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Collecting signatures to save Arnautov's frescoes in SF is going to start soon

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Collecting signatures to save Arnautov's frescoes in SF is going to start soon


29.07.2019

Photo credit: youtube screenshot

Campain aiming to save 13 frescoes of the Russian émigré artist Viktor Arnautoff painted in 1935–1936 at George Washington High School in San Francisco, is going to start soon. It is initiated by the Congress of Russian Americans, TASS reports. Earlier petition on internet was signed by 3,7 thousand people.

The cancelling frescoes campaign was launched by the Indians rights activists. Depicted scenes of oppression of people with dark skin color and killed indigenous person are an offence for the national minorities' feelings, according to the activists. The San Francisco Board of Education has agreed with these arguments and recommended to paint over the frescoes. 

As we reported earlier, representatives of the Russian community use the documents to prove that the frescoes were created with quite the opposite goal - to draw people's attention to the dark pages of US history.The authors of the petition cite facts from the artist’s published biography that Victor Arnautoff openly protested against the genocide of the Indians and African Americans and sought to draw the attention of contemporaries to the manifestation of discrimination against "color" Americans at that time. The authors of the petition call the frescoes of Arnautoff “a critically important educational tool” and urge like-minded people to sign the petition. Apart if that the frescoes are piece of art that has historical quality. 

According to the Deputy of the  Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in US Natalya Sabelnik, who used to study in that very school, 2,000 signatures are needed bring up the issue to the nearest city elections. Natalya thinks that the best way is to install placards nest to each frescoes that would explaining anti-rasist meaning of the artworks. 

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