Shirley Julian (1914–1995), also known by the names Shirley Staschen and Shirley Triest, was an American visual artist who co-founded the

San Francisco Artists and Writers Union The San Francisco Artists and Writers Union was a group of San Francisco artists and writers, formed during the Great Depression. History The group first met in late 1933. The group was not formally organized as a union (it did not engage in collec ...

, and worked for the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA). Julian was a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, and

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

Biography

Staschen was born in Oakland, California on July 29, 1914. She attended the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

and the

California College of Arts and Crafts California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

(now California College of the Arts). In the early 1930s she obtained a job with the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). Around this time she married her first husband, fellow artist, Valentine Julien (1908–1964). In 1933 Staschen joined the WPA team led by

Bernard Zakheim Bernard Baruch Zakheim (April 4, 1898 – November 28, 1985) was a Warsaw-born San Francisco muralist, best known for his work on the Coit Tower murals. Early life and immigration Zakheim was born to a Hasidic Jewish family in Warsaw, then part ...

, painting one of the Coit Tower murals in San Francisco. The following year she participated in the

San Francisco General Strike The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out. ...

by picketing at Coit Tower. Also in the early 1930s Staschen attended the organizing meeting of the San Francisco Artists and Writers Union, along with Zakheim,

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider h ...

, and future husband Frank Triest. Towards the end of the decade Staschen assisted the artist Richard Gentry Ayer (1909–1967) with his WPA murals for the Aquatic Park in San Francisco. That led to a job demonstrating lithographic technique at the

1939 World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

. Staschen divorced Valentine Julien and then married Al Podesta, a fellow pacifist and manual laborer. The couple supported conscientious objection to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During the war years Staschen took care of her child and worked as a commercial photographer. Towards the end of the war Staschen divorced Al Podesta and married Frank Triest (who she would eventually divorce). Staschen has participated in two interviews for oral histories. She was interviewed in 1964 for part of the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

's New Deal and the Arts project. She was interviewed again at the end of her life for the Regional Oral History Office of the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

at 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, ...

. The interview became the major part of 1997 publication ''A Life on the First Waves of Radical Bohemianism in San Francisco''. Staschen's work (under the name Shirley Julian) is in the collection of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, the

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

, the

Krannert Art Museum The Krannert Art Museum (KAM) is a fine art museum located at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, United States. It has of space devoted to all periods of art, dating from ancient Egypt to contemporary photography ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, and the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Julian, Shirley 1914 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American women artists Federal Art Project artists California College of the Arts alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni Artists from Oakland, California Artists from San Francisco