Anton Refregier (March 20, 1905 – October 10, 1979) was a Russian immigrant painter in the United States.
He made the 27 murals in the Rincon Center in San Francisco, California, which depict the history of California, in the style of the social realism.
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Refregier was born in Moscow and emigrated to the United States in 1920. After working various odd jobs, he earned a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design in 1921. After finishing school, Refregier moved back to New York in 1925. To earn a living, Refregier worked for interior decorators doing copies of Bouchers and Fragonards. He continued on his journey and traveled to Munich in 1927. While there he studied under Hans Hofmann, who worked in abstract expressionism.[1]
Refregier returned to New York during the late 1920s and lived in Croton-on-Hudson's Mount Airy artists' colony.[1] In an interview Refregier referred to this time as the most wonderful period of his life in spite of the fact that it was wonderful in a peculiar way. He was referring to the depression of the 1930s. Refregier learned a lot about life during these times. He also learned about the United States economy and government.[2]
Refregier found inspiration in tragic events. Refregier was quoted as saying that “the richer we [were] in possessions, the poorer we became in their enjoyment.” [2] He said the amazing part of that period was the “human quality, the humanist attitude that [everyone] had” and the discovery that “the artist was not apart from the people.”[2]
He struggled as a muralist until the government began the Works Progress Administration (later “Works Projects Administration”, WPA) in 1936 that helped create a sponsorship for the arts. When asked about the program Refregier said that it was “by the wisdom of one of the greatest Presidents we ever had, Roosevelt, it's common knowledge the WPA, a relief program, was established [because] it was necessary to protect the skills of the American people.” [2] Refregier received $23.86 a week on the WPA rolls.
Refregier was a faculty member and Chairman of the Board at the American Artists School from 1937-38.[3] Refregier began to gain notoriety and was given the opportunity to choose between two assignments for his first project. The WPA gave him the option of painting a courthouse or the children's ward of a hospital. Refregier chose the children's ward because did not want to have the pressure that came with designing artwork for a courthouse. He was assigned to work on Brooklyn's Green Point Hospital. The project took a little over a year to complete and involved five other contributing artists.[1] After completing the hospital, Refregier's work progressed mainly to government-sponsored projects. These included the World's Fair Federal Works Buildings in the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and the Section of Fine Arts of the Public Building Administration in the Treasury Department. He also worked as a teacher, supervising artist, and mural supervisor.[1]
Refregier won many mural competitions and started to make a name for himself as a muralist. In 1940 he won the commission for his most famous work. He competed with a number of other artists for the commission, including artist Richard Haines[4] The mural consisted of 27 panels and covered 400 square feet (37 m2) of wall space. The mural is formally known as the “History of San Francisco” and is located in the Rincon Post Office in San Francisco, California. Refregier painted the mural with casein tempera on white gesso over plaster walls.[1]
The mural consisted of various historical events from California's past. It included the anti-Chinese Sand Lot riots, the 1934 San Francisco Waterfront Strike, and trade unionist Tom Mooney's trial that was based on fabricated evidence.[1] Refregier used these tragedies as inspiration. Refregier “believed that art must address itself to contemporary issues and that a mural painting in particular must not be ‘banal, decorative embellishment,’ but a ‘meaningful, significant, powerful plastic statement based on the history and lives of the people.’” [5]
The mural also depicted the “gold rush, the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, the disastrous earthquake and fire, and into the twentieth century and a second World War, culminating in the signing of the UN charter.” [5] Some were suspicious of Refregier because of his Russian background. None of this bothered Refregier. He was only worried about his art.[5]
The style of the historic mural had many of Refregier's key characteristics. The palette was composed of yellows, browns, and grays punctuated by red in certain areas to evoke emotion. Earthy tones and the lack of bright colors remind viewers of the struggles and hardships he is depicting. Refregier also uses white to represent virtue in those inspired by a cause. His style is very flat and one dimensional. He uses solid blocks of color to denote shadows, along with depth and shade. His painting style appears to be very rudimentary and simple, but complex because of the way he uses color to evoke emotion and powerful images to tell a story.[1]
The “History of San Francisco” took eight years to complete at a cost of $26,000. It created a heated debate because of the controversial events it depicted from California’s past. After all, the mural was located in a public building and Refregier was using public funds to complete it. People believed that it “placed disproportionate emphasis on violence, racial hatred, and class struggle.” [5] Republican Senator Hubert Scudder and former President Richard Nixon were involved in a protest to have the work covered. They claimed it had a communistic tone and “defamed pioneers and reflected negatively on California's past.” Many believed that “no artist, however distinguished, escaped the heavy, if well meaning, hand of federal supervision.” [5]
In a letter to the editor in 1952 the President of the College Art Association said that “the pro-Chinese sentiments of one section of the murals and indication of the then existing wartime alliance with Russia of another section reflected the realities of the time.” The protest was eventually defeated by a group of artists and museum directors.
After the conflict, Refregier continued to work as an artist, teacher, professor and judge for various competitions. He was a professor of painting at Bard College in New York from 1962-64.[6] In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[7] Refregier died in 1979 while in Moscow. He was working on a mural for the medical center in his home town. Ironically, that same year his Rincon mural was placed under the protection of the National Register of Historic Places.[1]