Author: Cindy
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Éire by Jerome Connor
Merrion Square Dublin, Ireland Éire by Jerome Connor Jerome Connor (February 1874 – August 1943) was born in Coumduff, Annascaul, Ireland. He was the sixth and youngest son of Patrick and Margaret Connor. The family moved to Holyoake, Massachusetts in the 1890s. Jerome ran away from home and settled in New York. After trying many…
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Bus Jet Fountain
Transbay Terminal 2nd and Folsom Bay Area artist Ned Kahn has been in this site before. He lived in San Francisco for over 20 years, many of which were spent designing educational exhibits at the Exploratorium. He recently moved to Sebastopol in Sonoma County to expand his studies and laboratory space. Mr. Kahn’s work is…
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The Art of the French Hospital
Kaiser Permanente French Campus 4131 Geary Boulevard Inner Richmond This stunning mosaic sits in the front entry way to 4131 Geary, which is a building tucked behind the main hospital wing. It is presently half covered by an extremely large concrete pot. It was donated by the woman’s auxilary in memory of Dorothy Hagar Rogers,…
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Tiled Walls
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill In the aqua therapy center there are two pools surrounded by walls covered in geometric patterns of ceramic tile designed by Cheonae Kim. Cheonae Kim was born in Ichon, Korea in 1952. She graduated from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul and then went on to Southern Illinois University…
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Ocean Avenue History Staircase
Unity Plaza Opened in 2016 Unity Plaza features a new pedestrian path that stretches from the north side of Ocean Avenue to the City College campus. The path, created in partnership with City College, features an integrated landscape and this stairway that features a collage of historic photographs of the neighborhood laid out on the…
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Robert Reid and the GGIE
Palace of Fine Arts Location now: Unknown In keeping with the mission of this website to catalog all art owned by the San Francisco Art Commission, we would be remiss if we did not include one of the greater pieces of art from the Golden Gate International Exposition, that has been lost. Robert Lewis Reid’s…
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Mining Exchange
350 Bush Financial District The history of the Mining Exchange can be read here, as this is a follow up post regarding the “historic restoration” of the building that took place in 2018. The City of San Francisco has a policy that allows developers to put up a history vignette in place of actual historical…
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Fabric Collage
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foreshill These collages by Merle Axelrad Serlin are comprised of thousands of small pieces of fabric, fiber, paint and cloth. The fragments are carefully arranged, layered, pinned and sewn together onto a cotton canvas. The artist uses a variety of fabrics including, but not limited to, cotton, linen,…
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Landscape
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Blvd. Foresthill These two pieces, which sit in rooms that are across the hall from each other, are titled Landscape and are made of terracotta. Igarashi sculpted hundreds of clay pieces for these terracotta reliefs creating a textured landscape between the in-dining and living areas. Japanese artist Igarashi has…
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Bloom by Jonathan Bonner
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill Bloom consists of a circular group of five granite lathe-turned elliptical forms with smooth honed finishes. The artist knew that the sculptures would be viewed from above, evoking the concept of a star, a flower or possibly an asterisk. For those that enter the patio area, the pieces…
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WPA Murals at Laguna Honda Hospital
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Foresthill Professions by Glen Wessels is one of five murals in the entry to the older wing of Laguna Honda Hospital. These five 8′ x 6′ murals were painted in 1934 with funding from the PWAP (Public Works Art Projects). Glenn Anthony Wessels was born in Cape Town, South…
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Point of View
Pier 27 Point of View is comprised of two sculptures that resemble lighthouses — one is installed at the Port of San Francisco, and an identical tower is in Haifa, Israel. Viewers look into a periscope-like screen to see a live feed of the other location. The installation is dedicated to San Francisco’s late…
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Planters
San Francisco Superior Court 850 Bryant Street These two planters sit outside of the front entry of the San Francisco Superior Court, they are by Raymond Sells. Raymond Sells was born in San Francisco in 1931. He studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Francisco State University receiving a BA in 1959…
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Words in White Light
Transbay Terminal Second and Folsom The largest piece of art in the Transbay Terminal is Jenny Holzer’s digital work “White Light,” which encircles the main atrium with 16-foot-high excerpts from historical and literary texts. All related to the Bay Area, they are spelled out in animated, pulsing LED configurations. Some of these texts are on…
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Frederick Olmsted at CCSF
CCSF Phelan Campus Hall of Science The Theory of Science is the title of two murals at the west entrance stairs of the Science Hall. The murals show students engaged in various branches of scientific research such as viewing bacteria through a microscope, conducting field research, and excavating dinosaur remains. These were painted in 1941…
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Dudley Carter the GGIE and CCSF
CCSF Campus Phelan Avenue Diego Rivera Theater and Conlan Hall During the second season (1940) of the Golden Gate International Exposition, organizers began the Art in Action program in the Hall of Fine and Decorative Arts. During the 1939 season, the hall had housed the art collections of European and Pacific cultures. The concept was…
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North-Shore Pump Station Stained Glass
North Shore Pump Station The intersection of Bay Street and Embarcadero The stained glass window in the North Shore Pump Station was created by Narcissus Quagliata. The piece was commissioned in 1980-81. According to the Arts Commission meeting minutes of July 12, 1982, the total cost for the commission of a 12-panel window was…
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Authors from Latin American Roots
San Francisco Public Library Grove Street Entrance This art work of charchoal and pastel on paper and canvas is by Enrique Chagoya. It was a gift from the Mexican consulate in San Francisco. Measuring 160 inches square, the mural contains some thirty names of prominent Latino American writers and poets who have made important contributions…
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Peter VandenBerge at CCSF
Childcare and Development Center CCSF Phelan Campus The building is now Closed This whimsical mural is by ceramic artist Peter VandenBerge. It measures 8′ by 5′ and is made of ceramic tiles. Vandenberge has been on this site before. VandenBerge was part of the legendary group at University of California, Davis, during the 1960s. Working…
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The Whales of the GGIE
Originally created for the Golden Gate International Exhibition Moved to Steinhart Aquarium Moved to CCSF In Storage These whales were in the San Francisco Building at the Golden Gate International Exhibition and were sculpted by Robert Howards. After the GGIE closed the whales were moved to a prominent place in front of the Steinhart Aquarium…
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Magical Stained Glass
Laguna Honda Hospital 375 Laguna Honda Blvd Forest Hill These stained glass windows reside in the chapel of the 1920’s Spanish Revival portion of Laguna Honda Hospital. The groundbreaking ceremony of the hospital was overseen by Mayor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, the hospital opened in 1926, having replaced an earlier almshouse”. The artist is unknown…
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St. Francis of Assisi in the Fragrance Garden
Fragrance Garden Botanical Garden Golden Gate Park This statue was part of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exhibition on Treasure Island. It is by Clara Huntington who has been on this site before. Huntington was the adopted daughter of Collis Potter Huntington, one of the Big Five railroad magnates. “Oh, Clara Huntington, yes, Clara Huntington Young.…
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Seven Dancing Stones and Seven Dancing Stars
Mission Police Station 630 Valencia Street Seven Dancing Stones and Seven Dancing Stars is the creation of artist Gary Dwyer. Installed in 1984, Seven Dancing Stones and Seven Dancing Stars sits in the lobby of the police department. Dwyer created this sculptural installation based on a legend of the Ohlone Indian tribes which originally inhabited…
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The SFPL Card Catalogue
San Francisco Public Library 3rd, 4th, and 5th Floors With the move to the new Main Library, items in the card catalog (used to access the collection for more than 100 years) have been replaced by an online computer system. Artists Ann Hamilton and Ann Chamberlain embedded these obsolete cards in plaster covering the principal diagonal wall…
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Constellation at the SFPL
San Francisco Public Library Atrium area 160 names of writers are illuminated on a wall that rises five stories behind the grand staircase in the atrium of the San Francisco Public Library. The artist’s work is inspired by a Beaux Arts tradition with origins in the Bibliotheque Saint-Genevieve in Paris (a model for the…
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Hands by Vicki Saulls
Eureka Valley Rec Center 100 Collingwood Castro The project consists of casts of hands of citizens throughout the neighboring community. The call for volunteers read: “My sense of the center is that it’s a really welcoming place for diverse interests and community groups. I wanted to use the welcoming theme and came up with the…
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Dolphin from the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939
Presently in storage at Golden Gate Park This statue is from the Golden Gate International Exposition. It is by Cecilia Bancroft Graham. Graham was born in San Francisco, on March 2, 1905. She studied at the California School of Fine Arts, graduated from Mills College in Oakland, and studied sculpture with Oscar Thiede in Vienna,…
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Take Root
Chinatown Public Library 1135 Powell Street Take Root is a set of bi-lingual panels referencing traditional Chinese salutary plaques in contemporary materials of rear-illuminated, die-cut anodized aluminum. The Chinese text is based on calligraphy written for Take Root by well-known artist and calligrapher C. C. Wang. It features a Chinese-American saying about setting roots in…
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San Francisco’s Sister Cities
Hallidie Plaza Market Street This Sister Cities signpost was dedicated on June 28, 2018, it was created at the request of interim Mayor Mark Farrell. It was a joint effort amongst many departments of the city, Public Works managed the project and installed the foundation, SFMTA made and installed the signs, and the San Francisco…
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Skydancing
Laguna Honda Hospital Pavillion Atrium 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard Forest Hill This is Skydancing by Takenobu Igarashi they are painted aluminum sculptures, reminiscent of blossoms and suspended from aircraft cables. Japanese artist Igarashi has taught at Chiba University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He collaborated in the foundation of the Faculty of…