Pier 39

Herman Roderick Volz

Four fishermen sit on the edge of San Francisco's famed Pier 39, waiting for their catch in Volz's stylized "Pier 39." Their silhouettes are gently offset by the illuminated lines of their fishing poles and are flanked by a sunlit archway and the shadowed prows of docked ships. "Pier 39" was the first of five lithographs offered by the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, March 10, 1940, in their Contemporary Graphics series. The pier has changed dramatically since 1940 when Herman Volz produced this modernist image, and is now a popular tourist attraction in San Francisco. From the pier one has a view of Angel Island, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.

In 1940 the San Francisco Chronicle devised a "plan to bring western art to the western public" by presenting Contemporary Graphics to its readers. On Sunday, March 10, 1940, the series was launched with a three-quarter page devoted to the concept of purchasing original art by western artists. Contemporary Graphics presented twenty original prints in four series over four consecutive Sundays.

Works by Herman Volz, George Gaethke, Ray Bertrand, Rueben Kadish, and Arthur Murphy comprised the first series. Sunday, March 17th, the Chronicle presented the second series that included works by Glen Wessels, Sargent Johnson, A. Ray Burrell, Beckford Young, and Theodore Polos. The third series, featured on March 24th, included works by Dong Kingman, Shirley Staschen, Clay Spohn, Edgar Dorsey Taylor and George Harris. The fourth and final series was presented to the public on March 31, 1940, with works by Otis Oldfield, Benjamin Cunningham, Mallette Dean, John Haley, and Erle Loran.

With the exception of Mallette Dean's linoleum block print, all the prints were original lithographs. Each print was pencil signed and titled and the edition size was 150. The price for the individual works was $2.00 and they could be purchased in San Francisco from the following locales: the Chronicle, the City of Paris, O’Connor, Moffatt, Paul Elder, Schwabacher-Frey and Gumps.