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December 6, 2014 by tomdalzell

Murals – Gone (or Gone – Murals)

DutchboyBigX

Photo: http://www.stefenart.com/aboutS.html

From 1974 until 1977, this mural was on the long wall (25′ by 100′) at the southeast corner of Milvia and University, then a Dutchboy Paint store, now Au Coquelet.  The design and execution were by Stefen.  Gary Graham painted the Dutch Boy figure, a portrait of Steen.  Stefen said: “I wished to assist in environmental cleanup, by creating a new urban environment  Putting a large mural on a wall forces people to look twice and be aware of their surroundings.  It also helps to stimulate their senses.”

Dutch Boy

From Berkeley Public Library

Stefen painted the mural. He says: “The mural, received as a “sign” of hope and peace, and depicting the San Francisco Bay as seen from the Berkeley Hills, was up for three years when the property changed hands and a restauranteur (Au Coquelet) felt obliged to spray out the mural during the night, due to other ideas for his restaurant, and due to the city’s seismic-retrofitting requirement.”

Dutch Boy Painted Over in night

From Berkeley Public Library

Yes, literally painted over in the middle of the night.  The owner posted a note in the window, denying that whitewashing the mural had been an act of vandalism.  “It is an effort to alleviate the suffering of Mr. Stefen the artist.  The destruction of his painting (or heart) is due to work required by the city of Berkeley for public safety reasons.”

Here is what Stefen had to say about the mural and murals and art and life.

From Berkeley Public Library

From Berkeley Public Library

From Berkeley Public Library

From Berkeley Public Library

The death of a mural is usually not as well chronicled as its birth, but both are chronicled with respect to the Moveable Bicycle Mural.

City of Berkeley website

City of Berkeley website

Detail from Hannah Sarvasy website

Detail from Hannah Sarvasy website

Mobile Bike Addison and Shattuck

Courtesy: Berkeley Public Library

The Moveable Bicycle was created in 1998, painted on Addison under the leadership of Marcia Tripp.  It was approximately 10 feet high and 70 feet long, commissioned by the City, celebrating bicycling in Berkeley.  It was defaced, moved, defaced, and then stored at the Corporation Yard.

Tricia Tripp

Photo: Berkeley Daily Planet

Where in 2003 or 2004 it got wrecked by City crews.  Not on purpose or knowingly, but, still – wrecked.  Art is not eternal, but – damned shame.

We all probably remember the old gymnasium at Berkeley High, torn down and replaced in the last several years.

GYM-North-End-East-Facade-1929-addition-c.10-5-36-3-1024x730

Do you remember this mural inside?

Photo: Berkeley Unified School District

Photo: Berkeley Unified School District

I don’t remember it.

Photo: Berkeleyside

Photo: Berkeleyside

The gym is gone now.  No chance to see the mural.

Others, all chronicled in the research files of the Berkeley Public Library:

Adeline and Alcatraz.  Photo: Daily Californian September 16, 1983

Adeline and Alcatraz. Photo: Daily Californian September 16, 1983

Berkeley Community TheaterCommunity Theater BDG 6:13:75

This mural was painted over in 1990 because, the theater and property manager said, it was “ridden with graffiti.”  He also said, “It wasn’t the most fabulous mural in the world, but it really represented something and was done by Berkeley High Students and done of them.”  (Berkeley Voice July12, 1990).

Berkeley High School Anti-Smoking Mural.  Oakland Tribune, August 5, 1978

Berkeley High School Anti-Smoking Mural. Oakland Tribune, August 5, 1978Dana and Durant

Durant and Telegraph

Durant and Telegraph

Berkeley High School.  Oakland Tribuen, March 29, 1971

Berkeley High School. Oakland Tribuen, March 29, 1971

City of Berkeley Health Clinic.  Gazette October 25, 1976

City of Berkeley Health Clinic 7th and University . Gazette October 25, 1976

Irene Perez painted four murals at the clinic.  The Director of the Berkeley Arts Service resisted the trend by muralists to talk and work with people who had to live or work near the mural.  The Director wanted “murals on demand.”  This is a mural on demand.

Osha Neumann was part of a group that painted a mural on the wall of Goodwill Industries in 1976.

3216 Adeline.  Photo Berkeley Gazette, November 24, 1976.

3216 Adeline. Photo Berkeley Gazette, November 24, 1976.

La Raza

Daily Californian, June 28, 1985

Daily Californian, June 28, 1985

Welfare Office, 2530 San Pablo

Welfare Office, 2530 San Pablo

Mural at South Berkeley liquor store protesting crack cocaine epidemic.  Daily Californian, July 14, 1989

Mural at South Berkeley liquor store protesting crack cocaine epidemic. Daily Californian, July 14, 1989

In the fall of 1978 Osha Neumann and the Peralta College non-traditional studies mural workshop painted a 6″ by 25′ mural at the Recycilng Center Dwight and Grove (now, of course, King).

Gazette, February 1, 1979

Gazette, February 1, 1979

Photo: William Newton

Photo: William Newton

Photo: William Newton

Photo: William Newton

Photo: William Newton

Photo: William Newton

It shows a large metal monster gobbling up the earth and at the same time being dismantled and recycled by the community.

Most of these photos are, as you can see, old, faded, black and white, and from newspapers.  They are not bright, sharp, vivid, and vibrant like the murals they depict.  But – they are what I have and there is a certain power in these photos.  The murals may not have survived the ravages of time, but the photos have.

This bright, sharp, vivid and vibrant mural is an exception to the rule:

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 1.06.41 PMThis is an Eduardo Pineda mural that once was found at the West Berkeley branch of the Berkeley Public Library.  Pineda you know best from his glorious murals on the University Avenue Houses/Bombay Spice building and the playground on Hopkins below Martin Luther King Middle School.  What a beauty this was.

640px-BarringtonHall1989

Among the gone murals of Berkeley are many from Barrington Hall, a student co-op on Dwight that was closed in 1989-1990 as a result of prolonged battles with neighbors centered around Barrington’s excesses – punk rock, anarchy, and drugs.  Barrington embraced the aphorism “those who tell don’t know, and those who know don’t tell,” and so I, who doesn’t know,  won’t tell much.

A Barrington bylaw protected murals.  They were preserved as long as Barrington was alive, which is lovely.  I have found some photos – not a lot, and not high production values.  I have not found a photo of the famous Yellow Submarine mural that started it all, but here is what I have found.

BARCOMP037-bf0d1f0d BARCOMP029-d7ce8711 BARCOMP026-998e056a BARCOMP008-4d5bce5f BARCOMP007-17048eddSacred-9de14b81 per_art-0d042eee185438615_68260324b0_z 185438561_c72683111b_z 0

I made screen shots from a 1988 home movie about Barrington.  If I put all those photos here it would overwhelm the post, so I have a separate post with them.  Barrington was eventually shut down.  Squatters were evicted.

Barringotn ClosedWhen it was shut down it was cleaned up.  Murals disappeared.

One more gone mural.

Photo: 6168pmj2008

Photo: 6168pmj2008

It was at Shattuck and Vine before its rebirth as the Gourmet Ghetto.

My friend was preoccupied when I brought him a print-out of this post in draft form.  Gabby had sent him an envelope willed with magazine advertisements from the 1950s and 1960s.

1963 - Firetruck - I dreams I went to blazes in my -- httpwww.adclassix.comads263maidenformbra.htmThey were all variations on Maidenform’s “I dreamed I …..” advertisement.  What can you say about these ads?  Quirky?  More than that.  Kinky?  Definitely.  Fetish art?  Absolutely.

He looked through the photos until he got to Barrington.  “Too many ghosts for me here.” He has more than once told me the story of walking by Barrington when one of the “holdovers” in the final days of Barrington fell to his death from the roof.  I believe this story.

What about the murals that are gone, grainy black and white photos notwithstanding?

IMG_3677

 

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