ZAKHEIM

Masha Zakheim, a San Francisco native, is the daughter of Bernard Baruch Zakheim, a local artist of the 1930s.  Majoring in English literature and Humanities, she took her BA at San Francisco State University and her MA at University of California, Berkeley.  Teaching English and Humanities at City College of San Francisco for thirty years, she made as a focal point of her classes the large fresco by Diego Rivera on the CCSF campus called PAN AMERICAN UNITY (1940).  For her students, she designed on-site tours to the mural art of San Francisco, including Rivera's ALLEGORY OF CALIFORNIA at The City Club (1930), Rivera's THE MAKING OF FRESCO SHOWING THE BUILDING OF A CITY (San Francisco Art Institute, 1931), the many murals at Coit Tower, and her father's fresco series on THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN CALIFORNIA (1935-8) at the University of California Medical Center.

In conjunction with her teaching, she wrote up many guides for viewing mural art in San Francisco.  She also published a book titled COIT TOWER, SAN FRANCISCO: ITS HISTORY AND ART (Volcano Press, 1983), and two editions published in Spanish of DIEGO RIVERA IN SAN FRANCISCO (Conaculta, University of Anthropology, Mexico City, 2001).  Now retired from teaching, Masha Zakheim continues to give tours, to lecture, and to write about the subject of San Francisco's Art of the 1930s.

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