Cleveland's Batman

By | Sunday, August 16, 2009 10 comments
Remember a while back I was asking for any info about an old Batman mural painted on the side of a building in downtown Cleveland in the 1970s? Mom and Dad found it!
This photo (or, rather, the photo shown in this photo) was taken by Jim Marcus, "Cleveland's photo hobo", probably sometime in the 1970s in June 1982.

It's clearly not exactly how I remembered, but the last time I saw it I was maybe ten or eleven. We still don't have any information as to who painted it or why, but it is definitive proof that a giant mural of Batman did indeed exist in Cleveland in the 1970s.

Any insights, acknowledgements or anecdotes about it would be appreciated.
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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crazy, back in the day living off of Nagel Rd.

Maybe C ya at Mid-Ohio-Con 2009.

Frank K...

Erin O'Brien said...

OF COURSE I remember the mural! It was part of a pretty big public art project. Holy resurfaced memories! Now I'm off to research...

Thanks for the photo.

Anonymous said...

I remember the mural, and have a fairly bad snapshot of it taken in the early 80's. No idea when or why it came to be tho...

Anonymous said...

Located at E. 14th and Euclid.

This is a little late however, my father worked in the Hanna building and being an amateur photographer he snapped a few photos of the mural from the rooftop. I happened to find your post while thinking "what ever happened to it". I was told that it was weather worn and covered over in the late 80's. I remember thinking it was soooo cool that Dad had something fun to look at while at his boring job (lol).

Linda Domingo said...

The mural was painted by Ray Domingo who now lives in Gulfport, FL and works as a marine life artist. Ray was one of the first 8 Cleveland artist to be commissioned for the Cleveland mural project. After painting the mural he went on to become a internationally acclaimed illustrator doing work for Rolling Stone Magazine,Anheuser Busch, Jello and other well known companies.

Fantastic insight! Thanks very much, Linda!

Ungerpup said...

I actually have a signed print of that mural, one of 150 ever printed. I wonder if its worth anything?

eff256 said...

I found your link a few years ago and knew they were in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art but they had not been photographed. Luckily they were recently photographed and the portfolio of eight had a separate print describing the planned mural project.


With the set of eight images was the description/explanation of the "City Canvases" Wall Murals for Cleveland.
Each image was by a separate artist. A link below is to each commissioned piece and under alternative views for each is an image of the planned project text.

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.242#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.243#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.244#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.247#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.248#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.249#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.250#
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.251#

Wow, what a great find! Thanks very much for sharing. What a fantastic, clear shot of the mural artwork!