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|date_of_action=December 2018-June 2019 | |date_of_action=December 2018-June 2019 | ||
|location=San Francisco, CA | |location=San Francisco, CA | ||
|description_of_content=“Life of Washington” is a mural comprising thirteen panels in fresco on the life of George Washington | |description_of_content=“Life of Washington” is a mural comprising thirteen panels in fresco on the life of George Washington that depict him in both real and imagined scenarios. It was painted by Russian-American painter and Stanford professor of art Victor Arnautoff in the 1930s (with assistance from artists George Harris and Gorden Langdon) and completed in 1936 at the newly built George Washington High School in San Francisco. | ||
Funded by the | Funded by the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project, the murals were Arnautoff’s largest New Deal commission and one of the largest ensembles of New Deal artworks at a single site. Arnautoff was a well-known muralist, having painted other WPA funded projects including murals at Coit Tower where he was Technical Director of the project. | ||
Arnautoff | Arnautoff presented the murals as a counter-narrative to high school history texts of the time. The murals depicted Washington's dependence on slave labor, his role in Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion, and the “march of the white race” (in Arnautoff’s words). In one panel Washington is depicted pointing westward over the body of dead Native American. | ||
Arnautoff's political views | Arnautoff's political views were influenced by Diego Rivera, for whom he worked as an assistant while living in Mexico. His style is considered more subtle than Rivera's and that of other social realists of the period. Later he joined the Communist Party, the American Artists' Congress and the San Francisco Artists and Writers Union. His politics were reflected in his work, which was part of the mural arts movement intended to inspire change through criticism of the current political system. | ||
The high school is part of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and | Two of the mural panels have come under fire since the 1960’s for their depictions of African Americans and Native Americans. For decades, activists have called for their removal. | ||
|description_of_incident=In December 2018, George Washington High School was denied landmark status specifically due to the two panels containing offensive content. The high school is part of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education. The Board was divided about the school’s application for landmark status because designating it as such would make it impossible to modify or remove the murals afterwards. | |||
The | The SFUSD created a 13-member “Reflection and Action Group” to provide a recommendation to the Board. In February 2019, after four public meetings, they issued their final recommendation to remove the entire series of murals from the school. | ||
The | The George Washington High School Alumni Association GWHSAA) launched a campaign to keep the 83-year-old murals intact. The alumni proposed adding interpretive panels to give them historical context and to also document how they have been experienced by Native American, African American, and other students of color. | ||
The story was extensively covered in both local and national media. Those who would censor the work cited its depiction of slavery and the murder of a Native American as traumatizing to some students of color. Others, including NCAC and the leaders of four of San Francisco’s top visual arts institutions, argued that it is an artistic and historical treasure that does not celebrate the life of George Washington uncritically, but rather depicts him as complicit in slavery and the violent pursuit of America’s “Manifest Destiny.” | |||
|description_of_result=On June 25, 2019, the San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously to remove/paint over the murals. But in early August, after months of public pressure, the Board nullified their vote: | |||
"In a compromise that did not appear to end the fight, the San Francisco Board of Education voted Tuesday night to conceal, but not destroy, a series of Depression-era school murals that some considered offensive to Native Americans and African-Americans. | |||
"The 4-to-3 vote, which came after a tense and emotional meeting, nullified the board’s earlier vote to paint over the murals, a decision that had brought widespread complaints of censorship." | |||
(NYTimes, August 14, 2019) | |||
|image=Arnautoff, Life of Washington.jpg | |image=Arnautoff, Life of Washington.jpg | ||
|source= | |source=https://www.donnagraves.org/blog/2018/2/27/citywide-historic-context-for-new-deal-san-francisco | ||
}} | }} | ||
GEORGE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL: ARNAUTOFF MURAL – SAN FRANCISCO CA | GEORGE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL: ARNAUTOFF MURAL – SAN FRANCISCO CA | ||
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CITYWIDE HISTORIC CONTEXT FOR NEW DEAL SAN FRANCISCO | CITYWIDE HISTORIC CONTEXT FOR NEW DEAL SAN FRANCISCO | ||
https://www.donnagraves.org/blog/2018/2/27/citywide-historic-context-for-new-deal-san-francisco | https://www.donnagraves.org/blog/2018/2/27/citywide-historic-context-for-new-deal-san-francisco | ||
... | |||
Aug. 25, 2019 | |||
Feinstein on SF mural flap: Don’t destroy it, don’t cover it up | |||
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Feinstein-on-SF-mural-flap-Don-t-destroy-it-14374916.php | |||
Aug. 21, 2019 | |||
Alice Walker Defends George Washington Murals | |||
“Why try to hide the reality of our history?” she said of the objectionable images that confronted San Francisco students every day. | |||
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/arts/design/alice-walker-defends-george-washington-murals.html | |||
August 14, 2019 | |||
San Francisco School Board Votes to Hide, but Not Destroy, Disputed Murals | |||
The vote, which came after a tense meeting, nullified an earlier vote to paint over Depression-era school murals that some considered offensive to minorities. | |||
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/arts/san-francisco-murals-george-washington.html | |||
August 12, 2019 | |||
Actor Danny Glover Opposes Washington High Mural Removal; Calls Plan ‘A Book Burning’ | |||
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/08/12/washington-high-mural-actor-danny-glover-book-burning/ | |||
Aug. 7, 2019 | |||
Hundreds of people flood SF school to see mural slated for destruction | |||
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/More-than-100-people-flood-SF-school-to-see-mural-14274260.php | |||
August 6, 2019 | |||
San Francisco NAACP Leaders Call For Preservation Of Controversial School Mural | |||
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/08/06/san-francisco-naacp-leaders-preservation-controversial-school-mural/ | |||
Aug 2, 2019 | |||
Voters may decide whether to save or destroy historic murals | |||
Locals push to preserve controversial 1936 WPA art at SF high school | |||
https://sf.curbed.com/2019/8/2/20751847/racist-san-francisco-mural-washington-vote-ballot-measure | |||
Aug. 1, 2019 | |||
More than 100 people flood SF school to see mural slated for destruction | |||
Nanette Asimov | |||
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/More-than-100-people-flood-SF-school-to-see-mural-14274260.php?psid=aMZbp | |||
July 31 2019 | |||
The Shame of the Mural Censors — Why Art and History Matter | |||
By DeWitt Cheng | |||
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-shame-of-the-mural-censors-why-art-and-history-matter/Content?oid=27198706 | |||
July 27, 2019 | |||
The Case for Keeping San Francisco’s Disputed George Washington Murals | |||
Exposure to art — even uncomfortable art — is healthy, stimulating, and worthy of students’ debate. | |||
ROBERTA SMITH | |||
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/arts/design/george-washington-san-francisco-murals.html | |||
July 27, 2019 | |||
Screaming match erupts over vote to remove Washington mural at San Francisco high school - CNN Video | |||
https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2019/07/27/school-board-votes-to-remove-historic-mural-san-francisco-smerconish-vpx.cnn | |||
July 25, 2019 | |||
PD Editorial: Don’t destroy San Francisco school’s Washington mural | |||
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/9830114-181/pd-editorial-dont-destroy-the?sba=AAS | |||
July 25, 2019 | |||
PD Editorial: Don’t destroy San Francisco school’s Washington mural | |||
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/9830114-181/pd-editorial-dont-destroy-the?sba=AAS | |||
JULY 2019 | |||
Destroying Antiracist Art Will Not End Racism | |||
BY AQSA AHMAD | |||
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/art-san-francisco-george-washington | |||
JULY 23, 2019 | |||
Whitewashing American History: the WPA Mural Controversy in San Francisco | |||
by JACK HEYMAN | |||
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/23/whitewashing-american-history-the-wpa-mural-controversy-in-san-francisco/ | |||
JULY 22, 2019 | |||
Move to erase George Washington mural sparks firestorm among Dems | |||
By CARLA MARINUCCI | |||
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/22/george-washington-mural-san-francisco-1424425 | |||
San Francisco Highschool Pledges to Paint Over Washington Mural | |||
By Victor Westerkamp | |||
https://www.ntd.com/san-francisco-highschool-pledges-to-paint-over-washington-mural_359863.html | |||
July 15, 2019 | |||
Mural supporters plan 2020 ballot measure to protect controversial fresco at Washington High | |||
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Mural-supporters-plan-2020-ballot-measure-to-14097830.php | |||
NCAC Op-Ed July 12, 2019 | |||
Open Forum: SF school board need not be a regime that destroys art | |||
By Svetlana Mintcheva | |||
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Open-Forum-SF-school-board-need-not-be-a-regime-14089832.php | |||
NCAC Letter: May 6, 2019 | NCAC Letter: May 6, 2019 | ||
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A mural showing colonizers stepping over a dead Native American has long been controversial, but an alumni group is fighting to save it. | A mural showing colonizers stepping over a dead Native American has long been controversial, but an alumni group is fighting to save it. | ||
http://www.sfweekly.com/news/washington-high-alumni-push-to-keep-dubious-mural/ | http://www.sfweekly.com/news/washington-high-alumni-push-to-keep-dubious-mural/ | ||
;Note | |||
Photo by Amanda Law |