1898-1984
Theme/Style – California Modernism, landscapes
Media – Oils, murals, sculpture, lithography
Artistic Focus – A San Francisco native, Suzanne Scheuer was one of the muralists commissioned by the Depression-era Public Works of Art Project to create the Coit Tower murals. In addition to her Coit Tower work, she created murals in the Berkeley post office, and in post office buildings in Caldwell and Eastland, Texas.
Career Highlights –
- Early in her career, Scheuer worked most often in watercolor and gouache.
- Scheuer’s Coit Tower mural, an illustration of the news gathering and distribution process, is notable for its use of reds and blues, colors not normally associated with the usual earth tones of the fresco palette. The mural depicts the submission of a news item to an editor, its incorporation into the printing process, and the eventual distribution of the news to a street-side newsstand. The hot news, proclaimed on the front page of an issue of the San Francisco Chronicle reads, “Artists Finish Coit Tower Murals, April 1934.”
- Following the Depression, Scheuer moved from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, California, where she continued painting and sculpting.
- She also taught at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Bibliographic references are available upon request.