[original floor boards from the Diego Rivera Gallery, SFAI Archives]

The flooring in most of the studios in the Arthur Brown building at 800 Chestnut Street was hardwood oak---although for some reason, Studio 16’s floor was done in maple. The gallery, listed on the original blueprints as the “Antique Room,” was where Diego Rivera painted “The Making of a Fresco, Showing the Building of a City,” thus giving rise to the room’s designation as the Diego Rivera Gallery.   The original oak floor lasted from 1926 through 2003 where it felt the footsteps of such luminaries as Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, Janis Joplin, Marcel Duchamp, Hillary Clinton, Angela Davis, Jerry Garcia, Carlo Doda, Frank Lloyd Wright, Courtney Love, and, of course, 77 years’ worth of the best art students of the 20th and 21st centuries.

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.