Frequently Asked Questions about GWHS' murals

In 2018, San Francisco Heritage proposed S.F. landmark status for George Washington High School (GWHS), which opened in August 1936. San Francisco’s landmark status is designed to “protect, preserve, enhance and encourage continued utilization, rehabilitation and, where necessary, adaptive use of significant cultural resources. Landmarks… are unique and irreplaceable assets to the city and its neighborhoods and provide examples of the physical surroundings in which past generations lived.” (https://sfplanning.org/landmark-designation-program)

San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education (BoE) denied the designation primarily due to objections made by two BoE commissioners (one of whom is now on the S.F. Board of Supervisors, the other is now a member of the California Assembly) about the content of two panels of the Life and Era of George Washington mural suite which depict slaves at Mount Vernon and a martyred Native American. These two members expressed their desire to cover over the murals. Earlier, in 2016, one initiated a campaign to change the school’s name.

Also in 2018, after a GWHS parent complained about her child’s trauma in seeing the murals and the District’s Indian Education Program proclaimed its removal to be a priority, the BoE created an 11-member “Reflection & Action Group” (RAG) ”comprised of leaders of the Indigenous and African American community, students, school representatives, district representatives, local artists and historians….to receive input, consider options for the future of the mural, and reflect on the intention and impact of the mural. Agenda items, according to the SFUSD’s statement, included a history of the mural, a history of Native American stereotypes, and an exploration of the best options for addressing the damage caused by the murals.” The RAG met four times in late 2018 and early 2019 and recommended the destruction of the entire mural suite, saying the artwork does not represent the school district’s values and that the depictions in the mural “glorify slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy and oppression.” 

Subsequent to a public hearing, on June 25 the BoE unanimously voted to whitewash all 13 separate panels. BoE Vice President Mark Sanchez stated he considered the decision as “reparations.” After public outcry six weeks later, in August 2019, the BoE voted to change their solution from whitewashing to covering with permanent panels.

The district’s staff initially estimated in a presentation to the Board that costs for whitewashing the murals ($650,000) or permanent panels ($800,000). According to the staff these costs included a Environmental Impact Report which they stated would be completed after the Board’s decision. However, California requires the necessary research and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) must be undertaken and completed prior to a vote, not after (see What is the Legal Status?).

The only documented complaint to the BoE is from a Native American mother whose son enrolled in GWHS in 2016 and graduated in 2020. According to an Apr. 11, 2019, N.Y. Times article, a GWHS English teacher discussed the results of her assignment to the 49 students in one of her classes to write about the murals; only four of the 49 students suggested the murals be removed.

Yes, history has repeated itself. In 1968–69, GWHS’ Black Student Union (BSU) protested the depiction of slaves in the murals. After negotiations between the BSU and GWHS administration, young African-American artist Dewey Crumpler was hired by the BoE to create a “response” mural reflecting the Black experience. At the students’ insistence, he added murals depicting the experiences of Latinx/Indigenous Peoples, Japanese and Chinese in the United States. 

Crumpler studied with Diego Rivera’s proteges in Mexico before creating his Multi-Ethnic Heritage murals symbolizing the historic struggles of Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinx Americans and Native Americans. Upon their dedication on April 2, 1974, Crumpler was approached by one of the original BSU protesters. The former student said if he had understood in 1968–69 about the art as he did in 1974, he would have never protested against the murals, and apologized to Crumpler and Arnautoff.

Because:

• they were created using the now-rare buon fresco technique of adding dry powder pigment to wet plaster, making the painting an integral part of the plaster wall,

• they are one of the first examples of a “revisionist interpretation” of Washington (as a slave owner and enabler of Westward Expansion), 

• they are a link between the Mexican mural tradition and the New Deal works as well as Bay Area muralists in general, and 

• they are the largest surviving works by Victor Arnautoff, an avowed leftist who wanted to show the truth about Washington as a conflicted man who accomplished great things but was grounded in the twin sins of early America—slavery and oppression of Native Americans, aspects of United States history which were not discussed in high school texts of the time. His later large-scale mosaics on the exteriors of buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine, were destroyed in the Russian invasion of 2022.

Thirteen color panels plus three banners and three tone-on-tone pieces inside the main entrance of GWHS totaling 1,600 square feet depict many aspects of Washington’s life and the founding of the United States.

It is impossible to place a value on the murals.

San Francisco voters approved “School House Bonds, 1934” which included funds for building GWHS. The building is owned by the City of San Francisco, but since creation of the frescoes were funded by local bonds and various Federal New Deal projects, the U.S. General Services Agency is researching the ownership status.

The GWHSAA proposed many solutions, including student orientation, descriptive signage for the murals (originally mentioned in a Nov. 1969 memorandum but never carried out), non-destructive removable opaque and/or projective cloaking, a docent program, assistance with curricula development, and additional murals elsewhere at GWHS. The BoE never acknowledged any of these proposals.

GWHS holds a significant collection of New Deal-sponsored public arts, aside from the Arnautoff murals:

• The decorative sculptures on the Shop Building’s north- and south-facing walls are also by Arnautoff (1896–1979), who originally planned to be a sculptor. He served as technical director for the Coit Tower murals project, produced many other notable murals in S.F. and the Peninsula, and taught at Stanford until 1963. He returned to the USSR and lived in Leningrad and Mariupol. All three of his sons and one granddaughter were GWHS graduates.

• Robert Boardman Howard (1896–1983), bas-relief heads of Thomas Edison (Invention), George Washington (Statesmanship) and Walt Whitman (Literature) (1936, Main Entrance); son of local architect John Galen Howard.

• Dewey Crumpler (1949– ), Multi-Ethnic Heritage 3-panel mural series (1974, Main Hall), Associate Professor at the S.F. Art Institute, has works featured in the Oakland Museum, Triton Museum in Santa Clara, and California African American Museum. He’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship grant, Flintridge Foundation Award, and Fleishhacker Foundation Award Fellowship Eureka Award.

• Sargent Claude Johnson (1888–1967), Athletics concrete frieze (1942, football stadium), was one of the first African-American artists in California to achieve a national reputation. Known for Abstract Figurative and Early Modern styles, he was awarded the GWHS frieze project when Benny Bufano was fired by the S.F. Arts Commission.

• Lucien Labaudt (1880–1943), Advancement of Learning through the Printing Press mural (1936, Library south wall), was born in France and spent most of his career in San Francisco where he is best known for his mural suite at the Beach Chalet. He died in a plane crash en route to Burma for a Life magazine assignment.

• Gordon Langdon (1910–1963), Modern and Ancient Science mural (1936, Library entrance), assisted Arnautoff with the LoW suite and contributed to Coit Tower’s murals.

• Ralph Stackpole (1885–1973), Contemporary Education mural (1936, Library north wall), was an American sculptor, painter, muralist and educator, and one of San Francisco’s leading artists during the 1920s and 1930s. 

The buildings of GWHS are also a prime example of Streamline Deco. Architect Timothy Pflueger (1892–1946) designed other notable Bay Area buildings such as the Castro and Paramount theaters, the 450 Sutter and Pacific Telephone buildings, and was on the Bay Bridge design committee. He selected the original artisans for GWHS.

Yes! All the artworks in the school are cohesively linked and each is part of a whole that works together as an ensemble.

Following the BoE’s vote in 2019, the GWHS Alumni Association filed a lawsuit against the District alleging that it failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by conducting legally required evaluations and reports before their vote. Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine ruled in March 2020 that the BoE’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit was denied as “frivolous.” 

The following year, on September 24, 2021, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo agreed with all of the Alumni Association’s positions and ruled the BoE violated CEQA when they pre-committed to remove all fresco panels in the Life of George Washington mural suite in GWHS’ lobby without a properly constituted environmental review of impacts and alternatives.

Her September 24 ruling also confirmed earlier dismissal of SFUSD’s attempt to dismiss this case and directed the SFUSD to pay all attorney fees. However, on October 5, the BoE voted in closed-session 6–1 to appeal the ruling. 

After three members of the BoE were recalled in February 2022, following a series of discussions with all parties, the BoE voted 4–2 on May 24, 2022, to stop their appeal and accept the Sep. 24, 2021, ruling. The BoE, as part of the settlement, agreed to pay the Alumni Association’s legal fees in accordance with state law.

Not necessarily. However, following the installation of new BoE members after the February 2022 recall election, it is unlikely that the current BoE will initiate new proposals in the near future for removing the murals. Of course, any future school board can re-start a proposal to destroy the murals.

In 2021, the National Park Service and Library of Congress accepted a Historic American Buildings Survey report for the entire GWHS campus, including all its art, which can be read here.

If additional issues detrimental to the murals materialize, there are options for future actions which might include the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA), the federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and other state and federal laws governing public art preservation.

As described earlier, the GWHSAA proposed solutions that were never acknowledged in 2018–19, and they will now be able to pursue development and implementation of these proposals in concert with school faculty and administration, students, and other stakeholders. These proposals include:

• Restoring and protecting the murals by professional art restoration experts.

• Developing signage for LoW and other GWHS works of art.

• Updating murals-related curricula to more accurately and objectively reflect their significance and history.

• Involving students in dialogue on signage and additional murals.

• Awarding scholarships to graduating seniors who submit essays on murals-related themes.

• Seeking greater landmark protection status for the entire school property including the murals.

All these initiatives will require a great deal of capital. While GWHSAA has raised some funding, much more is needed to reach its goals.

• Share this FAQ and other murals news with others who may be interested or concerned.

• Donate to the Alumni Association’s Murals Fund by clicking the button below or text EAGLES4LIFE to 53-555 and select the Murals Fund, or make a check out to GWHSAA (note Murals on memo line) and mail to GWHSAA, P.O. Box 590605, San Francisco, CA 94159. 

The GWHSAA is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, FEIN 32-0310023. Gifts may be tax-deductible; consult your tax advisor for details.