November 20, 1974

Russian-born muralist Anton Refregier gave the Class of 1928 Lecture on “The Current Art Scene in the Soviet Union.” The creator of the largest of the WPA murals done during the 1930s and 1940s, Refregier had scarcely finished the work, the 27-panel “History of San Francisco” (1940-48) in the United States Post Office in Rincon, CA, when it was denounced for its portrayal of what critics called “violence, racial hatred and class struggle.”

Refregier died in Moscow while at work on a mural for the Moscow Medical Center in 1979, the same year his mural in Rincon was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.