Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)

The George Washington murals were meant to make viewers uncomfortable

At the height of the Great Depression, a Russian artist was paid by the US government to paint a series of murals in a San Francisco high school. The 1,600-square-foot, 13-panel work that Victor Arnautoff created was called The Life of Washington, after the school's namesake. It could have embraced a hagiographical view of America's founding father and first president: young Washington chopping down the cherry tree and saying 'I cannot tell a lie'; old Washington relinquishing the role of president to avoid a return to monarchy. Yet Arnautoff chose a different approach, depicting Washington stripped of myth. The murals portray him as a slave owner and the progenitor of government policies that would result in the genocide of Native Americans.

https://www.apollo-magazine.com/life-of-washington-victor-arnautoff-san-francisco/

 

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