I have a new appreciation for public mural art after a recent vacation in the San Francisco Bay Area – a blend of everything from folk art to graffiti seen from multi-cultural viewpoints.While my husband, Jay, and I visited a number of museums, some of the most dynamic and unexpectedly powerfully art was outside!
Our self-led mural tour started the first day at Coit Tower with its recently restored indoor frescos by 27 on-site artists dedicated to equality for all. While waiting in the elevator line, we got a good look at these more traditional images reflecting the influence of Diego Rivera, a prominent painter who led the Mexican Mural Movement in Mexican art, and who received several SF commissions including one now at the SF Art Institute. Rivera’s original mural at Coit was destroyed to make room for an image of Lenin. As you can see, rural and urban industry was an important theme here.
As the week progressed and we spent more time outside, and we started paying attention to outdoor murals like this in Chinatown
One afternoon we went to Clarion Alley Murals in the Mission District, the area with the highest concentration of murals in SF. The Clarion Alley Murals Project (CAMP) is an artists collective first formed in 1992 to help other artist create murals in Clarion Alley and surrounding areas that focused on the theme of Central American struggle. Here we see one of the more visually complex works referencing film.
Popular icons were often incorporated, as in this simple but moving tribute to Michael Jackson so appropriately executed in “Black or White”.
You can see how the quiet Michael Jackson memorial stands out when surrounded by murals packed with large splashes of intense color.
This thought-provoking mural juxtaposes a beautiful image with eery creatures and a reinterpreted Uncle Sam to make a statement. How do you interpret this one?
Then there were images of pure poetry.
Next on our agenda was The Women’s Building Mural, which is striking in its creative design and strong integration with existing architectural elements, literally wrapping around them. You can read more about this multi-cultural, multi-generational collaboration of seven women artists in 1994 here.
Murals were everywhere in Mission and we made a number of unplanned photo stops on the way to Balmy Street, including this recreational center.
Like Clarion Alley, Balmy Street was covered in murals!
Here’s one of the most hauntingly beautiful creations on a garage door.
Occasionally, we found murals like this one which incorporated iconic images from famous works of art, like Picasso’s epic “Guernica”. Which elements do you recognize?
On our way to dinner in North Beach, we came across this vivid depiction of life in the countryside outside of the US.
A few blocks away we found this tribute to contemporary jazz in the US. Never a dull moment!
For those of you who have the opportunity to visit San Francisco, I would suggest taking a Mission District Mural Tour offered for free by SF City Guides, which came highly recommended. Or look for another tour operator. There’s so much to see that a tour guide with expertise would be welcome.
Our newfound awareness and admiration for this popular and fairly commonplace art form in SF gave us a context for the murals we encountered during our upcoming Facebook Tour, which will be the subject of one of my next posts. To be continued…
