Page "Charles Alston" Paragraph 23

Originally hired as an easel painter, in 1935 Alston became the first African American supervisor to work for the WPA's Federal Art Project in New York, which would also serve as his first mural work.

At this time he was awarded WPA Project Number 1262 – an opportunity to oversee a group of artists creating murals and to supervise their painting for the Harlem Hospital.

The first government commission ever awarded to African American artists including Beauford Delaney, Seabrook Powell and Vertis Hayes.

He also had the chance to create and paint his own contribution to the collection: Magic in Medicine and Modern Medicine.

These paintings were part of a diptych completed in 1936 depicting the history of medicine in the African American community and Beauford Delaney served as assistant.

When creating the murals Alston was inspired by the work of Aaron Douglas, who a year earlier had created the public art piece Aspects of Negro Life for the New York Public Library, and researched traditional African culture, including traditional African medicine.

Magic in Medicine, which depicts African culture and holistic healing, is considered one of " America's first public scenes of Africa ".

All of the murals sketches submitted were accepted by the FAP, however, four were denied creation by the hospital superintendent Lawrence T. Dermody and commissioner of hospitals S. S. Goldwater due to the excessive amount of African-American representation in the works.

The artists fought the response through letter writing and four years later succeeded in gaining the right to complete the murals.

The sketches for Magic in Medicine and Modern Medicine were exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art's " New Horizons in American Art ".