Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design

Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design
Rudolph Schaeffer School front door (circa 1940), on 136 St. Anne Street
Address
2255 Mariposa Street San Francisco , California United States
Coordinates	37.763248°N 122.405970°W / 37.763248; -122.405970
Information
Other name	Rudolph Schaeffer School of Rhythmo-Chromatic Design
School type	private art school
Established	1924
Founder	Rudolph Schaeffer
Closed	1984
Language	English
Campus type	urban

Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design or Rudolph Schaeffer School of Rhythmo-Chromatic Design (1924 – 1984) was an art school located in San Francisco, California, best known for its courses in color and interior design. The school was founded by artist Rudolph Schaeffer.

History

The school founder, Rudolph Frederick Schaeffer^[1] had studied in Munich (1914 to 1915) through the United States Commission of Education, learn about the study of color, design, and craft and how it was being taught in public, industrial, and trade schools.^[2] He also studied color theory under Ralph Johonnot.^[3]

The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design was an art school founded in 1924 in San Francisco, California.^[2] Originally named the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Rhythmo-Chromatic Design, located at 136 St. Anne Street^[4] with large front windows looking out on Saint Mary's Square and Beniamino Bufano's Sun Yat Sen statue, in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco. Other artists had studios in the Anne Street building, including Bertha Lum and Frances Revett Wallace.^[5]

"St. Mary's Square sloped down from Sun Yat Sen and the poplar trees, a beautiful sloping park where the Chinese women and mothers used to bring their children and spread a blanket and have their lunch and sit there in the sun; our students used to go out and sit in the park and enjoy that park. Then the city came along and condemned the whole street, this little St. Anne Street running at the base of the park, and a parking lot for the Stauffer Chemical Company on the other side, and a small hotel at either end of St. Anne Street running from California to Pine."^[2]

2255 Mariposa Street, the Potrero Hill campus from 1960–1984^[6]

In 1928,^[7][8] the school was at 127 Grant Avenue, near Union Square, San Francisco. In the 1950s, in order to educate the public and students about Asian culture, Schaeffer invited Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, founder of California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) to give public lectures at his East-West Arts Gallery.^[9]

By 1960 the school moved to Potrero Hill at 2255 Mariposa Street.^[5][10] In 1984, the school closed after financial issues and disagreements in terms of direction of the school between Schaeffer and the Board of Trustees.^[5]

Notable students

A list of notable alumni from Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, in alphabetical order by last name.

• Dorr Bothwell (1902–2002), artist, designer and author of "Notan – on the Interaction of Positive and Negative Spaces"^[11]
• Ernest Briggs (1923–1984), abstract expressionist painter, and professor at Pratt Institute from 1961 to 1984^[12][13]
• Henry Doane (1905–1999), landscape painter and commercial artist
• Manny Farber (1917–2008), painter and writer^[14]
• Edward McNeil Farmer (1901–1969), painter and former professor at Stanford University.^[15]
• George Gaethke (1898–1982), WPA-era artist, painter, printmaker^[16]
• Dorothy Rieber Joralemon (1893–1987), sculptor^[17]
• Dorothy Wagner Puccinelli (1901–1974), WPA-era artist and muralist, enrolled in 1925^[18][19]
• Raymond Puccinelli (1904–1986), sculptor, former professor of sculpture^[20]
• Hazel Salmi (1893–1986), painter, arts administrator^[21]
• Lanette Scheeline (1910–2001) artist and textile designer^[22]
• Geraldine Knight Scott (1904–1989), landscape architect^[23]
• Michael Taylor (1927–1986), interior designer^[24]
• Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895–1989), photographer - from Schaeffer's teachings at San Francisco Art Institute^[25]

References

1. "Rudolph Frederick Schaeffer - Biography". askart.com. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
2. Mitchell, Margaretta K. (1981). "Rudolph Schaeffer: (The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design; art in San Francisco since 1915; oral history transcript)". University of California Berkeley, Regional Oral History Office University of California, The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California. Retrieved April 15, 2016 – via archive.org.
3. "Rudolph Schaeffer Obituary". archive.org. San Francisco Chronicle. March 10, 1988. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
4. *Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design (1929). "Modern Rhythmo-chromatic design Summer classes catalog, July 8 - Aug. 11". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
   • Inside JPEG
5. "Detailed description of the Rudolph Schaeffer papers, 1880s-1994". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
6. Kamiya, Gary; Madonna, Paul (October 28, 2019). "The Rock House". nobhillgazette.com. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
7. Salinger, Jehanne Bietry, ed. (1927). "Schools: Rudolph_Schaeffer_School_of_Design". The Argus: A Journal of Art Criticism. 1–5. San Francisco. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
8. "Schools: Rudolph_Schaeffer_School_of_Design". The Art Digest. 11 (15). Art Digest Incorporated: 28. May 1, 1927. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
9. "From the American Academy of Asian Studies to the California Institute of Integral Studies". David Ulansey's Mysterium. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
10. "Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design certificate of completion for course in interior design and color". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. 1960. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
11. OLIVER, MYRNA (September 28, 2000). "Dorr Bothwell; Painter Lived Nomadic Life". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
12. "Oral history interview with Ernest Briggs, 1982 July 12-October 21". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
13. "Ernest Briggs, Artist And For 2 Decades A Teacher At Pratt". The New York Times. June 14, 1984. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
14. "Appreciation: Manny Farber". SFGate. Hearst Newspapers. August 22, 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
15. Hughes, Edan Milton (1986). Artists in California, 1786-1940. Hughes Publishing Company. ISBN 9780961611200.
16. Dugan, H. L. (October 12, 1947). "Chinese Art Exhibited in S.F. Gallery". Oakland Tribune. pp. C-3. ISSN 1068-5936 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Dorothy Rieber Joralemon – Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Dorothy Rieber Joralemon". www.askart.com. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
18. "Dorothy Wagner Puccinelli and Raymond Puccinelli" (PDF). 1937. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
19. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Fleishhacker, Delia, Memorial Building". National Park Service. 1979. Retrieved November 10, 2022. With accompanying pictures
20. Hughes, Edan Milton (2002). Artists in California, 1786-1940: L-Z. Crocker Art Museum. p. 901. ISBN 978-1-884038-08-2.
21. Hughes, Edan Milton (2002). "Salmi, Hazel". Artists in California, 1786-1940: L-Z. Crocker Art Museum. p. 972. ISBN 978-1-884038-08-2.
22. "Lanette Scheeline". Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
23. Wrenn Bobrow, Claire (1993). Geraldine Knight Scott: Art and the Landscape Architect. University of California. pp. 52, 140.
24. Vogel, Carol (June 5, 1986). "Michael Taylor is Dead at 59; Innovative Interior Designer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
25. Ware, Susan (2004). Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century, Volume 5. London, England: Harvard University Press. ISBN 067401488X.

External links

• The Rudolph Schaeffer Papers 1880–1994, from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution