Victor Arnautoff

Victor Mikhailovich Arnautoff (; November 11, 1896 – March 22, 1979) was a Russian-American painter and professor of art. He worked in San Francisco and the Bay Area from 1925 to 1963, including two decades as a teacher at Stanford University, and was particularly prolific as a muralist during the 1930s. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but returned to the Soviet Union after the death of his wife, continuing his career there before his death.

Early life in Russia and China

Arnautoff was the son of a Russian Orthodox priest. He showed a talent for art from an early age and hoped to study art after graduating from the gymnasium in Mariupol. With the outbreak of World War I, he enrolled in the Yelizavetgrad Cavalry School. He went on to hold military leadership positions in the army of Nicholas II and the White Siberian Army, and was repeatedly awarded medals for his service.

With the defeat of the Whites in Siberia, he crossed into northeastern China and surrendered his weapons. He remained in China for five years. He again tried to pursue art, signing up for schooling in Harbin, but was impoverished and took a position training the cavalry of (and possibly fighting for) the warlord Zhang Zuolin.

Schooling and early work in San Francisco and Mexico In November 1925 Arnautoff went to San Francisco on a student visa to study at the California School of Fine Arts. He was given a scholarship as the best student in his year, Three of the four murals done in color that feature modern medicine depict Luther Emmett Holt, William Osler, and Harvey Cushing. The mural caused some controversy at the time, because the newsstand he painted (pictured, right) excluded the conservative San Francisco Chronicle and included left-wing newspapers. It also included other references to the "lack of concern" people show each other, including a sign for Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights", which is concerned in part with the same theme.

Teaching and political activity

Arnautoff taught sculpture and fresco painting privately and at the California School of Fine Arts, first during summer sessions and as a regular instructor beginning in 1936.

Beginning with his association with Rivera, Arnautoff's political views moved to the left, and he joined the Communist Party

In 1955, an Arnautoff lithograph titled "DIX McSmear", associating Vice President Richard Nixon with McCarthyism, created controversy. As a result, there were calls for Stanford to dismiss him. The lithograph was then used as the cover for an issue of The Nation. After he was interrogated by a House Unamerican Activities Committee subcommittee, there were again calls for Stanford to dismiss him. However, the faculty committee that reviewed his case declined to make such a recommendation to the president, and Arnautoff remained a faculty member.

Later life and return to Soviet Ukraine Following the death of his wife in 1961, Arnautoff retired from Stanford. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1963, settling in Mariupol, Ukraine, where he had attended gymnasium. While living there, he published a memoir, and created large tile mosaics on public buildings, including a school and a communications building. He also did woodcuts for books, and had several solo exhibitions. The San Francisco Board of Education voted in June 2019 to develop a plan to destroy all 13 panels of the mural as a form of "reparations" for past crimes. However, after criticism from (among others) the local NAACP and muralist Dewey Crumpler the school board announced it planned to revisit the original decision. On the evening of August 13, 2019, the Board decided by a vote of 4-to-3 on a compromise, namely to hide the murals rather than destroy them. Jon Golinger, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Public Art, remarked, "While it is a step in the right direction to take permanent destruction off the table, we will continue to strongly oppose spending $815,000 to permanently wall off the murals so nobody has the choice to see them or learn from them."

On July 27, 2021, a superior court judge overturned the school board's decision to cover up the murals. Ruling in favor of historic preservation laws, she wrote: "Neutral administrative procedures must be applied without regard to political interests." Public works

In California Fresco murals of medical clinic (1932), Roth Building, 300 Homer St, Palo Alto, California, United States Peacetime Activities of the Army (1935) fresco mural, Presidio Chapel, San Francisco, California, United States Exterior reliefs and the controversial 13 fresco murals "Life of Washington" (1936), George Washington High School, San Francisco, California, United States Lovers' Point (1940), oil on canvas post office mural, Pacific Grove, California, United States Richmond Industrial City (1941), oil on canvas post office mural, Richmond, California, United States South San Francisco, Past and Present (1941), oil on canvas post office mural, South San Francisco, California, United States

Other locations The Last Crop (1938) post office mural, Linden, Texas, United States

Gallery