Telegraph Hill
Coit Tower
WPA Murals
The little seated boy looks at a book whose page shows the date of Coit Tower (1933) and the date of the WPA projects at Coit Tower (1934).
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Animal Force by Ray BoyntonThese are the first frescoes that one sees when entering Coit Tower. Boynton chose to portray animal power in Agriculture. As often occurred he included fellow artist Gordon Langdon leaning on a horse.
Ray Boynton was an Iowan, after studying art in Chicago he came to California to become the first California Fresco artist. His first project appeared in a Los Altos home in 1917. While teaching fresco at the California School of Fine Arts he completed the first large scale mural in the auditorium of Mills College in Oakland. He went on to become a teacher at UC Berkeley. He was called the “Dean of Frescoes” at Coit Tower. After Coit Tower he completed 15 lunette murals in the Modesto Post Office.
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These further symbols of machine force include a man at the controls of a hydroelectric plant, a surveyor, steam shovel, and oil derricks. Notice that he had to work around not only a door, but a delightful art deco light fixture