The National Society of Mural Painters (NSMP) is an American artists' organization originally known as The Mural Painters. The charter of the society is to advance the techniques and standards for the design and execution of mural art for the enrichment of architecture in the United States.
Background The NSMP was founded in 1895, in an era of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, a time when public architecture was integrated with murals, sculpture, mosaics and other artwork, coordinated and themed to assert the identity of the building. Parallel organizations associated with the same principles of integrated public art include the National Sculpture Society, which originally included a large percentage of architectural sculptors, and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, founded in 1916 as the teaching wing of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects.
Still in existence after more than a hundred years, the society presents exhibitions and organizes competitions. The NSMP is a member of the Fine Arts Federation of New York.
Presidents of the Society
Frederic Crowninshield 1895-1899 John La Farge 1899-1904 Charles Yardley Turner 1904-1909 Edwin Blashfield 1909-1914 John White Alexander 1914-1915 Kenyon Cox 1915-1919 George W. Breck 1919-1920 J. Monroe Hewlett 1921-1926 Arthur Covey 1926-1929 Ernest Peixotto 1929-1935 George Biddle 1935-1936 Hildreth Meiere 1936-1937 J. Scott Williams 1937-1938 Geoffrey Norman 1939-1940 Francine Baehr 1940-1941 Griffith Bailey Coale 1941-1942 Allyn Cox 1942-1946 Hildreth Meiere 1946-1949 Jan Juta 1949-1952 Austin M. Purves, Jr. 1952-1953 Dean Cornwell 1953-1957 Charles Baskerville 1957-1960 Allyn Cox 1960-1963 Helen Treadwell 1963-1967 Xavier Gonzales 1967-1969 Max Spivak 1969-1970 Edward Laning 1970-1974 Buell Mullen 1974-1975 Jan Juta 1975-1979 Dean Fausett 1979-1984 Alton S. Tobey 1984-1988 Everett Molinari 1988-1991 Rhoda Y. Andors 1991-1995 Frank Mason 1995-1996 Jack Stewart 1996-2000 Robert Harding 2001-2005 Jeff Greene 2005
Notable members Edith Barry Pietro Lazzari
External links
papers of the NSMP located at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art