Painted in 1934 during the depth of the Great Depression, the murals inside San Francisco's landmark Coit Tower offer a vivid, time-capsule portrait of California life.
Executed primarily in buon fresco—pigment applied directly into wet plaster—the works were funded by the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). A collective of 25 master artists and their assistants filled 3,700 square feet of wall space with scenes depicting city streetscapes, fruit orchards, industrial factories, and local maritime trade. Visually, the artists drew heavy stylistic inspiration from renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, incorporating bold forms and strong Social Realist themes.
The murals became deeply controversial just prior to their unveiling. Amid intense local labor strikes along the San Francisco waterfront, critics condemned several muralists for embedding leftist political commentary into their artwork—such as depictions of longshoremen's unions, copies of Karl Marx's Das Kapital, and radical newspapers. Outraged officials padlocked the tower and painted over the windows for several months. Following widespread public debate, the city ultimately opened the tower in October 1934 with the murals preserved intact. Today, they stand as one of the nation's premier collections of New Deal public art.
