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| The Sargent Johnson frieze |
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Arnautoff, who trained with Diego Rivera, acknowledged painful truths about Washington’s life that other artists didn’t dare address. As a master muralist, he created thoughtful compositions that invite a careful reading of the work. As a Russian immigrant and communist who was sympathetic to labor issues, he proposed a subversively critical look at Washington’s legacy by referencing slavery and genocide in his murals. A small group of activists feel that two particular panels are "triggering" and demanded complete destruction of all thirteen panels. I wonder if they realize that books by Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker referenced the same issues, made people equally uncomfortable and suffered the same censorship they are practicing.
After decades of cuts in arts education, many people have not gained basic visual literacy skills. These are the skills that enable one to see how settlers stepping past a martyred Indian symbolizes the soullessness and lack of empathy of these men. Why? Because this is the only grisaille section in an otherwise vibrantly chromatic work. Arnautoff depicts Native Americans in a variety of ways, including as chiefs and warriors. Enslaved African Americans are portrayed in a variety of settings (seen in my photos here), and in roles which are historically important, yet the press rarely reports on that.
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| Houdon's sculpture (replica). In the background- grisaille of settlers and Indian chiefs. |
Lack of visual literacy leads to simplistic thinking such as board president Stevon Cook’s assertion that the murals are like Confederate flags or statues, therefore anyone supporting the murals is racist. He and other board members lack nuanced thinking, lack the skill of discernment. Confederate flags or statues are designed to glorify racist proponents of the Confederacy. The writer Elliot Jones (Maya Angelou's grandson) calls these "politically motivated racist symbols." In contrast, the Arnautoff murals tell a story that acknowledges Washington's failings; there is perhaps no other public work that does this. Jones describes the murals as "an important work of art" and agrees that they "deserve preservation." Many Black and Native people say that their history is reduced to a sentence or omitted from history books. At GWHS students have an opportunity to get out of the rote type of learning many textbooks promote and see museum quality work without leaving their school. Still, with multiple entrances on a huge campus, no one is "forced” to walk by the murals, as is often reported.
After voting unanimously to paint over the Arnautoff murals, the board re-voted to merely cover them with panels, at an estimated cost of $825,000. The backlash came not just from “older whites,” as Cook divisively characterized mural supporters, but from over 400 art experts across the nation (nonsite.org), from illustrious leaders in the African American community and from Native American elders. Alice Walker called the decision “ignorant and backwards.” Danny Glover lamented the loss of “opportunity for enhanced historic introspection.” Local NAACP leader, Rev. Amos Brown, said: "It tells the truth about Mr. Washington being complicit in the slave trade, about what he did to the Native Americans...please help us to have children who are critical thinkers..."
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The Alumni Association proposed creative ideas for using the murals as a springboard for more education. All were rejected. Perhaps destroying art as a form of “reparations” (Mark Sanchez) was too tantalizing as a political move. A school board truly concerned with education might have have said this:
1. We recognize that this mural can be challenging for students. We neglected to honor a decades-old commitment to install explanatory plaques for them. A 2018 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center showed that the vast majority of students have not learned important facts about slavery. We pledge to use this mural as part of a broader curriculum to address these deficiencies.
2. Data from 2018 shows that only 62% of SFUSD 8th graders are ready for high school. Only 12% of African American students are proficient in Math, and 19% are proficient in ELA. This is a crisis that we must prioritize with our funds as well as our time.
3. We encourage students to study the “response murals” at the school, painted by African American artist Dewey Crumpler. He has said that his murals can’t have their full impact without Arnautoff’s murals. A student who wanted to destroy the Arnautoff murals in the 1970’s told Mr. Crumpler, years later, that he regretted that, and had since learned to appreciate their value. Our students should have a similar opportunity for intellectual growth.
4. We believe that SFUSD students are capable of engaging with the same material as other high schools. The AP Art History curriculum requires study of works that depict slavery, violence towards indigenous people, colonization and racism. Examples:
· Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, by Turner
· The Migration of the Negro, by Jacob Lawrence
· Darkeytown Rebellion, by Kara Walker
· Gifts for Trading Land with White people, by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
· Dream of a Sunday Afternoon, by Diego Rivera (depicts Hernan Cortes, fall of the Aztecs, police violence against indigenous people)
We would not expect the College Board to sanitize their curriculum to shield San Francisco students from confronting difficult subjects.
5. In a Hyperallergic article, New Jersey commissioner of Education Dr. Lamont O. Repollet noted that: “Studies have found students involved in the arts are more likely to score higher in language arts literacy and are more likely to enroll in college.” Here in San Francisco, we will develop art education, and not destroy our finest works, which in fact belong to all of us.
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Board members: Stevon Cook, Mark Sanchez, Alison Collins, Jenny Lam, Gabriela Lopez, Faauuga Moliga, Rachel Norton, Superintendent Vincent Matthews.