Fresco Depicting San Diego Tuna Industry Restoredff

Source: SignOnSanDiego

The tuna fishing and canning industry, once a signature of the San Diego waterfront, has long since vanished from the region.

But for the efforts of a San Diego State University anthropology professor and a few others, the same fate would have befallen a striking Depression-era mural depicting that industry.

The restored artwork, a fresco by renowned local artist George Sorenson, was dedicated this week in a ceremony at SDSU’s library, where it has been painstakingly moved.



“What we are trying to do with this display is put the art and the artist in context,” said Seth Mallios, the professor who led the effort to preserve the mural. “Sorenson has a 50-year history here, from being an undergrad through becoming chair of the art department to heading the alumni office.”

The multistage mural, titled “San Diego Industry,” depicts Portuguese tuna fisherman at work, women canning the fish on an assembly line and Chinese merchants taking delivering of the final product.

About half of the mural was destroyed, but what remains is compelling.

“This isn’t just paint on a wall,” Mallios said. “This is a fresco. Sorenson made the paints himself, egg-tempera paints. There were very few people who were making their own paints and doing frescos. The quality of the art, the shading, the cross-hatching — this is significant art.”

Sorenson painted the mural on a wall in the basement of the university’s Hardy Tower in 1936 under the direction of Everett Gee Jackson, the chairman of the art department and another legendary San Diego artist. Sorenson’s mural and another one, an oil painting on concrete, were covered over and damaged during a late 1950s renovation of Hardy Tower. Three others, by other art students, were destroyed.

They were rediscovered in 2004 behind a lowered acoustic ceiling by university workers making repairs.

The workers notified Mallios, chairman of the anthropology department, who immediately set about determining whether the works could be saved, then raising money for preservation.

The oil painting was preserved first because it was smaller and easier — though still challenging — to manage. It was mounted in the library and dedicated in 2008.

The fresco was mounted in the library a few weeks ago.

“The most challenging part was removing the fresco from the wall,” said Gary Hulbert, the Vista art conservator chosen for the job. “First it needed to be cleaned. Then protective layers were put on it to protect it as it was removed, a protective coating and then protective fabric layers to protect it as was removed.”

Both murals are done in the style of Works Progress Administration paintings commissioned by the government to keep artists working, although the SDSU works were not government funded.

Among those attending the dedication is Sorenson’s son, also named George, who spells the family name Sorensen.

“I remember him telling us that he would take the streetcar down to the tuna canneries on the harbor to draw sketches and on the way back he smelled so bad people wouldn’t sit by him,” said Sorensen, who lives in Lake Oswego, Ore. “He also came to hate fish. The whole time I was growing up, we never ate fish.

“He also used to talk about the fresco technique. When I was a teenager, we went to Italy. We went into the Sistine Chapel, and while we are looking at the art all I am hearing about is tuna canneries.”