Coit Tower,  designed by architect Arthur Brown who had also designed the 1926 SFAI building on Chestnut Street with its own signature tower includes a set of true fresco murals completed by numerous artists----almost all of whom had been students, faculty, and fellow travelers at the School. Victor Arnautoff, the Coit Tower mural project manager, was teaching at the School at this time, had been a student in the 1920s, and had also worked with Rivera in Mexico. The Coit Tower murals were riddled with images of racial equality and pro-labor ideals leading to a very public attempt to censor them amidst the backdrop of the San Francisco General Strike of 1934 as well as the fallout of the destruction of Diego Rivera’s NYC Rockefeller Center mural the year before.
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.