Suzanne Scheuer
{{Short description|American painter (1898–1984)}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Suzanne Scheuer
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| birth_date = February 11, 1898
| birth_place = San Jose, California, U.S.
| death_date = {{death-date and age|December 20, 1984|February 11, 1898}}
| death_place = Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
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| education =
| alma_mater = California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco Art Institute
| known_for = New Deal-era murals, sculpture, lithographs, pencil sketches
| notable_works = Coit Tower mural Newsgathering, United States Post Office (Berkeley, California) mural Incidents in California History
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| movement = Social realism
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File:United States Post Office, Berkeley, California - Stierch - 14.jpg (detail)]]
File:Newsgathering by Suzanne Scheuer - Coit Tower, San Francisco, CA - DSC04815.jpg
File:Berkeley Post Office Elevator Mural.jpg
Suzanne Scheuer (1898 – 1984) was an American fine artist, best known for her New Deal-era murals. She painted one of the murals in Coit Tower, Newsgathering.{{Cite web|title=Coit Tower Murals Art|url=https://www.sftodo.com/sanfrancisco/coit-tower-murals-art/|access-date=2020-11-27|website=San Francisco To Do|language=en-US}}
Biography
Suzanne Scheuer was born in San Jose, California on February 11, 1898.{{Cite news |last=Koch |first=Margaret |date=1971-05-30 |title=Old Stones, Old Boards Into New Houses |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4190065/suzanne-scheuer-profile-by-margaret/ |url-access=limited |access-date=2020-11-27 |work=Santa Cruz Sentinel |pages=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite web |last=Arts Commission |first=San Francisco |date=September 11, 2024 |title=San Francisco Arts Commission - Suzanne Scheuer |url=https://kiosk.sfartscommission.org/artist-maker/info/624?artistName=Suzanne%20Scheuer |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240911221939/https://kiosk.sfartscommission.org/artist-maker/info/624?artistName=Suzanne%20Scheuer |archive-date=September 11, 2024 |access-date=September 11, 2024 |website=kiosk.sfartscommission.org |language=English}} Scheuer was of Dutch descent.
She moved to San Francisco, California in 1918. Scheuer studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) as a fine arts major, and later went back and got a teacher's credential.{{Cite web|url = http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-suzanne-scheuer-12278|title = Oral history interview with Suzanne Scheuer, 1964 July 29|date = July 29, 1964|access-date = November 8, 2014|website = Archives of American Art|publisher = Smithsonian Institution}} Around ten years later she went back to school to study mural painting with Ray Boynton at California School of Fine Arts (now called the San Francisco Art Institute).
Scheuer taught art for three years in Los Banos and Salinas public schools.{{Cite web|url = http://art.famsf.org/suzanne-scheuer|title = Suzanne Scheuer|access-date = November 8, 2014|website = Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF)}} She then toured Europe extensively, where she gained an appreciation for murals.
Pencil sketches
Scheuer created a number of pencil sketches of children playing at the playground in San Francisco's Chinatown. Many of those sketches are among the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - Legion of Honor Museum.
Murals
In 1933, Scheuer was chosen by Ralph Stackpole to be one of the Coit Tower muralists. Given a choice of California trade and commerce to portray, she selected the theme of "industry", given a family connection to the petroleum industry. She lost out to John Langley Howard for "industry", and accepted the Coit Tower mural theme of "newspapers". The mural was later named Newsgathering. She prepared by sketching the editorial, typesetting, and printing operations at the San Francisco Chronicle. Her assistant on the Coit Tower mural was noted artist Hebe Daum, who would later marry Stackpole's son, Peter.Veronico, Nick. Depression-Era Murals of the Bay Area. 2014. (p.15 and following) [https://books.google.com/books?id=agwaAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Suzanne+Scheuer%22&pg=PA15 Google Books]
In 1937, she received a commission from the U.S. Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts to paint the mural titled Incidents in California History in the Berkeley post office. She also received commissions in 1938 to paint two other post office murals: Indians Moving in Caldwell, Texas and Buffalo Hunt in Eastland, Texas. The Caldwell mural was moved to the Burleson County Courthouse,{{cite web|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasArt/Caldwell-Texas-Post-Office-Mural-Indians-Moving.htm|title=Indians Moving, Caldwell Texas Post Office Mural by Suzanne Scheuer, 1939.|work=texasescapes.com|access-date=1 August 2015}} and mural studies for the Caldwell and Eastland murals are now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.{{cite web|url=http://www.sfmuralarts.com/artist/suzanne-scheuer/231.html|title=SF Mural Arts - Suzanne Scheuer - Page 1|work=sfmuralarts.com|access-date=1 August 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/results/index.cfm?rows=10&q=&page=1&start=0&fq=name:%22Scheuer%2C%20Suzanne%22|title=Artworks Search Results / American Art|work=si.edu|access-date=1 August 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510102113/http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/results/index.cfm?rows=10&q=&page=1&start=0&fq=name:%22Scheuer%2C%20Suzanne%22|archive-date=10 May 2017}}
Later life
In 1940, Scheuer began teaching part-time at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California while continuing to paint and sculpt. While living there she served as President of the Stockton Art League from 1944-1945. She then moved to Santa Cruz, California, where her extended family had settled. She designed and built six houses there, doing much of the physical and artistic work herself. All six houses were still standing as of 2013. She continued to paint and sculpt.
Scheuer died in Santa Cruz on December 20, 1984.{{Cite web|url = http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-suzanne-scheuer-12278|title = Oral history interview with Suzanne Scheuer, 1964 July 29|date = July 29, 1964|access-date = November 8, 2014|website = Archives of American Art|publisher = Smithsonian Institution}}
See also
- Public Works of Art Project (PWAP)
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
References
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External links
- [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-suzanne-scheuer-12278 Oral history interview with Suzanne Scheuer, July 29, 1964]
- http://art.famsf.org/suzanne-scheuer
- https://livingnewdeal.org/artists/suzanne-scheuer/
- https://postalmuseum.si.edu/indiansatthepostoffice/mural46.html
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Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area
Category:Artists from San Jose, California
Category:Public Works of Art Project artists
Category:Section of Painting and Sculpture artists
Category:American social realist artists
Category:California College of the Arts alumni
Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni
Category:University of the Pacific (United States) faculty
Category:Painters from California
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:20th-century American women painters
Category:American women muralists