Ex-Prisoner's Epic Murals Recognized
By AAN Staff
july 28, 2003 11:40 am
The epic murals on the cafeteria walls of
California's San Quentin State Prison are
surely
one of America's best-kept art secrets. Twelve feet
high and nearly 100 feet long, they chronicle
California's history, from the coming of the
railroads to the post-war industrial boom, and
have drawn favorable comparisons to the
WPA post-office murals of the 1930s. For nearly
50
years, the identity of the man who painted the
murals has remained a mystery. But, as SF
Weekly staff writer Ron Russell reports,
the
mystery has been solved -- and for the first time in
history, a former San Quentin inmate is about to
be honored with a "key to the prison."