Accession No. PA.2021.0004: Martha Gerson Lufkin, 2021 April
[identification of item], Antonio Sotomayor Caricature Drawing of Admiral Richard E. Byrd as a Penguin, SPEC.PA.56.5033, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Ashleigh Minor, 2021 April; Finding aid written by: Ashleigh Minor, 2021 April
Antonio Sotomayor (1904-1985) was a Bolivian-born artist who lived and worked in San Francisco, California. Sotomayor studied at Escuela de Bellas Artes in La Paz, and immigrated to the United States in 1923. His early work as an artist included murals at The Palace hotel he completed in the 1930s. Much of Sotomayor's work was paintings and murals, but he also did illustrations, caricatures, and worked with ceramics. He was an art professor at Mills College and the California School of Fine Art, and a member of the San Francisco Art Association and San Francisco Arts Commission. In 1978, Sotomayor received the Award of Honor from the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Admiral Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) was an American naval officer and polar explorer who completed five expeditions to Antarctica between 1928 and 1956.
The Antonio Sotomayor Caricature Drawing of Admiral Richard E. Byrd as a Penguin is a 1937 pastel drawing of Byrd's head on a penguin body holding an American flag. The Byrd penguin takes up the majority of the space and is centered in a snowy background with triangular white mountains on the horizon under a blue sky. Four other small penguins appear in the background, and the tail of a fifth one. The drawing measures 14-inches by 18-inches, and is signed in the bottom left corner "Sotomayor/37."