WPA artist, Grace Clements, who designed the tile mosaics on the floor of the Long Beach Municipal Airport and murals on the walls of the terminal (which were painted over in 2005), apparently did other pieces of art for the Long Beach Municipal Airport.I found three of them and they are now owned and displayed at the Florida International University Wolfsonian Gallery.
So how did they leave the Long Beach Municipal Airport and wind up owned by Michael Wolfson? I am trying to find out and to see how they can be brought back to Long Beach where they belong.
Grace Clements was a 28 year old artist who was part of the post surrealist movement. Her art was patterned after German expressionism and cubism. She participated in several public arts works that used murals in different media such as tiles, collage and paint. Her theme in the LB Airport was communication (aviation and navigation). The tile mosaics were assembled in Los Angeles by workers and then installed in the LB Airport. Scheduled to open on December 8, 1941, Clements was reported to be working inside the airport terminal when word arrived that the grand opening would be cancelled because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
