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This piece sits on the sculpture pad in front of the Legion of Honor, one of our finer museums in San Francisco. It is by Mark di Suvero, who has been in this blog before. It was controversial the day it was installed. Many felt is was not representative of the quality people had come to expect from di Suvero, it also was a runner up, when the city lost out on a sculpture by di Suvero’s boyhood friend Richard Serra. Di Suvero and Richard Serra grew up on the same block in San Francisco. Both their fathers worked on the docks. Being by the water and the docks and the wharfs and the piers plays a powerful role in their work.
The piece is owned by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and was purchased in 1999.
The Legion of Honor was the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, wife of the sugar magnate and thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder Adolph B. Spreckels. The building is a three-quarter-scale version of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur also known as the Hôtel de Salm in Paris. This version is by architects George Applegarth and H. Guillaume. It was completed in 1924.
Can you imagine how it must feel to always being second best to a childhood friend? I wonder if they are still friends…
You seem to have had a lot of reallly wealthy people there in the olden days! And they seem to have been generous.
Hmmm, definitely a sculpture you can’t ignore!
I like this thing. And I read about the controversy. But what does it all mean? Or does it have to mean anything? Or can one attach one’s own meaning to it? And what does “Pax Jerusalem” have to do with anything?
It’s a mystery!
I like the linear focus of this sculpture, and the color is great. Very eye-catching. It looks to me to be a sun with the rays of light radiating out from it. genie
The birds seem to like it!
Another interesting story…I have to say it doesn’t move me. An odd contrast to the style of the building.
I was just here recently. It’s nice to get more information about this giant structure.
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