SANDOW BIRK’S FEARLESSLY POLITICAL ART
June 2, 2016 | by SFJAZZ
Sandow Birk in his studio with paintings from 2000 inspired by William Hogarth.
Those who've been to the SFJAZZ Center know Sandow Birk's work well. The Center’s second floor features three commissioned tiled murals created by Sandow Birk and his wife Elyse Pignolet – "Jazz and The Nation", "Jazz and The City", & "Jazz and The Afterlife." As Birk said himself, "Since the history and scope of jazz is enormous and couldn't be contained in one mural, we have tried to depict places where jazz happened, to be located in the Center where jazz will be happening now."
Newsweek published a feature on Birk and his politically charged take on Islam's Holy Book (The American Qur'an). Writes Newsweek:
"After his presentation at the Asian Art Museum, Birk stayed behind to sign copies of The American Qur'an. Later, he and I walked to the SFJAZZ Center, where he and Pignolet created three murals paying homage to the history of jazz, with its sorrowful themes of oppression, migration and homeward longing. The experience of black Americans escaping the Jim Crow South was far from Birk’s own. But that wasn’t going to stop him."Learn more about Sandow Birk & Elyse Pignolet's tile murals here.
Sandow Birk & Elyse Pignolet's "Jazz In The City" tile mural at the SFJAZZ Center, depicting storied San Francisco clubs, including Jimbo’s Bop City, home to all-night jam sessions during the music’s heyday, and the Keystone Korner, last of the city’s iconic jazz rooms.
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