Posted on 07/05/2019 1:21:37 PM PDT by Syncro
San Francisco will spend up to $600,000 to paint over historical artwork at a public school depicting the life of George Washington, a mural once seen as educational and innovative but now criticized as racist and degrading for its depiction of black and Native American people.
The Life of Washington was painted by Victor Arnautoff, one of the foremost muralists in the San Francisco area during the Depression. The San Francisco School Boards decision to paint over the 83-year-old mural is prompting some to worry that other artwork from the so-called New Deal era could face a similar fate because of changing sensitivities.
In addition to depicting Washington as a soldier, surveyor and statesman, the 13-panel, 1,600-sqaure foot mural at George Washington High School contains images of white pioneers standing over the body of a Native American and slaves working at Washingtons Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.
The boards decision last week comes at a time when the legacies of Washington and other historical figures who owned slaves are being re-examined. Some cities have changed the names of streets and buildings named after slave owners.
*snip*.
We on the left ought to welcome the honest portrayal, Walker said, adding that destroying a piece of art is the worst way we can deal with historic malfeasance, historic evils.
*snip*
Lope Yap, Jr., vice president of the Washington High School Alumni Association and a 1970 graduates, disagreed, saying when he was a student and saw the mural he was awed by the subtle ways Arnautoff was able to critique American history. He said the depictions are treasures, priceless art and painting it over is tantamount to pretending the history depicted never happened.
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Taking a lead from the Taliban, and what Hitler wanted to do to Paris. Way to go, progressives.
Il do it for $57,500
These people have no understanding of success.
So, we have a bunch of leftists apparently unwittingly working to censor paintings representing the very viewpoints they support!!
Now, that said, with the exception of the depiction of the deceased Native American (one-sided: There was savagery on both sides, and, I know of no documentation that Washington supported out and out murder of ANYBODY, among other issues), the rest of the mural seems fairly realistic to me, and kids need to understand that Washington's era, while certainly not ALL violent, was much more violent than today.
I would suggest that the mural be left in place, with each panel accompanied by, say, a 500 word comment by a noted liberal scholar, AND a 500 word "reply" (since the mural get to have the advantage of the initial visual impact) by a noted conservative scholar, with further reference to 2 web links, one suggested by the lib, and one suggested by the conservative. Or something like that.
It might take more than 2 gallons. (1600 sq. ft.)
However, I’d gladly take the job for 1/10 the cost — except that I don’t think it should be done at all.
So what?
Exactly
It’s American history from the PAST
No reason to go all snowflake about it.
The left is trying to erase history so they can rewrite it to make the USA look worse
All the statue removal and demonizing the. Confederate flag etc
They won’t go for that, it makes too much sense.
I wish Trump would nuke Homofrisco.
The fallout would wipe out FreeRepublic
But who needs FR as long as SF is wiped out
If the leftists manage to seize power in 2020, the only thing standing in the way totalitarianism is the legacy of the Second Amendment. And they know it.
“depicting the life of Che Guevara.”
A mural depicting the death of Che Guevara would be a lot more fun.
A couple gallons of paint and a couple hours of work costs $600,000?
Thank you for sanity. I lived there for many years, both in LA area and in SF. Very happy years. Wish I could go back to LA, but last time I was there, for my mother’s funeral, the beach at Santa Monica was dangerous; you’d better own a pair of Rottweilers to walk there. When I lived there, my kids were perfectly safe walking a mile down the beach to Santa Monica High. Decades ago.
Feel so sorry for the good people in that area, an endangered species.
The newly muscled minority flexing its muscles
Imagine when we go majority non white
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