GUILLERMO WAGNER GRANIZO.
Courtesy BHM
Walk down Benicia’s First Street and if you chance to look down you may notice the occasional colorful tiles depicting local landmarks, characters and historical events.
The series of 27 tiles was created by artist Guillermo Wagner Granizo, and his work will be celebrated Saturday as part of the final city Art Walk of 2013.
The idea to have the tiles as a focus for the Art Walk came from discussions from meetings of the Art Walk Committee, said Teri Davena, city fo Benicia administrative secretary.
“We talked about literally walking on art,” said Davena. “They’ve been in the sidewalk for so long that people just kind of walk on them and don’t notice them, so I want them to stop and look down, and notice we’ve got something really unique here.”
Granizo was born in San Francisco in 1923. He was an art director for KRON-TV in San Francisco until 1959, then became a producer of education films.
He moved to Benicia in 1985, living on Military East. He made the tiles in 1987 and donated them to the city.
Granizo died in 1997, but his work lives on in museums, buildings, public spaces, corporate offices and private collections worldwide — and, of course, on Benicia’s First Street.
On Saturday, while the Art Walk focuses on the tiles embedded in the downtown sidewalk, 13 additional tiles on loan from the museum will be available for a one-day viewing at Benicia Public Library, 150 East L St.
“They’re actually staying open after hours,” Davena said.
The rarely seen tiles were donated to the museum by Granizo. In this collection are framed tile portraits of famous Californians and historically important local figures. There are also several tile works that have a camel theme, which ties in with the museum.
“It will be something wonderful to see,” said Pat Ryll, an artist with the Benicia Plein Air Gallery and a member of the Art Walk Committee. “They are absolutely beautiful!”
A booklet about Granizo and his tiles, including a map of their locations, is available for $10 at the museum, 2060 Camel Road.
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Great idea. I only wish the community would invest some time and money into preserving the tiles. Most Benicians aren’t aware that Granizo actually had a studio here in Benicia before passing. Born in San Francisco, Granizo was raised in Nicaragua and Guatemala. There he absorbed the influences of pre-Columbian primitive art and the Mexican muralists that show so strongly in his work. Today his murals are found in public and private collections worldwide including a number of small murals and single 12 x 12 tiles gifted by the artist to the Tile Heritage Foundation. Benicia should be proud to have their own collection. Gary Cullen
GUILLERMO WAGNER GRANIZO’s own notes… purpose of these notes is to explore the birth and development of my creativity. Intertwined are incidents which altered the course that led to who I am today plus other situations that could have altered the path. These pages also explore synchronicity or coincidences in my life that keep me alert to the reasons why I am here.
It all started thousands of years ago. It grew out of the mythology, poetry, sculptures, drawings, songs and dances of centuries past. Some had greater influence than others such as the Three Fates who wove the tapestries of the lives of legendary Greeks. In so doing they stirred my mind into visualizing a fantasy of these weavers guiding threads into a pattern to be called “The Story Teller”.
My desire to tell stories first lured me to a typewriter. But, like the Fates, my creativity requied a visual medium. Ceramic tiles.
“Solano County would have been my last choice for a home in the San Francisco Bay Area so at best, moving to Benicia was a fluke. But it may have been in the back of my mind since in the long ago, dad had mentioned it in connection with his parents moving West. Although I once produced a film for KPIX called STREETS IN UNIFORM, where the city was featured, it never dawned on me that some day it would be home. The film told how Col. Beale was responsible for bringing camels to the USA and also the cameleer who fathered Mexico’s President Calles, the man from Sonora who frightened us from going to church.
Every property seen had an inadequate studio area. The one home available in Benicia was purchased without even seeing the house. It was the studio that mattered – a four car garage. It is located near the Camel Barn Museum where I had an exhibit shortly after moving in. Not far is the Clock Tower whose sentries permitted William Walker to sail out the “Gate” so that he could take over Nicaragua. In the other direction is a cemetary where all my San Francisco grammar school teachers are buried. Also near by is the first of the Dominican schools of California; I went to the second one.
Benicia is a most historic city. It was once the State Capital. Here Jack London wrote some of his novels. The discovery of gold was announced in Benicia where all California Dominican nuns are buried. It is here where Sister Conception de Arguello died. Had she married Count Rezenov, California would have become Russian and I would not have lived. There are more stories. Many have been illustrated on tile and sunk into the concrete sidewalk, like the Commandant’s House where General Doolittle stayed while he gave final briefing to his men prior to the raid on Tokyo. This sidewalk project has been halted because other Benicia artists have complained that it is dangerous to walk on Granizo’s slippery tiles. Those installed have been there for over two years and have not caused harm, let alone death to anyone”.