Diego Rivera Mural at San Francisco's Stock Exchange Tower

We'd visited the exterior of the old Pacific Stock Exchange and its Tower on a previous City Guides tour--they are among the best examples of San Francisco art deco--and had been told that the Diego Rivera mural within, in the grand stairwell between the 10th and 11th floors, was not open to the public. It's within what's now the City Club of San Francisco. But City Guides has arranged with the Club to do a monthly reservations-only tour, and we had our reservations. There was a miscommunication somewhere, however...a change in the tour time from 11AM to 3PM didn't make it to the website, and a dozen or so eager visitors, including us, were left standing in the Tower's lobby. Happily, a woman from the City Club was apprised of the situation and generously allowed us to ride up to the 10th floor to see the Rivera mural there, and much more.

The Stock Exchange, center, and its Tower, left; the names to
remember here are Timothy Pfleuger, the architect of so many
of San Francisco's great buildings; and Ralph Stackpole, who
did sculpture, design, and who engaged Rivera to do the
famous mural

Stackpole sculpture outside the Exchange

Most of the Rivera mural; it would take quite a lens to get
it all; it was done in 1930-31; Rivera was perhaps not so
well known in the US, although I'd bet Stackpole knew
exactly what he was doing, placing the work of this card-
carrying commie right in one of the bastions of capitalism

Ceiling of the mural; Rivera was no mere card-carrying
commie; he'd emigated to the Soviet Union, been expelled
from there and the Party; Trotsky lived with him and
Frida Kahlo for a time in Mexico before he was assassinated
by Stalin's agents

The mural is about the Riches of California, or, the Spirit of
California, but, as with all of Rivera's murals, it is rich in
symbolism and allusion; the over-sized woman is Calafia, or
Califia, the Amazon queen of mythic California (in the myth/
story, she's supposed to be black--when Disney did a
Calafia show at Anaheim, it featured Whoopi Goldberg; but
I digress) (did you know that California comes from the same
root as Caliph and that California literally means land of the
Caliph?); anyhow, as I said, it is rich, and warrants much
longer study than we were afforded

Another partial view, off the web; if there's a
"workers of the world, unite" theme here, it's
too subtle for me (go to Coit Tower and some
of Rivera's followers if you want to see the
workers of the world unite); perhaps Diego was
hoping for some larger state-side commissions
(which he eventually got, famously, or
infamously) and behaving himself; I became
interested in Rivera during my Mexican-phase,
early 90s, a few weeks' immersion in
Cuernavaca; also the source of my interest in
Malcolm Lowry), and visited all of the famous
and more controversial murals in Mexico City,
and the Blue House, Frida's home, and much
more; glorious stuff

If you're into Art Deco, there's far more to the City Club
than just Rivera's mural...here the main dining room

In the lobby outside the dining room

Ditto

Doors--five precious metals and alloys--to
one of the five elevators

Interior decoration of the bar/lounge, a hunting
scene; anyhow, we've got to go back this fall
and see this place on the official tour...maybe
combining it with Happy Hour at the Tonga
Room!