New Deal Murals Returned Home

For several decades, the New Deal murals of artist Xavier Gonzalez hung with pride on the walls of Kilgore’s Depression era post office.

Since 1999 the Art has been in the care of the East Texas Oil Museum.

Museum Arts, Inc. of Dallas was pleased to be included in returning the four works of art to their original location, the former post office has been upcycled and is now home to a local Arts Center. The four works of art were part of a PWA Public Works Administration effort to support the arts and capture the era.  The wall sized artworks are “Pioneer Saga and “Drilling for Oil”, “Contemporary Youth” and “Music of the Plains”.

The murals were painted in 1941 by Xavier Gonzalez (1898-1993) as part of a Public Works Administration endeavor to support the Arts in support of Roosevelts New Deal.