Painter. He was a Russian Empire-born American painter, who was recognized for his realistic murals. Born Victor Mikhail Arnautoff, the son of a Russian Orthodox priest, his artistic talent was recognized early. During World War I, he left school to serve in the Russian Army of Nicholas II and later during the Russian Civil War, the White Siberian Army, receiving medals for his service as a cavalry officer. With the defeat of the White Siberian Army by the Red Army of Soviet Russia, he escaped into northeastern China, staying there for five years. While in China, he attempted to teach art but for monetary reasons joined a warlord's army. He married Lydia Blonsky and had two sons, Vasily and Michael. On a student visa, he came to the United States in November of 1925, studying at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. He studied sculpture and painting. He became active with artist groups and received a scholarship for best student of the year. His first public mural, in 1929, is on display at San Francisco's Old Cathedral of the Holy Virgin. When his student visa expired, he immigrated his family and relocated to Mexico in 1929. He joined with Diego Rivera and painted murals and a third son, Jacob, was born while residing in Coyoacan, Mexico. In 1931, he and his family returned to San Francisco. His first major commission was a medical-themed four-panel mural at Palo Alto Medical Clinic. With a female patient in the mural with bare breasts, his work met criticism. With federal funding from the Public Works Arts Project, he was chosen in 1934 to paint one of the murals at Coit Tower in San Francisco. This mural, "Urban Life," included a self-portrait of him standing by a newspaper stand. Other commissions include the "Peacetime" in the chapel at Presidio, thirteen murals at George Washington High School, the library at California School of Fine Arts and in the lobbies of five area post offices. In June of 2019 the San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously to spend $600,000 to destroy his murals at George Washington High School, but this ruling was followed by a supreme court appeal ruling to keep his murals for historical preservation. Critics complained that his murals "Life of George Washington" were racist as they exhibited images of slaves working and one murdered Native American. In 1938 he painted a mural "Last Crop" in a Texas post office. He became one of the most successful muralists in the San Francisco area during the 1930s having solo exhibitions. He began to teach sculpture and fresco painting privately and at the California School of Fine Arts, first during summer sessions and as a regular instructor beginning in 1936. From 1938 to 1962, he taught at Stanford University. Beginning in 1947, he taught classes at the California Labor School. Politically, his views were far left with him joining the Communist Party. Arnautoff's lithograph titled "DIX McSmear" associated Vice President Richard Nixon with McCarthyism. With newspaper coverage, this cartoon was removed in September of 1955 from the San Francisco Art Festival. This followed with the House Committee on Un-American Activities subpoenaing him to testify and with that, Stanford University was considering a dismissal for a time. The lithograph appeared on the cover of "Nation" magazine and later sold for an unknown price. He retired from Stanford in 1961 after his wife's death and returned to the Soviet Union in 1963, settling in Mariupol, Ukraine, He remarried in 1970. Before his death, he published his memoirs and created three large tile mosaics on public buildings including another post office. The Richmond, California post office mural was recently found in a crate in the basement and was restored for exhibition in the Richmond Museum of History. People travel around the world to view his works. In the early 21st century, his oil-on-board painting "Woman Walking her Dog in 1948 Downtown San Francisco" sold for $5,200 and his 1939 painting of Mile Rocks Lighthouse in San Fransico, "Motion," sold for $60,000. His sons donated his personal papers, which contains the family's naturalization American citizen certificates, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. In 2017, his biography "Victor Arnautoff and Politics of Art" was published by Robert W. Cherny, professor emeritus of history at San Francisco State University.