Neptunian Woman’s Club destroys mural
The mural by Dawn Whitney-Hall at the Neptunian Woman’s Club, before destruction.
The destruction of the mural. Photos courtesy Dawn Whitney-Hall
Artist Dawn Whitney-Hall was attending an art show two weeks ago when an acquaintance told her the 200 square foot mermaid mural she’d done as a commission for the Neptunian Woman’s Club a dozen years ago had been destroyed. She laughed at such a notion.
“That couldn’t happen,” she remembers telling the person. “I couldn’t believe there was any way someone could be that stupid…You can’t just go and do stuff like that. It’s just not legal.”
Shortly thereafter her Facebook page started to ping — friends were sending photos showing the destruction of the mural, which had been unveiled in 2007.
Whitney-Hall, who spent 18 months working on a mural that both she and the Neptunian Club leadership at the time expected to last at least a half-century, was aghast.
“Who removes a 200 square foot tile mural, up for over a decade, without informing the artist?” she wrote on Facebook. “The Neptunian Woman’s Club, that’s who.”
The club, which was founded in 1909, is the oldest civic organization in the South Bay; it was founded three years before the city incorporated and a decade before women gained the right to vote.
The Neptunians commissioned Whitney-Hall in 2006 to complete the mural, which adorned the front of the building, facing Highland Avenue, in order to bring more attention to the club and assist in its philanthropic endeavors.
The artist was paid $10,000 for the commission, half of which she said went to material costs. The concept derived from a committee formed by the Neptunians and multiple presentations by the artist.
The compensation, Whitney-Hall said, was relatively minimal considering how labor intensive the project was; the mural, which was executed in 1930s Art Nouveau/Art Deco style on 200 one-foot ceramic tiles, took hundreds of hours. Each tile needed to be squared off, fired, and repeatedly glazed, and then several undercoats were applied before the actual painting could begin; the painting itself was especially time-intensive because the space between each tile interrupted brush strokes, and the tiles had to be fitted in plastic holders and eventually a scaffolding.
The tiles underwent about a 30 percent breakage rate, Whitney-Hall recalled, during the firing and glazing process. The tiles filled more than 20 crates when they were finally ready for transport, which itself was a difficult undertaking.
“It was a fun project,” she said. “I feel grossly underpaid for it, barely covering my costs, but my feeling was it was a public piece that would be there for 50 years — that’s why I did it in tiles, for longevity. It wasn’t just a painting on the side of the building.”
“When it came to installation time, I couldn’t find an installer because of how heavy this whole thing was. The first two who came in said it was impossible. The man who eventually did it was a sweet little Hispanic man who was like Yoda — he put his hands together and said, ‘I can do this.’ It was really something to see all that work go up on the wall and be pretty perfect.”
Sabine Berkenfeld, who was the club’s vice president at the time and oversaw the project, said the mural played a key role in reviving the Neptunians’ relevance in the community.
“The membership was all pretty much in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, so we really needed new members — that was the whole reason for the mural, it would kind of put the club out there, so we’d have something people would recognize in town,” Berkenfeld said. “These ladies were really excited about having this mural and thought it would last forever, be there past their lifetimes. We did get new members, too, because it really put us on the map.”
There were also about 50 donor tiles and a smaller 3-foot by 5-foot mural near the club’s entrance showing the god Neptune with dolphins. Along with the large mural, all of it was destroyed in a single day, on Sept. 15.
“We are just in shock,” said Berkenfeld. “The mural was so unique. And all those side tiles with member’s names — they thought it would be there in perpetuity, so that family members and friends could see they had been a little part of this. It’s depressing. We feel very hurt by this. I don’t know if that’s progress or not.”
The destruction of the mural, and particularly the fact that Whitney-Hall was not given advance notification appears to violate both state and federal laws protecting public art, the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA) and the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). The laws are nearly identical and both require that artists are given 90 days notice if their public art is about to be destroyed. The artists then have the opportunity to remove the art themselves, at their own expense.
Matthew Swanlund, the founder and principal at Aesthetic Legal, a legal firm specializing in art law, said that the thresholds for public art to be protected by the federal law are that it be created by 1991 or later and be removable. Both criteria appear to be met in this case, meaning the Neptunian Woman’s Club was legally required to give Whitney-Hall notice.
“It’s such a minimal threshold, a lot of the time people just don’t know what the law is — they think, ‘Oh, it’s my building, I can remove anything I want.’ But that is just not the case,” Swanlund said. “If they didn’t give her notice, and it sounds like she was readily available, I would say they have a significant liability.”
Whitney-Hall, a Manhattan Beach native who attended Mira Costa High School and now lives in El Segundo, said she believes the mural was salvageable. She said a club member told her that the smaller mural was indeed saved.
“It looks like it would have been entirely possible to have had it removed and preserved, which I likely would have done,” she said. “I might have saved it for a relevant time or found another patron.”
“I am very saddened that, given the amount of work that went into this, the mural had only 12 years up,” Whitney-Hall said. “I wish I could have at least come to say goodbye, or save it. I was just the next town over. A simple Google search would have been able to find me. All you had to do was ask around. I didn’t get that opportunity.”
She declined to comment on whether she would invoke her legal rights, though she did note she met another legal criteria — she filed a copyright for the mural shortly after its installation. Swanlund said potential liability is up to $150,000 per copyright violation (that is, the destruction of the image) as well as attorneys fees.
Neptunian president Janet Fleming said the mural was not removable.
“NWC purchased the tile mural in 2006 from the artist as a private art piece,” Fleming said, via email. “When renovations began, maintaining the mural was unfeasible as the adhesive used to cement the tile did not offer any opportunity to salvage any portion.”
Fleming said that renting the clubhouse is the Neptunian’s only way to raise money for its philanthropic endeavors, which range from high school scholarships to supporting local charities, and noted the building was built in 1924 and added onto in 1956. Renovations underway will include new, ADA compliant bathrooms, an upgraded kitchen, air conditioning, and enhanced lighting, she said.
“It’s been over 62 years ago since the clubhouse was last renovated and was in dire need of upgrades as rentals declined,” Fleming said. “Neptunians took that to heart and developed a thoughtful plan over a four year period to improve the clubhouse structure…Our members approved a cohesive modern clubhouse look to attract renters with an appealing, functional interior space to entertain and an inviting entrance to the clubhouse since the first look by visitors sets the tone for their entire experience.”
“Given the huge opportunity for a major improvement to the NWC’s only asset, we have to focus on what comes ahead — a beautiful space to be shared with the community and continue to support the philanthropies we exist to serve in the South Bay for the next 100 years.”
Swanlund said that if the mural was deemed unsalvageable the club still had a legal requirement to contact the artist before destroying it.
“If a mural is not removable, the building owner may not remove it unless the artist has signed a written waiver acknowledging that it may not be possible to remove the art without damage to it, but consenting to its installation nonetheless,” he said.
Sunderland said not knowing the law and its implications would not prevent the Neptunians from being subject to it.
“Ignorance isn’t a defense under the law,” he said. “Otherwise we could all claim ignorance and get away scott-free with anything. Whether they meant well or meant ill, the reality is this is breaking the law, and they are liable for their actions.”
A high profile lawsuit over the destruction of a large mural in LA by artist Kent Twitchell, a 70-foot mural depicting artist Ed Ruscha that was painted over in 2006, resulted in a $1.1 million settlement. Sunderland said artists can sue for actual damages beyond statutory damages, and that nearly half the settlement in the Twitchell case was attorneys fees.
Berkenfeld said that beyond any legal issues, she felt it was disrespectful both to the artist and to all the Neptunians who’d worked on behalf of the mural to destroy it without any warning.
“I am not familiar with laws so much as I am just totally blown away by all this — it’s just very callous, inconsiderate, and rude, in my opinion,” she said. “You don’t destroy art like that. There certainly was a way to salvage it, though it was probably costly. We thought we’d given birth to a mermaid…It was a labor of love and it kind of gave new energy to the club and now it’s gone. I feel bad for Dawn, but also for the people who would walk by, nannies or moms and kids, who’d say, ‘Look, mommy, there is the mermaid.’”
“It’s kind of like a slap in the face to all these ladies and what they stood for — to tear it down without any notice or any regard to the meaning it had to so many members, many who are no longer with us.”
Whitney-Hall said that her primary concern is that other artists know their rights, particularly given that the city of Manhattan Beach is embarking on an extensive public art initiative.
“It’s a much bigger story than just me being bummed that my mural was thrown in the trash,” she said. “It’s about artists’ rights — you can’t just do what you want and destroy art. You have to put some thought into it…Maybe the Historical Society would have wanted part of it.”
Whitney-Hall and her former husband, Neil Von Flue, also painted an iconic mural at the foot of the Hermosa Beach pier, above the former Mermaid parking lot, depicting the city’s history. That mural still stands.
“I am no Diego Rivera,” she said, referencing the famed Mexican muralist whose mural was destroyed by the Rockefeller family for its political nature and whose art later became extremely valuable. “But maybe by the time I’m 90, who knows? Sometimes an artist’s work becomes valuable later.”