Art in The City by The Bay

While in San Francisco I stayed with my uncle and his girlfriend. They could not have been more welcoming, and they made it a point to show me around the city. My first full day in the city was a Sunday. After breakfast, I was taken to the Legion of Honor Museum. I enjoyed looking at the works of art from various European eras. Of particular interest was one of the original manuscripts of the Magna Carta which was on loan to the museum. My uncle has a connection in San Francisco’s real estate business, so afterwards I was taken to the island of Belvedere, where some of the city’s wealthiest homes are situated. I was shown an excellent model of 1950’s architecture, with amazing views of downtown San Francisco, the Bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, it was a bit out of my price range at a mere $4.5 million.
That evening we went to Coit Tower to look at the murals in its rotunda. This was especially interesting to me because of the style of the art work. Even through the murals were sponsored during the Great Depression by the US government, many of the painters thought that the capitalist system had let them down. For this reason, roughly half of the rotunda is painted in the socialist realist style. While I don’t agree with the philosophy, this style of artwork remains one of my favorite genres simply for its aesthetic value. Because, the murals look like something you’d expect to find in countries of the former Warsaw Pact, I have to admit it was a bit disconcerting to find it in America.