1909-1986

Theme/Style – Social Realism, California Modernism, landscapes

Media – Oils, murals, lithography

Artistic Focus – Raymond Bertrand’s works on canvas were predominantly landscapes, featuring scenes of California’s striking geography, as well as oil paintings of Arctic landscapes noted for their use of icy blues, grays and whites.

Career Highlights –

• San Francisco native, Bertrand studied art at the California School of Fine Arts.
• Participated as one of the artists chosen by the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project to create frescoes. His fresco, a depiction of California’s meat packing industry, showed the industry at work, from the hanging and cleaning of pigs through the processing of hams and sausages. The composition of Bertrand’s fresco offered a hint of Cubist influence, setting it apart from some of the other works in the Tower.
• Later in his career, Bertrand returned to the California School of Fine Arts as an instructor of lithography.

Additional biographical material and full bibliographic references are available upon request.

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