Lot 91: Raymond S. Boynton (1883-1951) Youth (Study for a Coit Tower mural) 24 x 27in overall: 31 x 33in

Raymond S. Boynton
Youth (Study for a Coit Tower mural)
signed and dated 'Ray Boynton 1931' (lower left and on the reverse)
oil on panel
24 x 27in
overall: 31 x 33in
Painted in 1931

Footnotes

• One of California's most important and interesting cultural monuments from the WPA era is Coit Tower on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill. It was built in 1933 with a bequest from wealthy socialite Lillian Coit for the beautification of the city. The Tower's main feature is murals done under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). Artists who participated in the project included Raymond Boynton "The Dean of Frescoes of Coit Tower", Ralph Stackpole, Bernard Zakheim, Otis Oldfield, Victor Arnautoff, Edith Hamlin and Rinaldo Cuneo. Boynton is most famous for his mural work in California during the Great Depression. He first exhibited in California at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE) in San Francisco, and in addition to his artistic endeavors was a critic, theorist, and editorialist. In the mid-1920s he went to Mexico City where he studied mural painting under Diego Rivera, and in this period was successful in procuring many public and private commissions for himself and Rivera. Boynton's position as the chief muralist for Coit Tower was a direct result of his recognition of the new social and political language of the day. Though rare to the market, fine examples of the artist's work can be found at the DeYoung Museum, as well as Mills College and other important San Francisco museums.
  
  Boynton's murals for Coit Tower were executed in 1934, and entitled Animal Force and Machine Force. The present work from 1931, entitled Youth, is the maquette for a portion of one of the main murals located on the first floor as one enters the Tower. It is also the preliminary design and foundation for his large masterwork of the same name, exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. in 1935. The composition features two young men struggling to pull their fishing nets from the sea against rocky outcroppings along the California Coast. The torsion of their bodies in contrapposto design accentuates the muscularity of their forms. Executed in brilliant colors, it stands as a noteworthy interpretation of the WPA ethos of American Art in the 1930s.