Ever since I saw the murals on the Roth Building in Palo Alto I was intrigued to find out more about Victor Arnautoff. The Roth Building located on 300 Homer Ave is the former Palo Alto Medical Clinic and the soon-to-be Palo Alto History Museum.
When the hospital first opened in 1932 it was quite a stir due to one of Victor Arnautoff’s murals depicting a half undressed woman receiving treatment. In fact it caused a traffic jam on Homer Ave due to the cars driving by so slowly to get a glimpse of the art work.
Arnautoff himself a Russian-American artist who trained with Diego Rivera and came to Palo Alto to teach art at Stanford is most famous for his artistic contribution to the Coit Tower. The Roth Building frescos are among his earliest works in the United States.
When the Palo Alto Medical Clinic moved to 795 El Camino Real, it placed replica medallions of the artworks at its front entrance. On my search for these replicas, I talked to a woman from the hospitals philanthropy department, who knew there had been a story about Arnautoff on KQED that morning. Apparently a once lost mural had been found in the Richmond post office and is now waiting to be restored for the Richmond Historic Museum. (https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/10/04/richmond-mural-rediscovered/)
But this does not conclude the Arnautoff concurrences. The San Francisco State University Library currently has an exhibit about Arnautoff: “Arnautoff and the Politics of Art” which runs through December 12th. You can see it Monday – Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm.
Have you spotted Arnautoff’s work?
Resources:
https://richmondmuseum.org/arnatouff-mural/
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2015/10/02/richmond-post-office-mural-missing-for-decades-rediscovered/
https://news.sfsu.edu/news-story/library-exhibit-features-new-deal-era-murals
http://www.sfchronicle.com/art/article/Famed-labor-murals-reproduced-at-SF-State-12178439.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Arnautoff
http://www.frugalfun.com/discovered.html
http://www.pastheritage.org/Tours/Homer/HomerWalk.html
http://www.pastheritage.org/Articles/ArnatouffMF.html
http://www.pamf.org/about/pamfhistory/moral.html
https://library.sfsu.edu/exhibit/victor-arnautoff-and-politics-art
