From the SFAI Library and Archives: The Olympics!
There have been plenty of SFAI Artists who have been athletes, even noted athletes, AND there have been plenty of SFAI Artists who have made work about sports, competition, and the OLYMPICS, including Rigo 23 (BFA 1991) whose 22 foot high Victory Salute (2005) on the campus of San Jose State University commemorates SJSU students Tommie Smith and John Carlos who at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics “stood for Justice, Dignity, Equality and Peace,” on the winners’ podium during the playing of the US National Anthem, heads bowed, with raised fists in support of the Black Liberation Movement.
Rigo’s work has always connected with the real world and the way we view the City, and has always stressed social activism. Last fall Rigo’s monumental sculpture of Native American activist Leonard Peltier was installed on the roof of SFAI’s Cafe, overlooking Alcatraz—the site of the American Indian Movement’s occupation in the early 1970s.
With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.
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