Robert W. Cherny
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040788
- eISBN:
- 9780252099243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040788.003.0006
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Returning to San Francisco in 1931, Arnautoff began to paint large murals. Undere the New Deal, federal funds helped to underwrite many public art projects. Arnautoff took a major part in the first ...
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Returning to San Francisco in 1931, Arnautoff began to paint large murals. Undere the New Deal, federal funds helped to underwrite many public art projects. Arnautoff took a major part in the first large New-Deal art project, at Coit Tower in San Francisco, where a Communist symbol in another artist’s mural generated controversy. Arnautoff then received a commission for another other large, New-Deal mural at the Presidio. Some of his art began to criticize aspects of his society, and he began to define his art as social realism.Less
Returning to San Francisco in 1931, Arnautoff began to paint large murals. Undere the New Deal, federal funds helped to underwrite many public art projects. Arnautoff took a major part in the first large New-Deal art project, at Coit Tower in San Francisco, where a Communist symbol in another artist’s mural generated controversy. Arnautoff then received a commission for another other large, New-Deal mural at the Presidio. Some of his art began to criticize aspects of his society, and he began to define his art as social realism.
Robert W. Cherny
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040788
- eISBN:
- 9780252099243
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040788.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Victor Arnautoff, an artist, was born in 1896 in the Russian empire. After serving as a cavalry officer in WWI and then in the White Siberian army during the Russian Civil War, he became part of the ...
More
Victor Arnautoff, an artist, was born in 1896 in the Russian empire. After serving as a cavalry officer in WWI and then in the White Siberian army during the Russian Civil War, he became part of the Russian diaspora, working for a Chinese warlord, studying art in San Francisco, and working with Diego Rivera in Mexico. Returning to San Francisco, his art was acclaimed during the 1930s, especially his public murals, most financed by New-Deal art programs. He joined Stanford University’s art faculty. He and his wife became citizens and secretly joined the Communist party (CP). They threw themselves into work for Russian war relief during WWII and became active in Communist front groups. After WWII, the rise of abstract expressionism marginalized Arnautoff’s social realism, and he found a new cultural home in the California Labor School. Arnautoff’s activities in Communist front groups brought FBI surveillance. He was called before a HUAC sub-committee, and the Stanford administration tried unsuccessfully to terminate him in a case involving standards of academic freedom. After retiring from Stanford and the death of his wife, Arnautoff emigrated to the Soviet Union. There he created several large public murals before his death in 1979.Less
Victor Arnautoff, an artist, was born in 1896 in the Russian empire. After serving as a cavalry officer in WWI and then in the White Siberian army during the Russian Civil War, he became part of the Russian diaspora, working for a Chinese warlord, studying art in San Francisco, and working with Diego Rivera in Mexico. Returning to San Francisco, his art was acclaimed during the 1930s, especially his public murals, most financed by New-Deal art programs. He joined Stanford University’s art faculty. He and his wife became citizens and secretly joined the Communist party (CP). They threw themselves into work for Russian war relief during WWII and became active in Communist front groups. After WWII, the rise of abstract expressionism marginalized Arnautoff’s social realism, and he found a new cultural home in the California Labor School. Arnautoff’s activities in Communist front groups brought FBI surveillance. He was called before a HUAC sub-committee, and the Stanford administration tried unsuccessfully to terminate him in a case involving standards of academic freedom. After retiring from Stanford and the death of his wife, Arnautoff emigrated to the Soviet Union. There he created several large public murals before his death in 1979.
