monumental public art movement in Mexico; he named it in Spanish ''pintura mural'' (English: ''wall painting''). In ancient Roman times, a mural crown was given to the fighter who was first to scale the wall of a besieged town. "Mural" comes from the Latin ''muralis'', meaning "wall painting".

History

Antique art

Murals of sorts date to Upper Paleolithic times such as the

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s in the

Lubang Jeriji Saléh Lubang Jeriji Saleh is a limestone cave complex in Indonesia in the Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat Karst located in the remote jungle of Bengalon district in East Kutai, East Kalimantan province on Borneo island. In a 2018 publication a team of resear ...

cave in Borneo (40,000-52,000 BP), Chauvet Cave in

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.France (around 32,000 BP). Many ancient murals have been found within ancient Egyptian tombs (around 3150 BC), the Minoan palaces (Middle period III of the Neopalatial period, 1700–1600 BC), the

Oxtotitlán Oxtotitlán is a natural rock shelter and archaeological site in Chilapa de Álvarez, Mexican state of Guerrero that contains murals linked to the Olmec motifs and iconography. Along with the nearby Juxtlahuaca cave, the Oxtotitlán rock pain ...

cave and Juxtlahuaca in Mexico (around 1200-900 BC) and in

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

(around 100 BC – AD 79). During the Middle Ages murals were usually executed on dry plaster (secco). The huge collection of Kerala mural painting dating from the 14th century are examples of fresco secco. In Italy, circa 1300, the technique of painting of frescos on wet plaster was reintroduced and led to a significant increase in the quality of mural painting. Lohja Church murals 1

Modern art

The term mural became better known with the Mexican muralism art movement ( Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and

José Orozco José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

). The first mural painted in the 20th century, was “El árbol de la vida”, by Roberto Montenegro. There are many different styles and techniques. The best-known is probably ''

'', which uses water-soluble paints with a damp lime wash, rapid use of the resulting mixture over a large surface, and often in parts (but with a sense of the whole). The colors lighten as they dry. The ''

'' method has also been used for millennia. Murals today are painted in a variety of ways, using oil or water-based media. The styles can vary from abstract to '' trompe-l'œil'' (a French term for "fool" or "trick the eye"). Initiated by the works of mural artists like Graham Rust or

Rainer Maria Latzke Rainer Maria Latzke (born 28 December 1950) is a German artist working in the field of ''trompe-l'œil'' and mural painting. He taught at the Utah State University and is founder of the Institute of Frescography. Latzke is Honorary Professor o ...

in the 1980s, trompe-l'œil painting has experienced a renaissance in private and public buildings in Europe. Today, the beauty of a wall mural has become much more widely available with a technique whereby a painting or photographic image is transferred to poster paper or

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...

which is then pasted to a wall surface ''(see wallpaper,

Frescography Frescography (from Latin ''fresco'' – ''painting onto "fresh" plaster'' + Greek ''graphein'' - to write) is a method for producing murals digitally on paper, canvas, glass or tiles, invented in 1998 by German muralist Rainer Maria Latzke. Fresc ...

)'' to give the effect of either a hand-painted mural or realistic scene. A special type of mural painting is

Lüftlmalerei Lüftlmalerei (also spelt ''Lüftelmalerei'') is a form of mural art that is native to villages and towns of southern Germany and Austria, especially in Upper Bavaria (Werdenfelser Land) and in the Tyrol. Style The origin of the term is dispute ...

, still practised today in the villages of the Alpine valleys. Well-known examples of such façade designs from the 18th and 19th centuries can be found in Mittenwald, Garmisch, Unter- and Oberammergau.

Technique

In the history of mural several methods have been used: '' A fresco'' painting, from the Italian word ''affresco'' which derives from the adjective ''fresco'' ("fresh"), describes a method in which the paint is applied on plaster on walls or ceilings. The '' buon fresco'' technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster. The pigment is then absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries and reacts with the air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. After this the painting stays for a long time up to centuries in fresh and brilliant colors. ''

Fresco-secco Fresco-secco (or a secco or fresco finto) is a wall painting technique where pigments mixed with an organic binder and/or lime are applied onto a dry plaster. The paints used can e.g. be casein paint, tempera, oil paint, silicate mineral paint. I ...

'' painting is done on dry plaster (''secco'' is "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

( tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. ''Mezzo-fresco'' is painted on nearly-dry plaster, and was defined by the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo as "firm enough not to take a thumb-print" so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced the ''buon fresco'' method, and was used by painters such as

Gianbattista Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an impor ...

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of ''a secco'' work.

Material

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...

times, mostly encaustic colors applied in a cold state were used. Tempera painting is one of the oldest known methods in mural painting. In tempera, the pigments are bound in an albuminous medium such as

egg yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...

egg white Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms arou ...

diluted in water. In 16th-century Europe, oil painting on canvas arose as an easier method for mural painting. The advantage was that the artwork could be completed in the artist's studio and later transported to its destination and there attached to the wall or ceiling. Oil paint may be a less satisfactory medium for murals because of its lack of brilliance in colour. Also, the pigments are yellowed by the binder or are more easily affected by atmospheric conditions. Different muralists tend to become experts in their preferred medium and application, whether that be oil paints, emulsion or acrylic paints applied by brush, roller or airbrush/aerosols. Clients will often ask for a particular style and the artist may adjust to the appropriate technique. A consultation usually leads to detailed design and layout of the proposed mural with a price quote that the client approves before the muralist starts on the work. The area to be painted can be gridded to match the design allowing the image to be scaled accurately step by step. In some cases, the design is projected straight onto the wall and traced with pencil before painting begins. Some muralists will paint directly without any prior sketching, preferring the spontaneous technique. Once completed the mural can be given coats of varnish or protective acrylic glaze to protect the work from UV rays and surface damage. In modern, quick form of muralling, young enthusiasts also use POP clay mixed with glue or bond to give desired models on canvas board. The canvas is later set aside to let the clay dry. Once dried, the canvas and the shape can be painted with your choice of colors and later coated with varnish. Comersee Spalier rgb

As an alternative to a hand-painted or airbrushed mural, digitally printed murals can also be applied to surfaces. Already existing murals can be photographed and then be reproduced in near-to-original quality. The disadvantages of pre-fabricated murals and decals are that they are often mass-produced and lack the allure and exclusivity of original artwork. They are often not fitted to the individual wall sizes of the client and their personal ideas or wishes cannot be added to the mural as it progresses. The

technique, a digital manufacturing method ( CAM) invented by

addresses some of the personalisation and size restrictions. Turku mural

Digital techniques are commonly used in advertisements. A "wallscape" is a large advertisement on or attached to the outside wall of a building. Wallscapes can be painted directly on the wall as a mural, or printed on vinyl and securely attached to the wall in the manner of a

billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

. Although not strictly classed as murals, large scale printed media are often referred to as such. Advertising murals were traditionally painted onto buildings and shops by sign-writers, later as large scale poster billboards.

Significance

Murals are important as they bring art into the public sphere. Due to the size, cost, and work involved in creating a mural, muralists must often be commissioned by a sponsor. Often it is the local government or a business, but many murals have been paid for with grants of

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

. For artists, their work gets a wide audience who otherwise might not set foot in an art gallery. A city benefits by the beauty of a work of art. Murals can be a relatively effective tool of social emancipation or achieving a political goal. Murals have sometimes been created against the law, or have been commissioned by local bars and coffee shops. Often, the visual effects are an enticement to attract public attention to social issues. State-sponsored public art expressions, particularly murals, are often used by totalitarian regimes as a tool of propaganda. However, despite the propagandist character of that works, some of them still have an artistic value. Murals can have a dramatic impact whether consciously or subconsciously on the attitudes of passers-by, when they are added to areas where people live and work. It can also be argued that the presence of large, public murals can add aesthetic improvement to the daily lives of residents or that of employees at a corporate venue. Large-format hand-painted murals were the norm for advertisements in cities across America, before the introduction of vinyl and digital posters. It was an expensive form of advertising with strict signage laws but gained attention and improved local aesthetics. Other world-famous murals can be found in Mexico, New York City, Philadelphia, Belfast,

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, Los Angeles, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Philippines, and in India

They have functioned as an important means of communication for members of socially, ethnically and racially divided communities in times of conflict. They also proved to be an effective tool in establishing a dialogue and hence solving the cleavage in the long run. The Indian state Kerala has exclusive

murals A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

. These Kerala mural painting are on walls of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. They can be dated from 9th century AD. The San Bartolo murals of the Maya civilization in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, are the oldest example of this art in Mesoamerica and are dated at 300 BC. Many rural towns have begun using murals to create tourist attractions in order to boost economic income.

Colquitt, Georgia Colquitt is a city in Miller County, in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 1,992 at the 2010 census. Colquitt is the county seat of Miller County, a role it has held since just after Miller County was create ...

was chosen to host the 2010 Global Mural Conference. The town had more than twelve murals completed, and hosted the Conference along with Dothan, Alabama, and Blakely, Georgia.

Politics

RiveraMuralNationalPalace.jpg, Diego Rivera's mural '' The History of Mexico'' at the

National Palace Buildings called National Palace include: *National Palace (Dominican Republic), in Santo Domingo *National Palace (El Salvador), in San Salvador *National Palace (Ethiopia), in Addis Ababa; also known as the Jubilee Palace *National Palace (Guatema ...

in Mexico City (1929-1935). BardiaMural.jpg, The

Bardia Mural The Bardia Mural was created in a building on a clifftop overlooking the bay in Bardia, Libya, during World War II by John Frederick Brill just prior to his death at the age of 22. It depicts a collage of images that range from the horrors of ...

, photographed in the 1960s, prior to its damage by defacement and the ravages of time. Press Cafe in East Berlin on Alexanderplatz, 1977.jpg, Murals displaying the Marxist view of the press on this

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

cafe in 1977 were covered over by commercial advertising after Germany was reunited. Wien - Donald-Trump- und Kim-Jong-un-Graffiti von Lush Sux.JPG, A mural with Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Vienna. The Mexican mural movement in the 1930s brought new prominence to murals as a social and political tool. Diego Rivera,

and David Siqueiros were the most famous artists of the movement. Between 1932 and 1940, Rivera also painted murals in San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1933, he completed a famous series of twenty-seven fresco panels entitled '' Detroit Industry'' on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts. During the

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

of the 1950s, a large sign was placed in the courtyard defending the artistic merit of the murals while attacking his politics as "detestable". UN security council 2005

In 1948, the Colombian government hosted the IX Pan-American Conference to establish the Marshall plan for the Americas. The director of the OEA and the Colombian government commissioned master

Santiago Martinez Delgado Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

, to paint a mural in the Colombian congress building to commemorate the event. Martinez decided to make it about the Cúcuta Congress, and painted Bolívar in front of

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

, making liberals upset; so, due to the murder of Jorge Elieser Gaitan the mobs of el bogotazo tried to burn the capitol, but the Colombian Army stopped them. Years later, in the 1980s, with liberals in charge of the Congress, they passed a resolution to turn the whole chamber in the Elliptic Room 90 degrees to put the main mural on the side and commissioned Alejandro Obregon to paint a non-partisan mural in the surrealist style. Northern Ireland contains some of the most famous political murals in the world. Almost 2,000 murals have been documented in Northern Ireland since the 1970s. In recent times, many murals are non-sectarian, concerning political and social issues such as racism and environmentalism, and many are completely apolitical, depicting children at play and scenes from everyday life. (See Northern Irish murals.) A not political, but social related mural covers a wall in an old building, once a prison, at the top of a cliff in Bardiyah, in Libya. It was painted and signed by the artist in April 1942, weeks before his death on the first day of the First Battle of El Alamein. Known as the

, it was created by English artist, private

John Frederick Brill John Frederick Brill (died 1 July 1942) was an English soldier and painter who created the Bardia Mural. On 1 July 1942, the Axis launched an attack with the target being the capture of Alexandria, which was to become known as the First Batt ...

. In 1961 East Germany began to erect a wall between East and West Berlin, which became famous as the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

. While on the East Berlin side painting was not allowed, artists painted on the Western side of the Wall from the 80s until the fall of the Wall in 1989. Many unknown and known artists such as

Thierry Noir Thierry Noir (born 1958) is a French artist and muralist based in Berlin. He is considered the first artist to paint the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. He created brightly-colored paintings across large spans of the Berlin Wall and some of these ori ...

and Keith Haring painted on the Wall, the "World's longest

". The sometimes detailed artwork were often painted over within hours or days. On the Western side the Wall was not protected, so everybody could paint on the Wall. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Eastern side of the Wall became also a popular "canvas" for many mural and graffiti artists. Orgosolo, in Sardinia, is a most important center of

politics. It is also common for mural graffiti to be used as a memoir. In the 2001 book ''Somebody Told Me'',

Rick Bragg Rick Bragg (born July 26, 1959) is an American journalist and writer known for non-fiction books, especially those about his family in Alabama. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 recognizing his work at ''The New York Times''. Early life Bragg wa ...

writes about a series of communities, mainly located in New York, that have walls dedicated to the people who died. These memorials, both written word and mural style, provide the deceased to be present in the communities in which they lived. Bragg states that the "murals have woven themselves in the fabric of the neighborhoods, and the city". These memorials remind people of the deaths caused by inner city violence.

Contemporary interior design

Traditional

Many people like to express their individuality by commissioning an artist to paint a mural in their home. This is not an activity exclusively for owners of large houses. A mural artist is only limited by the fee and therefore the time spent on the painting; dictating the level of detail; a simple mural can be added to the smallest of walls. Private commissions can be for dining rooms, bathrooms, living rooms or, as is often the case- children's bedrooms. A child's room can be transformed into the 'fantasy world' of a forest or racing track, encouraging imaginative play and an awareness of art. The current trend for feature walls has increased commissions for muralists in the UK. A large hand-painted mural can be designed on a specific theme, incorporate personal images and elements and may be altered during the course of painting it. The personal interaction between client and muralist is often a unique experience for an individual not usually involved in the arts. In the 1980s, illusionary wall painting experienced a renaissance in private homes. The reason for this revival in interior design could, in some cases be attributed to the reduction in living space for the individual. Faux architectural features, as well as natural scenery and views, can have the effect of 'opening out' the walls. Densely built-up areas of housing may also contribute to people's feelings of being cut off from nature in its free form. A mural commission of this sort may be an attempt by some people to re-establish a balance with nature. Commissions of murals in schools, hospitals, and retirement homes can achieve a pleasing and welcoming atmosphere in these caring institutions. Murals in other public buildings, such as public houses are also common.

Graffiti-style

Recently, graffiti and street art have played a key role in contemporary wall painting. Such graffiti/street artists as Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, Above, Mint&Serf, Futura 2000,

Os Gemeos OSGEMEOS (also known as Os Gemeos or Os Gêmeos, Portuguese for ''The Twins'') are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo (born 1974). They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in gall ...

, and Faile among others have successfully transcended their street art aesthetic beyond the walls of urban landscape and onto walls of private and corporate clients. As graffiti/street art became more mainstream in the late 1990s, youth-oriented brands such as Nike and Red Bull, with Wieden Kennedy, have turned to graffiti/street artists to decorate walls of their respective offices. This trend continued through 2000's with graffiti/street art gaining more recognition from art institutions worldwide.

Ethnic

Many homeowners choose to display the traditional art and culture of their society or events from their history in their homes. Ethnic murals have become an important form of interior decoration.

Warli painting Warli painting is a form of tribal art mostly created by the tribal people from the North Sahyadri Range in Maharashtra, India. This range encompasses cities such as Dahanu, Talasari, Jawhar, Palghar, Mokhada, and Vikramgad of Palghar district ...

murals are becoming a preferred mode of wall decor in India. Warli painting is an ancient Indian art form in which the tribal people used to depict different phases of their life on the walls of their mud houses.

Tile

Tile murals are murals made out of stone, ceramic, porcelain, glass and or metal tiles that are installed within, or added onto the surface of an existing wall. They are also inlaid into floors. Mural tiles are painted, glazed, sublimation printed (as described below) or more traditionally cut out of stone, ceramic, mosaic glass(opaque) and stained glass. Some artists use pottery and plates broken into pieces. Unlike the traditional painted murals described above, tile murals are always made by fitting pieces of the selected materials together to create the design or image. Mosaic murals are made by combining small 1/4" to 2" size pieces of colorful stone, ceramic, or glass tiles which are then laid out to create a picture. Modern day technology has allowed commercial mosaic mural makers to use computer programs to separate photographs into colors that are automatically cut and glued onto sheets of mesh creating precise murals fast and in large quantities. The azulejo (, ) refers to a typical form of Portuguese or Spanish painted,

tin-glazed Tin-glazing is the process of giving tin-glazed pottery items a ceramic glaze that is white, glossy and opaque, which is normally applied to red or buff earthenware. Tin-glaze is plain lead glaze with a small amount of tin oxide added.Caiger-Smith, ...

, ceramic tilework. They have become a typical aspect of Portuguese culture, manifesting without interruption during five centuries, the consecutive trends in art. Azulejos can be found inside and outside churches,

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

s, ordinary houses and even railway stations or

subway station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in the ...

s. They were not only used as an ornamental art form, but also had a specific functional capacity like temperature control in homes. Many ''azulejos'' chronicle major historical and cultural aspects of Portuguese history. Custom-printed tile murals can be produced using digital images for kitchen splashbacks, wall displays, and flooring. Digital photos and artwork can be resized and printed to accommodate the desired size for the area to be decorated. Custom tile printing uses a variety of techniques including dye sublimation and ceramic-type laser toners. The latter technique can yield fade-resistant custom tiles which are suitable for long term exterior exposure.

Notable muralists

Edwin Abbey Edwin Austin Abbey (April 1, 1852August 1, 1911) was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter. He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings ...

* Carlos Almaraz *

Dorothy Annan Dorothy Annan (20 January 1900 – 28 June 1983) was an English painter, potter and muralist who was born in Brazil to British parents and was educated in France and Germany. Her works were frequently shown at the Leicester Galleries in London ...

* Judy Baca * Banksy *

Above (artist) Tavar Zawacki formerly known as 'ABOVE' (born 1981) is an American abstract artist living and working in Lisbon, Portugal. For twenty years (1996–2016) Tavar Zawacki created and signed all of his artworks with his street artist pseudonym, 'A ...

Arnold Belkin Arnold Belkin (December 9, 1930 – July 3, 1992) was a Canadian- Mexican painter credited for continuing the Mexican muralism tradition at a time when many Mexican painters were shifting away from it. Born and raised in western Canada, he ...

* Thomas Hart Benton *

John T. Biggers John Thomas Biggers (April 13, 1924 – January 25, 2001) was an African-American muralist who came to prominence after the Harlem Renaissance and toward the end of World War II. Biggers created works critical of racial and economic injustice. He ...

* Torsten Billman * Henry Bird * Edwin Howland Blashfield * Blek le Rat * Giotto di Bondone *

Guillaume Bottazzi Guillaume Bottazzi (born in 1971) is a French visual artist. Biography Guillaume Bottazzi is a French visual artist, born in 1971. At the age of 17, he decided to become an artist as a single activity. He began to study painting in Italy. Bac ...

Gabriel Bracho Gabriel Bracho (born 25 May 1915 in Los Puertos de Altagracia, Zulia, died 6 March 1995 in Caracas) was a Venezuelan artist. He and César Rengifo were major exponents of the social realism artistic movement in Venezuela.Gabriel Bracho - Un Pintor ...

Arturo Garcia Bustos Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur. People *Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer *Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1959), Mexican footballer *Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt (b. 1982), Bra ...

Paul Cadmus Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures ...

Eleanor Coen Eleanor Coen (October 21, 1916 – July 9, 2010) was an American painter. Biography Eleanor Coen was born October 21, 1916 in Normal, Illinois. Both a student (and later teacher) at the Art Institute of Chicago, Coen studied there with Bo ...

* Dean Cornwell * Kenyon Cox * John Steuart Curry *

Robert Dafford Robert Dafford (born May 14, 1951) is an American muralist. Life and work Robert Dafford is a current resident of Lafayette, Louisiana. He has painted over 400 works of public art across the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, and England. ...

Dora De Larios Dora De Larios (1933 – January 28, 2018) was an American ceramist and sculptor working in Los Angeles. She was known for her work's clean lines and distinctive glazes, as well as for her line of tableware created under her family-run company I ...

* Faile * Shepard Fairey * LeRoy Foster * Piero della Francesca * Carlos "Botong" Francisco *

* Louis Grell * Satish Gujral * Manav Gupta *

Richard Haas Richard John Haas (born August 29, 1936) is an American muralist who is best known for architectural murals and his use of the ''trompe-l'œil'' style. Haas has a 1959 B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and a 1964 M.F.A. from the U ...

* Keith Haring *

Jane Kim (artist) Jane Kim (born 1981) is an American painter, science illustrator and the founder of the Ink Dwell studio. She is best known for her large-scale murals, created with the purpose of promoting advocacy of the natural world. Biography Jane Kim ...

Eduardo Kobra Carlos Eduardo Fernandes Léo (born January 1, 1976 in São Paulo, Brazil), known as Eduardo Kobra, nicknamed Kobra, is a street artist who officially began his career in 1987 at 11 years old, in his hometown of São Paulo. Since then he has pai ...

Albert Henry Krehbiel Albert Henry Krehbiel (November 25, 1873 – June 29, 1945), was the most decorated United States, American painter ever at the French Academy, winning the Prix De Rome, four gold medals and five cash prizes. He was born in Denmark, Iowa and tau ...

Susan Krieg Susan Krieg (born 1952) is an American artist known for her mixed-media collage paintings and murals. She created a series, "Archetypes of the Feminine," that consisted of more than 400 mixed media paintings. She has created murals and facilitate ...

Per Krohg Per Lasson Krohg (18 June 1889 – 3 March 1965) was a Norwegian artist. He is best known for the mural he created for the United Nations Security Council Chamber, located in the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Biography Per Krohg ...

Paul Kuniholm Paul Kuniholm is a heritage-connected public artist who creates art embodying sculptural objects, sculpture both fugitive and durable, art using digital material, wearable art intervention, video, mural art, and various time-based artwork tha ...

Rina Lazo Rina Lazo Wasem (October 23, 1923 – November 1, 2019) was a Guatemalan-Mexican painter. She began her career in mural painting with Diego Rivera as his assistant. She worked with him from 1947 until his death in 1957 on projects both in Mexico ...

* Tom Lea *

Michelle Loughery Michelle Loughery (born 1961) is a Canadian muralist from British Columbia. Life and work Early career Loughery was born in the community of Michel-Natal in the Elk Valley in southeastern British Columbia, but her family was relocated to the ...

Will Hicok Low Will Hicok Low (March 31, 1853November 27, 1932) or Will Hicock Low was an American artist, muralist, and writer on art. Biography He was born at Albany, New York. In 1873 he entered the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme in the École des Beaux Art ...

Sofia Maldonado Sofia Maldonado (born 1984) is a Puerto Rican contemporary artist. She lives and works between New York City and Puerto Rico. Maldonado has collaborated with the Nuyorican Movement. Biography Sofia Maldonado was born and raised in San Juan, Puer ...

John Anton Mallin John A. Mallin (was born ''Johann Malinkowitsch''; April 14, 1883 — January 9, 1973) was a Czech-American mural and fresco painter in the Chicago area in the 20th century. He painted many church interiors for the Archdiocese of Chicago, often ...

* Andrea Mantegna * Reginald Marsh *

Knox Martin Knox Martin (February 12, 1923 – May 15, 2022) was an American painter, sculptor, and muralist. Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, he studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946 until 1950. He was one of the leading members of the N ...

* Peter Max *

Anjolie Ela Menon Anjolie Ela Menon (born 17 July 1940) is one of India's leading contemporary artists. Her paintings are in several major collections, including the NGMA, the Chandigarh Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum. In 2006, her triptych work "Yatra" w ...

Mario Miranda Mário João Carlos do Rosário de Brito Miranda (2 May 1926 – 11 December 2011), popularly known as Mario Miranda or Mario de Miranda, was an Indian cartoonist and painter based in Loutolim in the Indian state of Goa. Miranda had been a ...

* Claude Monet * Roberto Montenegro *

Frank Nuderscher Frank Bernard Nuderscher (July 19, 1880 – October 7, 1959) was an American Illustration, illustrator, muralist, and Painting, painter of the American Impressionism style. He was called the "dean of St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis artists" ...

* Violet Oakley * Edward O'Brien *

Juan O'Gorman Juan O'Gorman (July 6, 1905 – January 17, 1982) was a Mexican painter and architect. Early life and family Juan O'Gorman was born on 6 July 1905 in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the Federal Distri ...

* Pablo O'Higgins *

José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sique ...

* Rufus Porter *

Aarón Piña Mora Aarón Piña Mora (1914–2009) was a Mexican painter and muralist. Life He was born in Metztitlan in the state of Hidalgo, and moved with his family, at an early age, to Mexico City. From 1930 to 1933 he attended the School of Drawing and Sc ...

John Pugh John David Pugh (born 28 June 1948, Liverpool) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament for Southport from 2001 to 2017. He stood down at the 2017 snap election. In November 2017, he was elected t ...

Archie Rand Archie Rand (born 1949) is an American artist from Brooklyn, New York, United States. Education and career Born in Brooklyn, Rand received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in cinegraphics from the Pratt Institute, having studied previously at the Art St ...

* Raphael * Diego Rivera * Graham Rust *

P K Sadanandan P. K. Sadanandan is a mural painter and cartoonist from Kerala state, India. Early life and background P K Sadanandan is a diploma holder in mural painting from the Institute of Mural Painting, Guruvayoor under the gurukula system. He did his ...

Sadequain Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi ( ur, ) (30 June 1930 10 February 1987), often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash, was a Pakistani artist, best known for his skills as a calligrapher and a painter. He is considered one of the finest painters and cal ...

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

* Eugene Savage *

Conrad Schmitt Conrad Schmitt (April 20, 1867 – December 28, 1940) was twelve years old when his family's church in Fussville, Wisconsin was decorated for the first time, in 1879. Watching skilled artists transform the space with paints and stencils, he rea ...

* Clément Serveau *

David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...

* Frank Stella * Rufino Tamayo * Titian *

Alton Tobey Alton Stanley Tobey (November 5, 1914 – January 4, 2005) was an American Painting, painter, historical artist, muralist, portraitist, illustrator, and Art education, teacher of art. Biography Alton Tobey was born in Middletown, Connecticut on ...

* Allen Tupper True *

Kent Twitchell Kent Twitchell (born August 17, 1942, Lansing, Michigan) is an American muralist who is most active in Los Angeles. He is most famous for his larger-than-life mural portraits, often of celebrities and artists. His murals are realism not photoreali ...

* Leonardo da Vinci *

John Augustus Walker John Augustus Walker (1901–1967) was a well-known Alabama Gulf Coast artist of the Depression era who was commissioned to undertake several art projects for the Works Progress Administration. Early life Born in Mobile, Alabama, Walker was first ...

Henry Oliver Walker Henry Oliver Walker (May 14, 1843 – January 14, 1929) was an American painter of figures and portraits best known for his mural decorations. His works include a series of paintings honoring various poets for the Library of Congress and de ...

Lucia Wiley Lucia Wiley (April 14, 1906–August 20, 1998) was a noted New Deal muralist and painter born and raised in Tillamook, Oregon. Lucia Wiley was the oldest of six children and always found herself interested in art, even at a young age. In 1923 ...

* Ezra Winter * Lumen Martin Winter * Richard Wyatt, Jr. *

Robert Wyland Wyland (born July 9, 1956) is an American artist and conservationist best known for his more than 100 ''Whaling Walls'', large outdoor murals featuring images of life-size whales and other sea life to call attention to the plight of whales thro ...

* Isaiah Zagar *

Carolina Falkholt Carolina Alexandra Falkholt, with the pseudonym Blue, born 4 March 1977 in Gothenburg, is a Swedish artist, graffiti writer and musician. Sometimes she uses her own coined term ''grafitta'', to describe her art. It is a play with the two wo ...

Gallery

File:Warren James.jpg, Stylised mural of the miners' leader

Warren James Warren James (1792–1841) was a rebel leader in the Forest of Dean, England. As the Industrial Revolution began to take hold in the Forest of Dean, the Crown resolved to dilute the ''Foresters’'' freemining rights and introduce free-mark ...

, at a public house in

Parkend Parkend is a village, located at the foot of the Cannop Valley, in the Royal Forest of Dean, West Gloucestershire, England, and has a history dating back to the early 17th century. During the 19th century it was a busy industrial village with se ...

, Gloucestershire File:Wall paint, Dhaka, Bangladesh.jpg, Wall paint, Dhaka, Bangladesh File:Mural art Praha10 Gutovka.JPG, Graffiti mural in Gutovka, Prague 10, Czech Republic, 2012 File:Wall Mural, Mt Ayr, IA Post Office, 1998.jpg, Orr C. Fischer, ''The Corn Parade,'' 1941, oil on canvas, Agriculture-themed mural on wall of post office,

Mount Ayr, Iowa Mount Ayr is a city in Ringgold County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,988 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Ringgold County. Mount Ayr is a rural community in southwestern Iowa, 22 miles west of Interstate 35 o ...

File:Mural on Israeli wall.jpg, Mural on Israeli separation barrier File:LT Kaunas, sztuka ulicy, ul Daukanto, 2019.07.19, fot Ivonna Nowicka (1).jpg, Mural of a painter in classical style in a real 3-dimensional

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

File:Lebo pass Magnificent 2.jpg, a school project funded by the government of Angola so that the kids can paint this mural. Each school painted one File:PL_Wwa,_sztuka_w_miescie,_mural,_ul_Nowolipki,_2022.09.02,_fot_Ivonna_Nowicka_(1)_corr.jpg, Mural of founder of

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

Ludwik Zamenhof L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 185914 April 1917) was an ophthalmologist who lived for most of his life in Warsaw. He is best known as the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language ...

, with note in Esperanto in Warsaw, Poland

References

External links

How to prepare a mural wall and protect the mural

Political Wall Murals in Northern Ireland

Calpams

Murals.trompe-l-oeil.info
French and European gate of murals: 10 000 pictures and 1100 murals
The National Society of Mural Painters
(USA; founded 1895)

Ancient Prehispanic Murals

* ttp://www.virtualbelfastmuraltour.com/ Take an online tour of the murals in Belfast, Northern Ireland
''Albert Krehbiel's murals at the Illinois Supreme Court Building'': The Third Branch - A Chronicle of the Illinois Supreme Court; The History of the Illinois Supreme Court

Murals of Northern Ireland
in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library
Roman wall paintings

Pixel Mural
- A digital mural of collaborative pixel art
mural.ch / muralism.info
Universal database on modern muralism, with many details to the works: authors, locations, literature etc. {{Authority control Painting Tiling