BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
Something very exciting is occurring in the Visual Arts building on the campus of Brookdale Community College in Lincroft.
Muralist Bob Mataranglo, along with 25 students and faculty members, is in the process of completing a 135-by-8-foot mural that depicts the history of art from cave painting to Picasso and Matisse.
The Brookdale mural project has been under way since early October and is scheduled for dedication April 14.
Mataranglo said he was invited to design, paint and coordinate the mural by Dan Schroll, a tenured professor of graphic arts.
“Dan had been trying to get the wall painted since the building was built six or seven years ago, but the size and scope of this kind of project was daunting, so nobody wanted to take it on,” Mataranglo said. “He knew I was a mural painter and asked me if I was interested in putting a design together.”
Mataranglo said he thought a mural of the history of art was appropriate because the wall surrounds the two lecture halls where art history is taught.
“I measured the wall and laid out scale models, 1 inch to 1 foot. When I presented it to Dan, he was very excited.
“ ‘That’s it,’ ” he said.
And that was all Mataranglo needed to hear. He was off and running, spending seven days a week, 12 hours a day, working on his creation, which includes eight of the painted panels.
Mataranglo explained that one side of the wall has images from Art History I, which begins with cave paintings and ends during the Gothic period, and the other side has images from Art History II, beginning with the Renaissance through early Modernism.
“Thirty images from the textbook of masterworks are incorporated into the montage. I have completed 10 of the 30 images to date, while the remainder are either just drawn or in the early stages of painting.
“After hundreds of hours and many 12-hour days, the mural is 70 percent complete,” he said.
Clockwise from top: Artist and teacher Bob Mataranglo and Danielle Winter, an art student, stand in front of one of the 30 panels of the mural project at Brookdale Community College. Some of the completed sections wrap around a curved wall in the Visual Arts building. Mataranglo painted one panel to look like a mosaic. Mataranglo explained that the students who work on the mural are sponsored by their art teachers and many of the faculty and students stop by to see the progress and comment on how much they appreciate it.
He said the finished mural will have plaques on the bottom of each piece that name the artists who worked on it. In addition, there is a plan to have a brochure designed as a walking tour. It will give the original artist’s name and the name of the work, the period it is from and the original medium.
An engineer turned mural artist and digital video editor, Mataranglo is a member of the adjunct faculty at the college.
An Avon-by-the-Sea resident, he is also an adjunct at Monmouth University and Ocean County College and the artist-in-residence at Heath Farm in Middletown.
In fact, Mataranglo wrote, designed and produced the first video art course at Monmouth University.
The artist has won numerous awards for his animated videos and his murals grace many walls around the area, both private and public.
He explained, “Public art is always challenging. It’s impossible to please everyone,” but he said, painting a cycle of art in an art building is totally appropriate.
The mural project begins with early cave paintings, ends with Picasso and includes three women and some photography. In addition, he said, where the paintings abut one another, he is painting trompe l’oeil sculptures over the seams.
He said his intent is to have all of the images painted by the first week of March. Then the whole thing, 30 sections, will get two coats of clear acrylic.
Mataranglo noted that this project is unique to the campus.
“It’s a legacy piece. Who knows how long it will be there,” he said, adding that all of the walls in the building were stark industrial white before he started.
Some still are.
“Eventually, if they choose to, they can continue the murals,” he said.