Between 1917 and 1919, during WWI, Jose Clemente Orozco spent two “formative years” in San Francisco, enrolling at the School and being influenced by a faculty that included Mexican ex-pat, Xavier Martinez, as well as Spencer Macky, Gottardo Piazzoni, Ralph Stackpole, and Maynard Dixon. His address, listed here as 628 Montgomery was in the Monkey Block Building at the foot of Columbus Street and which had studios of legions of fascinating artists including Stackpole and Bennie Bufano, as well as being close to the Bohemian culture of SF at the time including one of their main hangouts, Coppa’s restaurant. Painting faculty member Spencer Macky later recalled that Orozco “was in my classes for drawing for two years as a young man….he came up as a refugee. He’d been in a revolution down there and lost one of his arms; his right arm, I think, [looks like his right arm is intact in this photo attributed to Edward Weston] and he could work with his left. An amazing clever person. And I taught him drawing…” from John Crosse, “Southern California Architectural History.” https://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2017/03/orozco-in-san-francisco-1917.html
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.
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