Art Russian artist and political refugee, Igor Ponochevny, also known as the cartoon artist, “Alesha Stupin”, turned to San Francisco authorities with the request to refrain from destroying the murals done by Russian artist Viktor Arnautov, who left a unique mark behind on the city’s architecture.
As reported prior, the San Francisco School District decided to remove all 13 parts of the mural, created from 1935 to 1936 in the George Washington School by Russian artist and immigrant Victor Arnautov. According to the school counsel’s assertion, the mural “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, а ‘manifest destiny’, white supremacy, and the suppression of others”.
Igor Ponochevny offered San Francisco authorities a unique solution: rather than destroying the mural entirely, one can put up a canvas over them, onto which other paintings can be done. For example, one can depict California’s fauna.
“I propose creating an image that is absolutely politically correct, say, California hummingbirds – no one will be offended or degraded by such pictures,” stated Igor Ponochevny in an interview with Russian Hollywood. Furthermore, the old pictures will be preserved, and the technology for preparation itself is more reliable than that which was employed by Leonardo Da Vinci when creating “The Last Supper”, and also repeats the manufacturing techniques of the Russian icon, as when the canvas bearing “Pavolka” was glued onto a wooden board.
An artist, when asked to create a new painting, estimates the cost of his services at a much lower level than a contractor would his, when required to remove old paintings.