JAILHOUSE ART

His masterpiece has been on display for decades in a place no one wants to visit, admired by a rough crowd of critics who study its beauty and nuance for years on end — until the parole board lets them out.

Alfredo Santos was a two-bit hood when he landed in California’s San Quentin State Prison in 1951 for selling heroin. He left his mark on the state’s oldest prison by painting a collection of nearly 100-foot-long murals in the inmate cafeteria, a flowing picture book of California’s history.

For years no one knew who the painter was. Santos, embarrassed by his time in San Quentin, kept silent.

Santos was born in San Diego but spent much of his childhood in nearby Tijuana, Mexico. When Santos was 8, teachers were taking note of portraits he had drawn of classmates. He enrolled in an art school but also smuggled illegal immigrants into the US and had to spent 18 months in federal prison. At San Quentin, Santos was assigned to fill the cafeteria’s blank walls in 1953 after winning a prison art competition. He worked at night for more than two years, aided by two inmate helpers who moved scaffolding, and overseen by a single guard.

Santos was paroled after four years. He opened a gallery in San Diego and embarked on a career as an artist. And a fine artist, Santos figured, shouldn’t have a rap sheet. So he told no one. “When they were done, it wasn’t seen as important to know who painted the murals,” said Lt. Sam Robinson, San Quentin’s spokesman.

In the mid-1990s, local historians began asking: who painted the murals? Santos answer ered it a few years later when he called the prison to see his work once again. Vernell Crittendon, San Quentin’s spokesman at the time, hung up on him. “I thought he was just a criminal,” Crittendon said. “And I’m not letting a criminal into the prison unless...