Above Photo: From Nonsite.org
The San Francisco Board of Education unanimously voted to paint over a Depression-era mural cycle depicting George Washington as a slaveholder and perpetrator of genocide against Native Americans, 139 academics, artists, and activists signed an open letter this week decrying the board’s decision as a “display of contempt for history” and urging it to reverse course. The letter is reprinted below.
A Federal Art Project mural cycle of thirteen panels devised and painted by Victor Arnautoff in 1936 in a San Francisco high school portrays George Washington as a slave owner and as the author of Native-American genocide. It is an important work of art, produced for all Americans under the auspices of a federal government seeking to ensure the survival of art during the Great Depression. Its meaning and commitments are not in dispute. It exposes and denounces in pictorial form the U.S. history of racism and colonialism. The only viewers who should feel unsafe before this mural are racists.
Now, however, activists including a number of students are seeking the destruction—not the concealment or contextualization—of the mural. The reasons they give—in public comment, in interviews, in the board’s statements—are various, but they all depend on rejecting the objective analysis of historical exploitation and colonial violence the mural offers and replacing it with activists’ valorization of their experiences of discomfort with the imagery and the authorship of the murals. On this account, a Russian immigrant cannot denounce historical wrongs by depicting them critically. On this account, only members of the affected communities can speak to such issues and only representations of history that affirm values they approve are suitable for their communities. On this account, representing historical misdeeds is degrading to some members of today’s student body. In a recent vote, the board of the San Francisco Unified School District voted unanimously to destroy the murals. To repeat: they voted to destroy a significant monument of anti-racism. This is a gross violation of logic and sense.
Let’s set aside the question of the voices calling for the murals’ destruction and their authority to speak for the communities they claim as their own. What remains is a mistake in the way we react to historical works of art—ignoring their meaning in favor of our feelings about them—and a mistake in the way we treat historical works of art—using them as tools for managing feelings, rather than as objects of interpretation. Let’s stand up for the integrity of art as well as for historical interpretation, and for a shared analysis of the political reality of the United States in the past and the present.
The undersigned oppose the school board’s decision and the wrong-headed approach to art and to history that lie behind that decision. We urge the school board to reverse its decision and take all reasonable steps to preserve the mural and to teach it as a work of art and as a representation of our history. We oppose this display of contempt for history.
To hear public comment preceding the board’s vote, follow this link. (Discussion of the mural begins about ten minutes into the recording.)
At the end of the week, we will send this letter and list of signatories to the board members of the SFUSD. To add your signature, e-mail your name and institutional affiliation (if desired) to SanFranciscoMuralOutrage@yahoo.com
Signed,
David Abraham, School of Law, University of Miami
Thomas J. Adams, University of Sydney
Aijaz Ahmad, Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine
Mike Alewitz, emeritus, Art Department/Mural Program, Central Connecticut State University
Bridget Alsdorf, Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
Ellen Altfest, White Cube, London
Robert Ambaras, New York
Charles Andrews, author
Andrew Appel, Four Nations Ensemble, Hudson, N.Y.
Barbara Armentrout, former curator, The Peace Museum, Chicago, Ill.
Frank Thomas Armstrong, Portland, Ore.
Jennifer Ashton, English Department, University of Illinois at Chicago
Jerry August, Los Angeles Unified School District
Todd Ayoung, Pratt University
Dario Azzellini, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University
Joan Baldwin, Special Collections, The Hotchkiss School
Joshua Barnett, New York
Leslie Bary, University of Louisiana
Paul L. Bash
Basile Baudez, Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
Rick Baum, Social Science Department, City College of San Francisco
Laura Bender, artist
Ophelia Benson, columnist, Free Inquiry
Mark Berger, University of California, Berkeley, and George Washington High School class of 1960
Barbara Bernstein, New Deal Art Registry
Jennifer Bethke, Department of Art and Art History, Sonoma State University
Sam Binkley, Emerson College
Elizabeth Bishop, Université d’Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed
Jessica Blatt, Department of Political Science, Marymount Manhattan College
Ernest Everett Blevins, West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office and Living New Deal
Paul Von Blum, Departments of African American Studies and Communication, University of California, Los Angeles
Michele Bogart, Stony Brook University
William N. Bonds, emeritus, San Francisco State University
Cale Brooks, NYC Democratic Socialists of America Medicare for All campaign
Nicholas Brown, Departments of English and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
Joanna Bujes, SIG Docs, San Francisco
Deanne Burke, Berkwood Hedge School, Berkeley
Charles T. Butler, emeritus, Columbus Museum
Katharine Butler, artist, Sausalito, Calif., and New York
Stephen Buttes, Department of International Language and Culture Studies, Purdue University, Fort Wayne
John Cain, retired, San Jose Public Library
Elena M. Calvillo, Department of Art & Art History, University of Richmond
C. Jean Campbell, Art History Department, Emory University
Stephen Campbell, Department of the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University
Marina Cappelletto, artist
Matthew Carson, Los Medanos College
Kathleen M. Carter, former Virginia Beach, Va., Arts and Humanities Commissioner
Robert W. Carter, former trustee, Chrysler Museum of Art
Michael Cavadias, actor, writer, NYC-DSA Citywide Leadership Committee
Sarah Cate, Department of Political Science, Saint Louis University
Enrique Chagoya, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University
Jeffery Chan, emeritus, Asian American Studies and English Departments, San Francisco State University
Stuart A. Chase, executive director, Monterey Museum of Art
Bi-Ling Chen, University of Central Arkansas
Robert W. Cherny, emeritus, San Francisco State University
Merlin Chowkwanyun, Columbia University
Kevin Chua, Texas Tech University
Hollis Clayson, Department of Art History, Northwestern University
Bruce Cohen, emeritus, Worcester State University
Rob Colvin, New York Academy of Art
Nicholas Copeland, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Todd Cronan, Art History Department, Emory University
Malcolm Daniel, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Keith Danish, Leonia, N.J.
Michael Davis, emeritus, University of California, Riverside
Rachael Z. DeLue, Department of Art & Archaeology and Program in American Studies, Princeton University
Carol Denney, artist, Berkeley, Calif.
Bindu Desai, M.D., Albany, Calif.
Martha Louise Deutscher, author
Eugenio Di Stefano, Foreign Languages & Literature, University of Nebraska, Omaha
Geert Dhondt, Department of Economics, John Jay College, CUNY
Jed Dodd, Vice President, BMWED-Teamsters
Francisco Dominguez, photographer, artist, host of Radio Informar-KDVS public affairs
Mariam F. Donerian, Somersville, Conn.
Madhu Dubey, Departments of English and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
Carol Duncan, emeritus, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Stephen Duncombe, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, co-director, Center for Artistic Activism
Jessica Dunne, painter and printmaker, San Francisco
Steve Early, journalist, author, and member of NewsGuild-CWA
Merle Lynn Easton, AIA
Martha Edelheit, artist
Jacob Edwards, Tulane University
William Elliot
Annette Elowitch, founder, Barridoff Galleries, Portland, Maine
Rob Elowitch, founder, Barridoff Galleries, Portland, Maine
Robert Eshelman-Håkansson, Columbia Journalism School
Sarah Evans, School of Art and Design, Northern Illinois University
Tom Evers, Departments of Philosophy and English, Duquesne University
Nancy Faughnan, Yale University
David Featherstone
Liza Featherstone, The Nation and Jacobin, New York University and Columbia University
Terry Donsen Feder, Hartford Art School
Nina Felshin, writer, activist, curator, formerly Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University
Michael Fiday, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati
Norma Field, retired, University of Chicago
Carlos Figueroa, Ithaca College
Allan Fisher, City College of San Francisco
Richard Flacks, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Keith Fowler, emeritus, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine, and George Washington High School class of 1956.
Anne-Lise François, University of California, Berkeley
H. Bruce Franklin, emeritus, Departments of English and American Studies, Rutgers University—Newark
Isabelle Freda, Film Studies Program, Hofstra University
Joshua B. Freeman, Department of History, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Joan Frenkel, Daly City, Calif.
Amy Freund, Department of Art History, Southern Methodist University
Michael Fried, emeritus, Johns Hopkins University
Amber A’Lee Frost, writer and journalist
Sal Garcia, artist and curator, San Francisco
Judith K. Gardener, Chicago, Ill.
Joy Garnett
Tamara Gayer, artist
Galina Gerasimova, City College of San Francisco
Frances Geteles, City College of New York, CUNY
Terri Ginsberg, The American University in Cairo
Judy Gittelsohn, Art for Well Beings
Fred Glass, Labor and Community Studies Department, City College of San Francisco
Sarah Glaubman, Oakland, Calif.
Sarah Gleeson-White, Department of English, University of Sydney
Jeffrey Goldthorpe, English Department, City College of San Francisco
Hon. Ruth Y. Goldway, ret. chair and commissioner, U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission, former mayor, Santa Monica, Calif.
Joseph Goldyne, artist
Eric A. Gordon, National Writers Union, Workmen’s Circle/Arbeiter Ring, Los Angeles Worker Center
Suzanne Gordon, author, journalist, member CWA-NewsGuild
Marie Gottschalk, Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania
Robert Greene, Portland, Ore.
Scott Griffith
Anthony Gronowicz, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
Brian Gross, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco
Steven Hahn, New York University
Beverly L. Hall
John Halle, composer and pianist
Richard Halpern, Department of English, New York University
Theodore Hamm, St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Joseph F. Hancock, editor, Labor Today/El Trabajo Diario on behalf of Labor United for Class Struggle
Lawrence Hanley, Department of English, San Francisco State University
Claire Haratani, Menlo Park, Calif.
Joan Haratani, Menlo Park, Calif.
Lea Haratani, Menlo Park, Calif.
Jonathan Harwitz, Low Income Investment Fund
David Harvey, Graduate Center, CUNY
Charles Hatfield, University of Texas at Dallas
Andrew Hemingway, emeritus, Department of the History of Art, University College London
Stephen Hitchcock, Prague, Czech Republic
Claudia Hommel, former archivist, Detroit Institute of Arts
Andrew Hsiao, Verso Books
Gary Huck, political cartoonist, Huck/Konopacki Cartoons
Arthur Hughes, artist
Forrest Hylton, Ciencia Política, Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Medellín
Alexander Ignon
Amy Ione, director, The Diatrope Institute
Joel Isaacson, emeritus, University of Michigan
William Issel, San Francisco State University
Anton Jäger, Cambridge University
Cedric G. Johnson, University of Illinois at Chicago
Richard A. Johnson, The Sports Museum, Boston, Mass.
Robert Flynn Johnson, emeritus, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Alastair Johnston, retired, University of California, Berkeley
Peyton Lee Jones, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg
Stephen Kaltenbach, emeritus, California State University, Sacramento
Ramsey Kanaan, publisher, PM Press
Cindi Katz, Graduate Center, CUNY
Tarak Kauff, Veterans for Peace, managing editor, Peace in Our Times
Christina Kiaer, Department of Art History, Northwestern University
Phil King, artist and editor
Virginia King, mother of George Washington High School graduate
Joel Kohen
Olga Kopenkina, curator, New York
Anna Kornbluh, University of Illinois at Chicago
Steven Kovacs, School of Cinema, San Francisco State University and George Washington High School alumnus
Joyce Kozloff, artist
Brandon Kreitler, CUNY
Barbara Krzewicki
Benjamin Kunkel, author
Pat Kunstenaar
Rachel Kushner, novelist and George Washington High School graduate
Gordon Lafer, University of Oregon
Roger N. Lancaster, George Mason University
Helen Langa, emerita, Art Department, American University
Martin C. Langeveld, former publisher, The Berkshire Eagle, and former board chair, Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Mass.
Nora Latin, writer and George Washington High School graduate
Denis Lavinski, artist, Los Angeles
Virginia Leavell, University of California, Santa Barbara
Anthony W. Lee, Mount Holyoke College
Marc James Léger, independent scholar
Robert Lehman, English Department, Boston College
Robert D. Leighninger Jr.
Jerry Lembcke, emeritus, Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Holy Cross College
Eric Lerner, civil rights and immigrant rights activist, member, Jobs and Equal Rights for All Campaign
Stephanie Levin, City College of San Francisco/University of San Francisco
Yasha Levine, author, investigative journalist, Washington High School alumnus
Howard Levy
Ruth Leys, emeritus, Johns Hopkins University
Siv B. Lie, School of Music, University of Maryland, College Park
Sasha Lilley, KPFA Radio
Dennis Linn, author
Sheila Linn, author
Adam Linson, University of Stirling
Linda Liu, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Lourdes Livingston, Academy of Art University and Achenbach Graphic Arts Council
Fred Lonidier, emeritus, University of California, San Diego
Leslie Lopez, LaborFest Hawai’i
Kilynn Lunsford, Philadelphia DSA, Unite Here local 274
Seth Kahn, Professor of English, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Nivedita Majumdar, John Jay College, CUNY
Kitty Margolis, jazz singer and educator, San Francisco
Tom Marioni, founder, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco
Charles Marsteller, retired, University of California, San Francisco
Carl G. Martin, Norwich University
Nilus de Matran
Margie Maynard, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Leo Mazow, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Sharon McConnell-Sidorick, historian and author
Anna McKittrick, Emory University
David McNeil, emeritus, Department of History, San José State University
Christopher Mead, University of Utah
Elizabeth Mead, Department of Art and Art History, College of William & Mary
William J. Mello, Indiana University
Joan Mettler
Amy Meyer, national parks advocate and artist, San Francisco
Walter Benn Michaels, English Department, University of Illinois at Chicago
Judith A. Miller, Department of History, Emory University
Mark Crispin Miller, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
Doug Minkler, poster maker
Alex Miokovic, College of Art and Design, Rochester Institute of Technology
Daniel Moak, African American Studies, Ohio University
Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell Museum
Doug Morris, West Chester University, West Chester, Penn.
Colleen Mullins, artist, San Francisco
Dennis Mulqueeney, Berkeley, Calif.
Michael Munk, retired academic and historian
Malgorzata Myk, Institute of English Studies, University of ?ód?, Poland
Balaji Narasimhan, Los Altos, Calif.
Zoika Naskova
Deborah Nelson, University of Chicago
Raymond Richard Neutra, M.D., Ph.D.
Heidi C. Nickisher, College of Art & Design, Rochester Institute of Technology
August Nimtz, Departments of Political Science and African American & African Studies, University of Minnesota
Deborah Epstein Nord, Department of English, Princeton University
Anne Norton, Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania
James Oakes, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jennifer Olmsted, Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University
Megan E. O’Neil, Art History Department, Emory University
Patricia O’Regan, paintings conservator, San Francisco
Kathryn O’Rourke, Department of Art and Art History, Trinity University
Fraser Ottanelli, Department of History, University of South Florida
Charles Palermo, Department of Art and Art History and Film and Media Studies Program, College of William & Mary
Christian Parenti, Department of Economics, John Jay College, CUNY
Renée Petropoulos, artist, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles
Ellen Piccolo, Prince Street Gallery
Jacob Picheny, retired, City College of San Francisco
Michael Pierce, Department of History, University of Arkansas
John P. Pittman, Department of Philosophy, John Jay College, CUNY
Mantra Plonsey, El Cerrito, Calif.
Lawrence N. Powell, Tulane University
Paul Prescod, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
Adam Proctor, Dead Pundits Society
David Pullins, The Frick Collection
Damian S. Quintanilla, Sr., alumnus, University of California, Merced
Joseph G. Ramsey, Departments of English and American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston
John Rapko, College of Marin
Stephanie Rauschenbusch, artist, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Courtney Rawlings, Emory University
Orlando Reade, English Department, Princeton University
Adolph Reed, Jr., emeritus, Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania
Touré Reed, Department of History, Illinois State University
Victoria S. Reed, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Susan M. Reverby, emerita, Wellesley College
Laurie Jo Reynolds, Art Department, University of Illinois at Chicago
Mark Rosen, University of Texas at Dallas
Mark C. Rosenzweig, former director, Reference Center for Marxist Studies
Phyllis Rosenzweig, independent curator
Diana Maria Rossi, artist, Berkeley, Calif.
James H. Rubin, Department of Art, Stony Brook University
Blair Rutherford, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Carleton University
Fred Ryan, Shawville, Quebec
Jos Sances, artist and retired Teamster
Darryl Sapien, artist, San Francisco
Emilio Sauri, University of Massachusetts, Boston
David Schaafsma, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago
Michele Schaal, San Francisco
Jesse Schaefer, former George Washington High School student
Michael Schreyach, Department of Art and Art History, Trinity University
Barry Schwabsky, The Nation
Harvey Schwartz
Cynthia Servetnick, San Francisco Preservation Consortium
Julie Seville, History Department, University of Chicago
Susan Shepard, historian, curator, and genealogist, Connecticut
Stephen Sheppard, Williams College
Will Shetterly, writer
Joseph Shieber, Lafayette College
Willis L. Shirk, Jr., Meraki Enterprises LLC, Lancaster, Penn.
Laurence Shute, emeritus, Economics Department, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Daniel Sidorick, Department of Labor Studies, Rutgers University
Korey Simeone, Los Angeles
Lisa Siraganian, Southern Methodist University
Jedidiah Sloboda, Philadelphia School District
Harvey Smith, National New Deal Preservation Association
John Curtis Smith, Wake Technical Community College
Preston H. Smith II, Mount Holyoke College
Richard Smith, architect, Swampscott Historical Commission, Swampscott, Mass.
Rogers M. Smith, Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania
Davis Smith-Brecheisen, University of Illinois at Chicago
Laurel Sparks, Department of Fine Arts, Pratt Institute
Daniel Spaulding, Getty Research Institute
Ellen Spear, Norman Rockwell Museum
Michael Spear, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
Kal Spelletich, San Francisco Art Institute
Joni Spigler, artist and art historian
Amy Dru Stanley, Department of History and the Law School, University of Chicago
Peter Stansky, Stanford University
Clay Steinman, emeritus, Media and Cultural Studies, Macalester College
Timothy Stewart-Winter, Department of History, Rutgers University—Newark
Steve Striffler, Anthropology Department, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Patricia Sullivan, University of South Carolina
Ted Swedenburg, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas
B. Alexandra Szerlip
Adam Szetela, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Paula Taylor
Rei Terada, University of California, Irvine
Lisa Thompson, The Living New Deal
Sam Thurston, painter and sculptor, Lowell, Vt.
Michael A. Tomlan, Cornell University
Joe Tompkins, Department of Communication Arts and Theatre, Allegheny College
Edgar L. Torres, Latin American and Latino Studies, City College of San Francisco
Preston Trombly, artist
Harold Turnquist, retired, Saint Paul Public Schools, Saint Paul, Minn.
Francine Tyler, Department of Art History, New York University
James A. van Dyke, University of Missouri
Mariah Vaughn
Robert Vitalis, Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania
Christian Viveros-Fauné, Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida
Bryan Wagner, University of California, Berkeley
Alan Wallach, emeritus, Department of Art and Art History and American Studies Program, College of William & Mary
Lauren Ward
Mary Margaret Ward, Novato, Calif.
Kenneth Warren, Department of English, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, University of Chicago
Shilyh Warren, University of Texas at Dallas
Andrew Weinstein, Department of Art History, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, and Cooper Union
Jeff Wentzell
Stephen Whistler, artist, Napa, Calif.
Deirdre White, artist, City College of San Francisco and University of California, Davis
Eric White, artist, Los Angeles and New York
Ian McKibbin White, emeritus, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Jeff Whittington, San Francisco
David E. Wilkins, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond
Mark W. Wolfe, Emory University
Phoebe Wolfskill, Indiana University
Howard Wong, AIA
George Wright, emeritus, California State University, Chico
Joanna Wuest, Princeton University
Marnin Young, Art History Department, Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University
Daniel Zamora, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Justyn Zolli, visual artist and museum professional