Ralph Putzker
Working at the Beach Chalet, cont.
“I enjoyed working at the Beach Chalet. I was enthusiastic, and I realized this was kind of a confirmation of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. We were doing something we believed in and we enjoyed, and sensed would be of value... At the end of every day you could see that ‘this was done’.”

“It took me many years to achieve afterwards what I was doing then. Because on account of this painting monkey — all of the stupid and insensitive jobs that I had to try to support the idea of making images.”

Idealism
“All of us had a degree of idealism. ‘My God this is going to be a visually aware and socially conscious society. We will care for each other.’ I still think of this. It’s a long way away. For every person who sees a Lucian Labaudt painting there are 20 million people who look at Love Boat.

“The whole idea of street murals has been so exciting. Not graffiti, street murals. You know, all over the world. I hate the idea that once they’re finished they’re imbedded in concrete. I really honest-to-god wish there would be a helluva good party to paint the walls in the basement of the (SF State) Student Union. And as soon as they’re finished the work be very carefully photographed, and two weeks later, the next crew would come in.

“I honest-to-god wish that all of the street murals — all all of the images we’re being changed constantly. Go see the wall at Santa Monica, thick with paint, changing constantly.

“I can make a good case for a 50 year lag in what the artist does and what is popularly accepted. The Picasso things that were done 50 years ago are now showing up on bed sheets. And the 1930 Chagall things are showing up on pillow cases and dress fabric. It’s very amusing to me.

“I’m amused by this and I’m kind of delighted to see it. And vaguely resentful. History and art are all part of the same thing. They’re one integral fabric. They’re inseparable. You can’t take it apart.”

Early Radicalism
Ralph was a member on the Young Communist League in the ’30s. “There’s a tiny bit of doggerel that says:

Lives there a man with soul so dead
Who was not in the ’30s red?

“In the 40s I had probably been turned down as a Officer candidate because of early radicalism.” In the Army during WWII, Ralph was a cartographer with 52 trips over Japan. Immediately after the war he taught photography, printing and drawing at the the California Labor School “which was on the extreme left of everything.” He took advantage of the G.I. Bill to study and earn a B.A. in Art and Anthropology and an M.A. in Art and Art History, all from the University of California (Berkeley).

He started teaching in ’53 at the California School of Fine Arts, 800 Chestnut (Now the Art Institute). He later taught art at San Francisco State.

“When the strike was on at San Francisco State, nearly 20 years ago. The VFW bar (one of the many Beach Chalet incarnations) there was kind of the informal meeting grounds. We’d go down there, have a couple of beers after picketing duty. I was fired three times; I was rehired twice and reinstated once, in ’68. I haven’t seen the murals in 15 years.”

More on Ralph Putzker
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