Doors

Art Rosenbaum’s "Doors" is situated on the back wall of the History Lives! Showcase Gallery. Measuring thirty feet wide and more than eight feet high, “Doors” tells the sweeping history of Georgia in the twentieth century. This striking mural shows Georgia’s transition from the rural, agrarian pasting to a modern, industrial and service economy in the twentieth century.

Featuring over four dozen men and women—famous, infamous, and obscure—who have shaped Georgia government and politics since 1900, Rosenbaum has also included a section depicting Russell Library archivists, past and present, performing the day-to-day activities required to collect, preserve, and provide access to the Library’s many collections. 

Art Rosenbaum was born in Ogdensburg, New York, in 1938 and earned his AB in Art History and MFA in Painting from Columbia University. In addition to the Russell Library, Rosenbaum was commissioned by the UCLA School of Law, Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts, and others to create unique, vivid murals. An accomplished and renowned illustrator, muralist, painter, and folk musician, Rosenbaum was the Wheatley Professor Emeritus in Fine Arts at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. He passed away in Athens on September 4, 2022.