SFAI Timeline - San Francisco Art Institute

1947
1966
SIDNEY PETERSON
teaches the first film
course at the school.
Sculptor and conceptual artist
BRUCE NAUMAN begins teaching
at SFAI.
1956
1938
1871
SAN FRANCISCO ART
ASSOCIATION (SFAA)
is founded, open to
artists for monthly
dues of $1.
1931
Alumnus HENRY KIYAMA publishes
The Four Immigrants Manga, the first
graphic novel published in the US.
A group of women artists—in
response to the men-only
Spring Shows sponsored
annually by SFAA — hold
the FIRST WOMEN-ONLY
EXHIBITION.
The school moves to
its current campus at
800 CHESTNUT STREET
in a new building designed
by Bakewell and Brown,
architects of City Hall and
Coit Tower.
San Francisco Art Institute
1952
Faculty member MINOR WHITE
becomes the first editor of Aperture
magazine, with faculty member
DOROTHEA LANGE’s work featured
on the first cover.
Encompassing some of the most
significant art movements of
the last century, the Institute
1961
The school is renamed
SAN FRANCISCO
ART INSTITUTE (SFAI),
expanding the definition
of art to include performance, conceptual art,
graphic arts, and social
documentary.
1945
1925
has historically embodied
Alumnus REA IRVIN, the first art editor
of The New Yorker, designs the magazine’s now-iconic typeface and creates
the character Eustace Tilley, who graces
the cover of the first issue.
a spirit of experimentation,
risk-taking, creativity, and innovation. With an ever-expanding
roster of esteemed faculty and
alumni, robust Exhibitions and
1931
Public Programs, and a mission
Mexican muralist
DIEGO RIVERA paints
The Making of a Fresco
Showing the Building of a
City in the school’s gallery.
dedicated to the intrinsic
value of art and its vital role
in shaping and enriching
society and the individual,
1880
The first public showing of
a moving picture occurs at
SFAA with EADWEARD
MUYBRIDGE’s presentation
of his Zoopraxiscope.
DOUGLAS G. MACAGY becomes
director. He hires Clyfford Still,
Hassel Smith, David Park, Elmer Bischoff,
and Richard Diebenkorn, and invites
New York artists Mark Rothko and Ad
Reinhardt to teach summer sessions,
making the school a hub for
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM.
1942
The War Relocation Authority hires
faculty member DOROTHEA LANGE
to document the internment of
Japanese Americans. The photographs
are confiscated and do not appear until
2006 when Impounded is published
by W.W. Norton.
1977
1969
Alumnus Gutzon Borglum
begins work on his very
large-scale public sculpture,
Mount Rushmore.
rary practice in the visual arts.
Activist, philosopher,
and writer ANGELA DAVIS
joins the faculty to
teach aesthetics.
Alumni RUTH-MARION BARUCH and
PIRKLE JONES document the early days
of the Black Panther Party in Northern
California; the photographs are exhibited at the de Young Museum.
SFAI expands with a new addition by
PAFFARD KEATINGE-CLAY.
1927
is at the forefront of contempo-
century of creative excellence.
ANSEL ADAMS founds
the FIRST FINE ART
PHOTOGRAPHY
DEPARTMENT. Faculty
include Dorothea Lange,
Imogen Cunningham, Minor
White, Edward Weston,
and Lisette Model.
1926
William T. Wiley, Robert Hudson,
and William Allen arrive. Along
with other students— M anuel Neri,
Bill Brown, Arlo Acton, Joan Brown,
Alvin Light, Bill Geis, and Carlos Villa—
they become the core of the
BAY AREA FUNK art movement.
1976
1968
1945
1885
SFAI is poised for another
Alumna LOUISE DAHL-WOLFE’s photos
help define a new American style of
fashion photography. She works for
Harper’s Bazaar from 1938–1958.
1970
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ begins
photographing for Rolling
Stone magazine while still
a student. She becomes
the magazine’s official
photographer in 1973.
1968
Student PAUL McCARTHY
begins work on a series
of performances called
Instructions.
1969
JAY DeFEO’s painting
The Rose is installed at
SFAI where it remains until
the Whitney Museum of
American Art acquires
it in 1995. During the
26 years that it was on
campus, students were
known to leave roses on
the work in homage
to DeFeo.
1955
ALLEN GINSBERG gives the first
public reading of HOWL at an art space
founded by alumni, Six Gallery, during
alumnus and faculty member Fred
Martin’s exhibition Crate Sculptures.
1949
DIrector DOUGLAS G. MACAGY
organizes THE WESTERN ROUNDTABLE
ON MODERN ART, with MARCEL
DUCHAMP, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT,
and GREGORY BATESON, among
others. The objective of the roundtable
is to “EXPOSE HIDDEN ASSUMPTIONS”
and to FRAME NEW QUESTIONS
ABOUT ART.
Alumna MOLLIE KATZEN illustrates and
publishes the vegetarian Moosewood
Cookbook. The cookbook becomes
one of the top 10 bestselling cookbooks
of all time.
1966
Abstract painter SAM TCHAKALIAN
joins the faculty and is a major force in
the Painting department for the next 35
years. Among many others, he mentored
alumna KATHRYN BIGELOW (Academy
Award–winning director of The Hurt
Locker), who credits him with her early
success as a painter in New York.
1977
Alumnus DON ED HARDY
opens Tattoo City in
San Francisco’s Mission
District, pioneering the
style of fine-line black
and grey tattoos.
9
1978
1998
SFAI is at the center of the Punk
music scene, with students FREDDY
(A.K.A. FRITZ) of the Mutants,
PENELOPE HOUSTON of the
Avengers, and DEBORA IYALL and
FRANK ZINCAVAGE of Romeo Void.
2006
DEVENDRA BANHART
enrolls at SFAI and
starts writing songs in
BILL BERKSON’s
poetry class.
Alumnus MANUEL NERI receives the
International Sculpture Center’s
Lifetime Achievement Award.
2011
SFAI celebrates
140 years of cultural
innovation.
2014
The Walter and McBean Galleries
exhibition Francis Cape: Utopian
Benches continues SFAI’s legacy of
creating space for dialogue and
exchange by offering shared seating on
17 poplar benches replicated from those
in use by utopian communities.
1982
SFAI makes a video
featuring Saturday
Night Live satirical
character FATHER
GUIDO SARDUCCI
(played by Don Novello).
2000
PETER PAU, film
alumnus, receives an
Academy Award for
Cinematography
for Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon.
2010
1990
2003
2007
2003
2007
MacArthur “genius” Awards in the
visual arts are granted to alumnae
TOBA KHEDOORI and LIZA LOU.
1990
An anonymous artist in the
early 1980s alters the Diego
Rivera mural at SFAI by adding
a hammer and sickle to a medallion on a central figure. Legend
has it that the artist sought to
underscore Rivera’s Communist
politics. In 1990, the alteration/
defacement was discovered,
and conservators were brought
in—they removed what turned
out to be toothpaste.
Alumna BETSY SUSSLER founds
Bomb magazine in New York.
Everything Matters, a
retrospective of the work
of faculty member
PAUL KOS, opens at the
Berkeley Art Museum.
2003
Alumnus LANCE ACORD is the
cinematographer for Sophia Coppola’s
LOST IN TRANSLATION.
1992
THE CLARION
ALLEY MURAL PROJECT
(CAMP) is established
by a volunteer collective
of six Mission residents,
including alumni AARON
NOBLE and RIGO23.
Clarion Alley becomes
a key site for the
development of the
aesthetic known as the
Mission School.
Alumna ANNIE LEIBOVITZ’s exhibition
Pilgrimage opens at the Smithsonian
American Art Museum.
2010
The performance work of alumna
KAREN FINLEY sparks national debate
(and a Supreme Court trial) when a
grant recommended by the National
Endowment for the Arts is vetoed by
the NEA Chairman.
1981
2012
Alumna KATHRYN
BIGELOW wins the
Academy Award for Best
Director for her film
The Hurt Locker.
SFAI faculty member and Cuban
ex-patriot TONY LABAT returns to
Havana for a one-person exhibition
at the Wifredo Lam Center. IT IS
THE FIRST TIME HIS WORK IS
SHOWN IN CUBA.
A retrospective exhibition,
HENRY WESSEL: Photographs,
at SFMOMA honors the longtime
faculty member.
2013
City Studio, SFAI’s
year-round program for
underserved youth,
receives an NEA award.
The Walter and McBean
Galleries debuts the
exhibition ENERGY
THAT IS ALL AROUND,
featuring SFAI alumni
BARRY McGEE, RUBY
NERI, and ALICIA
McCARTHY, along with
Mission School artists
CHRIS JOHANSON and
MARGARET KILGALLEN.
The exhibition travels to
NYU in 2014.
2010
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific
Film Archive presents Radical Light:
Alternative Film and Video in the San
Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000, which
documents the history of SFAI’s Film
and New Genres programs and features
dozens of alumni and faculty, including
Bruce Connor, Stan Brakhage, Robert
Nelson, James Broughton, Sidney
Peterson, Anne McGuire, George
Kuchar, Jay Rosenblatt, and
Craig Baldwin.
2009
Alumna JENNIFER M. KROOT releases
the documentary, It Came From Kuchar,
about the life and work of longtime film
professor GEORGE KUCHAR and his
twin brother Mike.
2012
2002
Students Mitch Temple,
Dennis McNulty,
and Nathan Suter form
ROOT DIVISION—
a community art collective
dedicated to art education.
2010
SFAI faculty member CARLOS VILLA
launches Rehistoricizing Abstract
Expressionism in the San Francisco
Bay Area, 1950s–1960s, a project that
brings visibility to artists of color and
women artists who had been excluded
from this history.
Alumnus KEHINDE WILEY’s solo
exhibition The World Stage: Israel opens
at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
2014
The MFA Exhibition
Principal opens to the
public, showcasing the
future of creative practice.
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