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Jerry Burchard’s photo essay of his time as a student, rephotographed by J. John Priola and Zack Sumner Schomp.


Jerry Burchard Portfolio


Decade

1950s


Tags

The Meadow The Tower Architecture Sculpture



Jerry Burchard made this portfolio of photographs and reminiscences of his time as a student at SFAI (when it was the California School of Fine Arts) as a gift to the library, while he was on the faculty in 1992. Thank you to SFAI faculty member J. John Priola and alumnus Zack Sumner Schomp for rephotographing them.


Slideshow ︎︎︎


It was small. 200 students 30 teachers 6 staff, including Willie the broom pusher. There was lots of World War II guys and a handful of highschool sweethearts and mostly serious young folks who didn’t really have a clue, but we knew we were in the right place. There was a big back yard, great parties, and extra rooms all over full of junk. Wally Hedrick + Jay DeFeo had the best parties at their loft on Fillmore Street. Carlos + others had lofts in the produce market, but most of us were there on the spot to breathe in the fumes of oil paint, hypo + damp concrete. Gurdon Woods ran it, with a part time secretary + an accountant, Gerry Boyde. Wally was a registrar, Fiscus was the guy you went to when your world was falling apart. Your teachers played dixieland at the parties, and often tried to hustle your girlfriends, but beer cured everything. No one knew what to do after graduation. The outside world didn’t exist. Maybe nothing changes after all.—Jerry Burchard ’92Bob Howard sculpture. Among the earliest use of fiberglass in USA along with recumbent bodies, it was the only decor for the school. Back entrance to Francisco Street. Originally the main entrance to the school. Wooden gates, a long walk on bricks through a corridor of poplar trees, it came through a 1920s garden featuring fairy rings of trees etc. that had all grown over into a woodsy paradise for the art students, and of course, the neighborhood dogs. Carlos Villa’s old studio. Now the entrance for the photo dept. Wally Hedrick at his Fillmore loft. Wally Hedrick’s tin Xmas tree in the old Back Yard. Now the site of the 1969 building. Bob Hudson Manuel Neri had a broken heart, or so he said. He brought this out to the Patio and we had a big party. We got plastered for plaster. Jay DeFeo at the Fillmore loft. Behind her the painting, “The Rose” was on most magazine covers of America. The paint was 10-12” thick. It now resides under a ton of plaster and chicken wire to keep the paint from sliding off, in the Conference Room at SFAI. Last stall in the men’s room near the library. This lizard-fish stayed intact for years. Mostly because there was only one maintenance man, and he didn’t have to keep busy. Fiscus + Mr. Murphy. Murphy was a kind of librarian/teacher/ogre.


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