Life of Washington

Life of Washington is the name of a set of thirteen murals painted by Victor Arnautoff located in San Francisco's George Washington High School.[1] As indicated by their title, they depict George Washington at various real and imagined points in his life. The work was the largest mural by a single artist that the WPA funded.[2]

Life of Washington
ArtistVictor Arnautoff
Year1930s
LocationSan Francisco

In June 2019, the San Francisco Unified School District voted unanimously to paint over all thirteen panels. The board cited student discomfort at the violence depicted in the murals, highlighting two panels in particular.[3] Supporters in favor of preserving the murals say that it presents an alternative to sanitized depictions of American history, as it depicts George Washington walking over the corpse of a Native Americans and presents him with slaves on his estate, Mount Vernon.[4] Arnautoff was "[...] a well known radical" and communist, and he painted other murals considered by some to be controversial.[5]

References
  1. Pogash, Carol (11 April 2019). "These High School Murals Depict an Ugly History. Should They Go?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  2. "Life of Washington by Victor Arnautoff". Public Art and Architecture from Around the World. Art and Architecture. 28 April 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  3. Brinklow, Adam (26 June 2019). "SF school board votes to destroy circa 1936 mural". Curbed. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  4. Tucker, Jill; Wu, Gwendolyn (8 April 2019). "Offensive or important? Debate flares anew over SF school mural depicting slavery". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  5. Gelber, Steven M. (Summer 1979). "Working to Prosperity: California's New Deal Murals". California History. 58 (2): 98–127. doi:10.2307/25157905. JSTOR 25157905.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.