San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately 220 undergraduates and 112 graduate students were enrolled in 2021. The institution was accredited by the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing School accreditation, accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary school, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, ...

(WASC) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), and was a member of the

Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) is a non-profit consortium of 36 art and design schools in the United States and Canada. All AICAD member institutions have a curriculum with full liberal arts and sciences require ...

(AICAD). The school closed permanently in July 2022.

History

The San Francisco Art Institute was established in 1871 with the formation of the San Francisco Art Association—a small but influential group of artists, writers, and community leaders, most notably, led by

Virgil Macey Williams Virgil Macey Williams (October 29, 1830 - December 18, 1886) was an American painter, and the director of the San Francisco School of Design (now known as San Francisco Art Institute). In 1872, he co-founded the San Francisco Art Association wi ...

and first president

Juan B. Wandesforde Juan B. Wandesforde (1817 - November 18, 1902) was an American painter. In 1872, he co-founded the San Francisco Art Association with Virgil Macey Williams. His work can be seen at the Laguna Art Museum The Laguna Art Museum (LAM) is a museum l ...

, with B.P. Avery,

Edward Bosqui Edward Bosqui (1832–1917) was a Canadian artist, printer, and pioneer in San Francisco, California. Involved in the Bohemian Club, he was a patron of the arts. Bosqui was born in Montreal and came to California in 1850. He founded the Bosqui E ...

, Thomas Hill, and S.W. Shaw, who came together to promote regional art and artists, and to establish a school and museum to further and preserve what they saw as a new and distinct artistic tradition which had developed in the relative cultural isolation and unique landscape of the American West. By 1874 the SFAA had 700 regular members and 100 life members and had raised sufficient funds and the necessary momentum to launch an art school, which was named the California School of Design (CSD). Painter Virgil Macy Williams, who had spent nearly ten years studying with master painters in Italy and had taught at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

before coming to San Francisco, became the school's first director and painting instructor—positions he held until his sudden death in 1886.http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/cara/ucb/text/Cara_Volume_04.pdf#168 During Williams' tenure, the CSD developed a national reputation and amassed a significant collection of early California and western fine art as the foundation collected for a planned museum. In 1893,

Edward Searles Edward Francis Searles (July 4, 1841 – August 6, 1920) was an interior and architectural designer. Biography Searles was born on July 4, 1841, in Methuen, Massachusetts, US to Jesse Gould Searles (1805–1844) and Sarah (Littlefield) Searles. ...

donated the Hopkins Mansion, one of the most palatial and elaborate Victorian mansions ever built, to the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

in trust for the SFAA for "instruction in and illustration of the fine arts, music and literature." Named the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, it became San Francisco's first fine art and cultural center and housed both the CSD's campus and SFAA's art collection. Through this new affiliation, students of the University of California were able to enroll in classes at the CSD. In 1906 the devastating fire following the San Francisco earthquake destroyed the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art building, and the CSD and SFAA facilities, records and art collection. At the time, the replacement value of the building and its contents was estimated at $2.573 million. However, the combined amount of numerous insurance policies yielded less than $100,000 for rebuilding. Nevertheless, within a year, the SFAA built a new but comparatively modest campus in the same location, and adopted the name San Francisco Institute of Art. In 1916, the SFAA merged with the San Francisco Society of Artists and assumed directorship of the San Francisco Museum of Art at the

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to ...

, which was established to host the 1915 World's Fair, Panama-Pacific International Exposition. In addition, the school was renamed the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) to better reflect its mission to promote, develop and preserve regional art and culture. In 1926 the school moved to 800 Chestnut Street, which remains the school's main campus . In 1930 Mexican muralist Diego Rivera was hired to paint ''The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City'', which is located in the student-directed art gallery. During its first 60 years, influential artists associated with the school included Eadweard Muybridge, photographer and pioneer of motion graphics; Maynard Dixon, painter of San Francisco's labor movement and of the landscape of the West;

Henry Kiyama ''The Four Immigrants Manga'' (1931), also known as , is a Japanese-language manga written and illustrated by Henry Kiyama (born , 1885–1951). It is an early example of autobiographical comics. The manga was created around 1924–1927 as 52 " ...

, whose '' Four Immigrants Manga'' was the first

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

published in the U.S.;

Sargent Claude Johnson Sargent Claude Johnson (October 7, 1888 – October 10, 1967) was one of the first African-American artists working in California to achieve a national reputation.

, one of the first African-American artists from California to achieve a national reputation;

Louise Dahl-Wolfe Louise Dahl-Wolfe (November 19, 1895 – December 11, 1989) was an American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for ''Harper's Bazaar'', in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland. Background Louise Emma Augusta Dahl was bor ...

, an innovative photographer whose work for ''

Harper’s Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'' in the 1930s defined a new American style of "environmental" fashion photography;

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georg ...

, the creator of the large-scale public sculpture known as Mt. Rushmore;

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...

, German Expressionist painter and art critic, and numerous others. After World War II ended (1945) the school became a nucleus for

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, with faculty including Clyfford Still,

Ad Reinhardt Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement centere ...

, Mark Rothko, David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and Clay Spohn. Although painting and sculpture remained the dominant mediums for many years, photography had also been among the course offerings. In 1946

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

and Minor White established the first fine-art photography department, with Imogen Cunningham,

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

, and

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

among its instructors. In 1947 distinguished filmmaker Sydney Peterson began the first film courses at CSFA. In this spirit of advancement, in 1949 CSFA Director Douglas MacAgy organized an international conference, The Western Roundtable on Modern Art, which included

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, and

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...

. The roundtable aimed to expose “hidden assumptions” and to frame new questions about art. By the early 1950s San Francisco's North Beach had become the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

center of the

Beat Movement The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatione ...

, and music, poetry, and discourse were an intrinsic part of artists' lives. Collage artist Jess Collins renounced a career as a plutonium developer and enrolled at SFAI as a painting student. In 1953 he and his partner, poet Robert Duncan, along with painter Harry Jacobus, started the King Ubu Gallery, an important alternative space for art, poetry, and music. A distinctly Californian modern art soon emerged that fused abstraction, figuration, narrative, and jazz. SFAI faculty David Park, Elmer Bischoff, James Weeks, James Kelly, Frank Lobdell, and Richard Diebenkorn were now the leaders of the

Bay Area Figurative Movement The Bay Area Figurative Movement (also known as the Bay Area Figurative School, Bay Area Figurative Art, Bay Area Figuration, and similar variations) was a mid-20th Century art movement made up of a group of artists in the San Francisco Bay Area wh ...

, informed by their experience of seeing local museum exhibitions of work by

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...

, Max Beckmann,

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

, and

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in th ...

. Students at the school, including David Simpson,

William T. Wiley William Thomas Wiley (October 21, 1937April 25, 2021) was an American artist. His work spanned a broad range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, performance, and pinball. At least some of Wiley's work has been referred to as ...

, Robert Hudson, William Allan,

Joan Brown Joan Brown (born Joan Vivien Beatty; February 13, 1938 – October 26, 1990) was an American figurative painter who lived and worked in Northern California. She was a member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.Glu ...

, Manuel Neri,

Carlos Villa Carlos Villa (December 11, 1936 – March 23, 2013) was a Filipino-American visual artist, curator and faculty member in the Painting Department at the San Francisco Art Institute. His work often explored the meaning of cultural diversity and ...

, and

Wally Hedrick Wally Bill Hedrick (1928 – December 17, 2003)Gerald D. Adams, San Francisco Chronicle, Wally Hedrick: Iconoclastic Painter, Sculptor, Wednesday, December 24, 200/ref> was a seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture,Peter ...

, continued the investigation of new ideas and new materials, many becoming the core of the

Funk art Funk art is an American art movement that was a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism. An anti-establishment movement, Funk art brought figuration back as subject matter in painting again rather than limiting itself to th ...

movement. Renamed San Francisco Art Institute in 1961, SFAI rejected the distinction between fine and applied arts. SFAI stood at the forefront of recognizing an expanded vocabulary of art-making that hybridized many practices including performance, conceptual art, new media, graphic arts, typography, and political and social documentary. Students in the early to mid-1960s included artists Ronald Davis, Robert Graham,

Forrest Myers Forrest Warden Myers, also known as Frosty Myers (born 1941 in Long Beach, California) is an American sculptor. He is best known for his pieces ''Moon Museum'' (1969) and ''The Wall'' (1973), the latter being a monumental wall sculpture in the So ...

Leo Valledor Leo Valledor (1936–1989) was a Filipino-American painter who pioneered the hard-edge painting style. During the 1960s he was a member of the Park Place Gallery in Soho, New York City, which exhibited many influential and significant artists of ...

, Michael Heizer,

Ronnie Landfield Ronnie Landfield (born January 9, 1947) is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction (related to Postminimalism, Color Field painting, an ...

Peter Reginato Peter Reginato (born August 19, 1945), is an American abstract sculptor and painter. Reginato was born in Dallas, Texas, but grew up in the hills outside Oakland, California, attending the San Francisco Art Institute from 1963 to 1966. In 1970 ...

Gary Stephan Gary Stephan (born 1942) is an Americans, American Abstract art, abstract painting, painter born in Brooklyn who has exhibited his work throughout the United States and Europe. He lives and works in New York City and Stone Ridge, NY and is on ...

, and John Duff and in the late 1960s Annie Leibovitz, who would soon begin photographing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine;

Paul McCarthy Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued ...

, well known for his performance and sculpture works; and Charles Bigelow, who would be among the first typographers to design fonts for computers. Alumni Ruth-Marion Baruch and

Pirkle Jones Pirkle Jones (January 2, 1914 – March 15, 2009) was an American documentary photographer and educator. Biography Pirkle Jones was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His first experience with photography was when he bought a Kodak Brownie at t ...

documented the early days of the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

in northern California. In 1969, a new addition to the building by Paffard Keatinge-Clay added of studio space, a large theater/lecture hall, an outdoor amphitheater, galleries, and a cafe. Installation art, video, music, and social activism continued to inform much of the work of faculty and students in the 1970s and 1980s. The faculty during this period included

George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now kn ...

Gunvor Nelson Swedish artist Gunvor Grundel Nelson was born in 1931 in Kristinehamn, Sweden, where she now resides. She has worked as an experimental filmmaker since the 1960s. Some of her most widely known works were created while she lived in the Bay Area in ...

Howard Fried Howard Fried (born June 14, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist who became known in the 1970s for his pioneering work in video art, performance art, and installation art. He lives and works in Vallejo, California. Biography ...

, Paul Kos, Angela Davis,

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trau ...

, Robert Colescott, and many other influential artists and writers. Among the students were a number of performance artists and musicians, including

Karen Finley Karen Finley (born 1956) is an American performance artist, musician and poet. Her performance art, recordings, and books are used as forms of activism. Her work frequently uses nudity and profanity. Finley incorporates depictions of sexuality, ...

, whose performances challenged notions of femininity and political power, and

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and graphic artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to ...

and Michael Cotten, who presented their first performance as the Tubes in the SFAI lecture hall, and became pioneers in the field of

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

. The school became a hub for the Punk music scene, with bands such as

the Mutants ''The Mutants'' is the fourth serial of the ninth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 April to 13 May 1972. The serial is set on and high above the ...

the Avengers Avenger, Avengers, The Avenger, or The Avengers may refer to: Arts and entertainment In the Marvel Comics universe * Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes ** Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes o ...

, and Romeo Void all started by SFAI students. Technology also became part of art practice: faculty

Sharon Grace Sharon Grace is an American artist, currently a Professor Emeritus at the San Francisco Art Institute, who is known for initiating the use of many forms of electronic media based in audiovisual technology. Since 1970, Grace has worked with telecomm ...

's Send/Receive project used satellite communications to create an interactive transcontinental performance, while

Survival Research Laboratories Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) is an American performance art group that pioneered the genre of large-scale machine performance. Founded in 1978 by Mark Pauline, the group is known in particular for their performances where custom-built mac ...

, founded by student

Mark Pauline Mark Pauline (born December 14, 1953) is an American performance artist and inventor, best known as founder and director of Survival Research Laboratories. He is a 1977 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Pauline founded SR ...

, began staging large-scale outdoor performances of ritualized interactions among machines, robots, and pyrotechnics. Since the 1990s the studio and classroom have become increasingly connected to the world via public art and community actions. As students at SFAI, Barry McGee, Aaron Noble, and Rigo 23, among others, were part of the movement known as the Mission School, taking their graffiti-inspired art to the streets and walls of the city. Faculty and students have created site-specific projects in locations from the San Francisco waterfront (Ann Chamberlain and Walter Hood's monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico (a sculpture by artist Pedro Reyes and SFAI students for the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program). Organizations like Artists' Television Access (ATA) and

Root Division Root Division is an American arts nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002, and located in the Mid-Market/South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. They offer a gallery space, exhibition opportunities for emerging and ...

, founded by alumni, and SFAI's City Studio program engage and educate local communities and cultivate a vital artistic ecosystem. The school's history was recognized in 2016, when its campus was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Closure

Due to financial mismanagement, declining enrollment, high real estate costs, and a reliance on income from campus property rentals, which was exacerbated by the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

, the school announced on March 23, 2020 that it would stop accepting new students for the following fall semester. The institute marked its 149th birthday on Thursday, March 26, 2020, shortly after failed merger talks. They briefly announced that the fall semester was canceled before reversing their decision and allowing for online and offline classes through the next school year. In July 2020, after securing $4 million in donations, the board and administration announced an agreement had been reached to retain all tenured faculty for the coming academic year, resulting in the continuation of courses for the following academic year and the reinstatement of the degree program for those within a year of graduation. In February 2022 the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

and SFAI announced that they are studying an acquisition of SFAI by USF, however USF backed out of the deal in July. SFAI ceased its degree programs but will remain as "a nonprofit organization to protect its name, archives, and legacy." On July 16, 2022, the school closed permanently.

Academics

SFAI offered

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(BA),

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

(BFA),

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(MA), and

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

(MFA) degrees. SFAI also offered Low-Residency MFAs and Post-Baccalaureate certificates in Studio Art.

Photography

Founded by

in 1945, the Photography Department became the first program of its kind dedicated to exploring photography as a fine-art medium. Adams designed the school's

darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and ph ...

s and attracted photographers for the original faculty, including

, Imogen Cunningham, Minor White, and

Morley Baer Morley Baer (April 5, 1916 – November 9, 1995), an American photographer and teacher, was born in Toledo, Ohio. Baer was head of the photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute, and known for his photographs of San Francisco's " ...

, who became Head of the Department after White's departure in 1953.

Painting

Throughout the SFAI Painting Department's history, it had been home to celebrated artists such as Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn,

Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...

, Fred Martin, Elmer Bischoff, David Park, David Simpson, Frank Lobdell,

Roy De Forest Roy De Forest (11 February 1930 – 18 May 2007) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor, and teacher. He was involved in both the Funk art and Nut art movements in the Bay Area of California. De Forest's art is known for its quirk ...

, Ronald Davis,

Toba Khedoori Toba Khedoori (born 1964 in Australia) is an artist of Iraqi heritage, known primarily for highly detailed mixed-media paintings executed on large sheets of wax-coated paper. Biography Khedoori was born in Sydney of Jewish-Iraqi parentage an ...

, Barry McGee,

Inez Storer Inez Mary Romanoff (, formerly Storer; born October 11, 1933), known as Inez Storer, is an American painter and mixed-media artist who creates work in the magical realism genre. Biography Storer was born in Santa Monica, California, on October ...

and

Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977)"Kehinde Wiley"
''Artnet''. Retrieved October 13, 2010. i ...

among others and was central to movements such as

Bay Area Figuration The Bay Area Figurative Movement (also known as the Bay Area Figurative School, Bay Area Figurative Art, Bay Area Figuration, and similar variations) was a mid-20th Century art movement made up of a group of artists in the San Francisco Bay Area wh ...

, Color Field, California Funk, and the Mission School.

New Genres

founded the performance and video department (now New Genres) at the San Francisco Art Institute. In the late 1970s, a long-lost collection of Eadweard Muybridge photographs was found and an auction of the materials financed the creation of the department — and the purchase of two Portopak cameras. (More than a century before, the English artist had presented the first ever public showing of moving pictures on campus and apparently left something behind.)

Music

Among the many artist musicians who studied at SFAI are

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

, guitarist in

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

;

Dave Getz Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some in ...

, drummer for

Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some in ...

and Country Joe and the Fish;

The Tubes The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their eponymous 1975 debut album included the single "White Punks on Dope," while their 1983 single "She's a Beauty" was a top-10 U.S. hit and its music video was frequently played in the early day ...

; Debora Iyall of Romeo Void; Freddy (aka Fritz) of

;

Penelope Houston Penelope Houston (born December 17, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter best known as the singer for the San Francisco-based punk rock band the Avengers. She was raised in Seattle. In the mid-1970s she attended Fairhaven College in Bellin ...

of the Avengers, Courtney Love, actress and rock musician; Jonathan Holland of Tussle; Devendra Banhart.

Housing

In Summer 2010, SFAI moved its housing program to two locations in

Nob Hill Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...

: Sutter Hall at 717 Sutter Street, and Abby Hall at 630 Geary Street. In Spring 2020, the housing program was dissolved due to financial exigency.

Exhibitions and public programs

Students were given direct access to exhibitions, lectures, symposia, films, and other unique interdisciplinary events. An integral part of campus life, such events connected students to the larger community of artists, art, and contemporary ideas. The Walter and McBean Galleries (on the 800 Chestnut Street campus) house exhibitions, workshops, and other alternative and experimental avenues for presenting work by international contemporary artists. Students also had the opportunity to display their work in a number of spots on SFAI's two campuses, including the

Diego Rivera Gallery The Diego Rivera Gallery is building, formerly a student-directed art gallery and exhibition space for work by San Francisco Art Institute students. History The gallery provided an opportunity for BFA, MFA and Post-Baccalaureate students to pres ...

Adaline Kent Award

Former board member (1947–1957), Adaline Kent was a sculptor and alumni of the school. Upon her death in 1957, she bequeathed $10,000 for the establishment of an annual award for a promising California Artist. Each year since 1957 the prize was awarded by the San Francisco Art Institute Artists' Committee. Winners included

Ron Nagle Ron Nagle (born February 21, 1939) is an American sculptor, musician and songwriter. He is known for small-scale, refined sculptures of great detail and compelling color. Nagle lives and works in San Francisco, California. Life Born in San Fr ...

(1978),

(1985),

Mildred Howard Mildred Howard (born 1945) is an African-American artist known primarily for her sculptural installation and mixed-media assemblages.Baker, Kenneth"Artist Intrigued by Interaction of Materials, Ability to Revise at Will", ''San Francisco Chronicl ...

(1991),

Clare Rojas Clare E. Rojas (born 1976), also known by stage name Peggy Honeywell, is an American multidisciplinary artist. She is part of the Mission School. Rojas is "known for creating powerful folk-art-inspired tableaus that tackle traditional gender role ...

(2004), and as the final award, Scott Williams (2005).

Notable former faculty

, landscape photographer, founded the photography department in 1945 * Gertrude Partington Albright, painting and etching (1917–46) * Roy Ascott, Dean 1975-1978 *

Craig Baldwin Craig Baldwin (born 1952) is an American experimental filmmaker. He uses found footage from the fringes of popular consciousness as well as images from the mass media to undermine and transform the traditional documentary, infusing it with the ...

, filmmaker *

Blixa Bargeld Blixa Bargeld (born Christian Emmerich, 12 January 1959) is a German musician who has been the lead singer of the band Einstürzende Neubauten since its formation in 1980. Bargeld was also a founding member of the Australian rock band Nick Cave a ...

, musician (2008) * Elmer Bischoff, painting * Charles Boone, composer *

James Broughton James Broughton (November 10, 1913 – May 17, 1999) was an American poet and poetic filmmaker. He was part of the San Francisco Renaissance, a precursor to the Beat poets. He was an early bard of the Radical Faeries, as well as a member of ...

, filmmaking 1969-1982 *

Rea Irvin Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881 – May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. Although never formally credited as such, he served de facto as the first art editor of ''The New Yorker''. He created the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the ''New Yo ...

* Stan Brakhage, filmmaker *

, painting *

John Collier John Collier may refer to: Arts and entertainment *John Collier (caricaturist) (1708–1786), English caricaturist and satirical poet *John Payne Collier (1789–1883), English Shakespearian critic and forger *John Collier (painter) (1850–1934), ...

, visual anthropologist * Christopher Coppola, film director/producer *

Linda Connor Linda Connor (born in New York, November 18, 1944) is an American photographer living in San Francisco, California. She is known for her landscape photography. She has photographed in a multitude of countries throughout her career including, bu ...

, large-format photographer *

Dewey Crumpler Dewey Crumpler (born 1949) is an American painter and an associate professor at the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is featured in the permanent collections of the Oakland museum of Cali ...

, muralist and painter * Imogen Cunningham, portrait photographer * Angela Davis (1976) *

James Budd Dixon James Budd Dixon (November 26, 1900 – December 1, 1967) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter and printmaker. He was a member of the "Sausalito Six" group of San Francisco Bay Area painters. Family and education James Budd Dixon was bor ...

, painting * Richard Diebenkorn, painting *

Trisha Donnelly Trisha Donnelly (born April 22, 1974 in San Francisco) is a contemporary artist who is particularly well known as a conceptual artist. Donnelly works with various media including photography, drawing, sound, audio, video, sculpture and performance. ...

Okwui Enwezor Okwui Enwezor (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ''ArtReview'' list of the 100 m ...

, installation, performance, video artist, founded the New Genres department * Sonia Gechtoff, painting *

María Elena González María Elena González (born 1957) is a Cuban-American sculptor based in Brooklyn and the Bay Area.Cascone, Sarah"María Elena González Talks to the Trees at Hirschl & Adler Modern,"''Artnet News'', February 10, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2023 ...

* Rene Green * Doug Hall *

Julius Hatofsky Julius Hatofsky (April 1, 1922 – January 1, 2006) was an American painter. Biography Julius Hatofsky was born in Ellenville, in upstate New York, in 1922, and first studied art as a teenager in the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Pro ...

, painting *

Hou Hanru Hou Hanru (; born 1963 in Guangzhou, China) is an international art curator and critic based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He is Artistic Director of the MAXXI in Rome, Italy. Biography Hou graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in ...

Robert H. Hudson Robert H. Hudson (born 1938) is an American visual artist. He is known for his funk art assemblage metal sculptures, but he has also worked in painting and printmaking. Hudson lives and works in Cotati, Sonoma County, California. Early life a ...

, sculpture *

, photographer * Paul Kos, conceptual artist *

(1972–2011), filmmaker *

Tony Labat Tony Labat (born 1951) is a Cuban-born multimedia and installation artist. He has exhibited internationally over the last 40 years, developing a body of work in performance, Video, sculpture and Installation. Labat's work has dealt with investigat ...

, installation artist *

, photographer * Pedro Joseph de Lemos, decorative design, director, 1911-1917 * Leo Lentelli, sculptor *

Janis Crystal Lipzin Janis Crystal Lipzin, (born 1945) is an American artist working with film, photography, video, audio, multi-media installations, and media performance. She has been an active filmmaker since 1974, when she became attracted to using Super-8 camera ...

, filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist * Frank Lobdell, painting *

Brenda Louie Brenda Louie (born 1953) is a California-based Chinese American artist known for her large, painterly abstractions and multimedia installations that explore a variety of subject matter, including migration, cultural hybridity, and Eastern philosoph ...

* Lydia Lunch *

Eric Spencer Macky Eric Spencer Macky, also known simply as Spencer Macky (1880–1958) was a New Zealand-born American painter, intaglio printmaker, and educator. He was known for his landscape paintings and scenes of San Francisco. Biography Eric Spencer Mack ...

, painter, former Dean from 1919 until 1935. *

Arthur Frank Mathews Arthur F. Mathews (October 1, 1860 – February 19, 1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a s ...

, muralist, painter *

Tom Marioni Tom Marioni (born 1937, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) is an American artist and educator, known for his conceptual artwork. Marioni was active in the emergence of Conceptual Art movement in the 1960s. He founded the Museum of Conceptual Art ( ...

* Fred Martin, beat-era, post-war painter and writer and Professor Emeritus. * Alicia McCarthy, painter *

Jane McGonigal Jane McGonigal (born October 21, 1977) is an American author, game designer, and researcher. McGonigal advocates using mobile and digital technology to channel positive attitudes and collaboration in a real-world context. Biography Early years ...

, game designer and author * Frederick Meyer, founder of the California College of the Arts (1907) *

Jose Moya del Pino José Moya del Piño (1891–1969) was a Spanish-born American painter, muralist and educator. He associated with the Post-impressionists of Spain and the Depression-era muralists in the San Francisco Bay Area. He taught classes at the San Fran ...

, painter * Bruce Nauman, Process & Conceptual Art. * Manuel Neri, sculpture * Charlemagne Palestine * David Park, painting *

Sidney Peterson Sidney Peterson (November 15, 1905, Oakland, California – April 24, 2000, New York City) was an American writer, artist, and avant-garde filmmaker. He attended UC Berkeley, worked as a newspaper reporter in Monterey, and spent time as a practi ...

, film director, initiated first film courses at SFAI (1947) * Jim Pomeroy, new media * Brett Reichman, painter * Mark Rothko, painter (1947, 1949) *

Hassel Smith Hassel Smith (born Hassell Wendell Smith Jr.; April 24, 1915 – January 2, 2007) was an American painter. Biography Hassel Smith was born in 1915 in Sturgis, Michigan. During childhood and adolescence his family alternated between homes in ...

, painting * Ralph Stackpole, sculptor, painter * Clyfford Still, painter (1946-1950) *

, painter (1981–99) *

Larry Sultan Larry Sultan (July 13, 1946 – December 13, 2009) was an American photographer from the San Fernando Valley in California. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1978 to 1988 and at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco ...

, photographer * Taravat Talepasand *

, painting *

, painter * James Weeks, painting * Henry Wessel, Jr. (1972-2014), one of the

New Topographics "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape" was a groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary landscape photography held at the George Eastman House's International Museum of Photography (Rochester, New York) from October 1975 to Febru ...

photographers. * Minor White, photographer *

Al Wong Al Wong (born 1939) is an American artist and educator, known for his experimental film and mixed media installation art. He is based in San Francisco, California. Biography Al Wong was born in 1939 in San Francisco, California to father Willie ...

(born 1938), experimental filmmaker, mixed media installation artist, taught at SFAI from 1975 until 2003. *

Caveh Zahedi Caveh Zahedi (; born April 29, 1960) is an American film director and actor. Early years Zahedi was born in Washington, D.C., to Iranian immigrant parents. He studied philosophy at Yale University. Upon graduation, Zahedi moved to Paris, Fran ...

, filmmaker

References

External links

* {{authority control Art schools in San Francisco Film schools in California Universities and colleges in San Francisco Russian Hill, San Francisco San Francisco Designated Landmarks Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Educational institutions established in 1871 1871 establishments in California School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco

History

Closure

Academics

Photography

Painting

New Genres

Music

Housing

Exhibitions and public programs

Adaline Kent Award

Notable former faculty

See also

References

External links