Category: All of SAN FRANCISCO
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Yoda
1 Letterman Drive * Yoda by Lawrence Alan Noble In 2005 the Letterman Hospital on the Presidio was torn down and in its place rose the Letterman Digital Arts Complex. This area is home to George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), LucasArts and Lucas Films. The entire campus is 23 acres. There are…
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Breathing Flower by Choi Jeong Hwa graces SF Civic Center
Civic Center Larkin Street, San Francisco * * by Choi Jeon Hwa Fabric with LEDs motor This work of art is part of Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past, an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum across the street. The plaque accompanying the work reads: The Breathing Flower, internationally acclaimed Korean artist Choi Jeong…
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Trapeze Artists in the Mission
The Mission Hoff and 16th Streets * Bending Over Backwards by Susan R. Green 2010 This mural is part of the Break the Silence Mural and Arts Program. It is the beginning of a truly monumental mural project that will connect San Francisco’s Mission District with SOMA. According to the website: Bending Over Backwards (BOB) is…
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Stiff Loops by Gerald Walburg at SF General Hospital
Potrero Hill San Francisco General Hospital 23rd and Vermont * * Stiff Loops by Gerald Walburg 6000 pounds, Corten Steel, 1974 In 2009 Stiff Loops was moved from its original site and underwent a $44,650 renovation. It was then placed at the corner of the hospital parking lot to make way for the construction of…
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Madonna by Benjamin Bufano at SF General
Potrero Hill San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue Madonna by Benjamin (Beniamino) Bufano 1974 Benjamin (Benny) Bufano was a prolific artist in his time and has many pieces around San Francisco. This Madonna of Red Granite and mosaic sits on the edge of the comfort garden in San Francisco General Hospital, near building 80.…
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Don Clever and the Peterson Caterpillar Company
SOMA 943 Harrison Street * * This mural, unofficially titled Workers and Tractors, was done for the Peterson Caterpillar Company in 1948 (I have also found the year 1936 attached to this mural) by Don Clever. Here is Mr. Clever’s obituary. Chronicle 6/21/01: Don Clever, by Kelly St. John, Chronicle Staff Writer “Don Clever, a…
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Gene Friend Rec Center in SOMA – Tile Art
SOMA Gene Friend Rec Center 270 6th Street * A World View by Martha Heavenston Nojima Martha Heavenston Nojima is known for her tile work, and especially her work with children in the arts. This particular group of tile creatures was done in 1989 and was commissioned and is owned by the San Francisco Art…
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San Francisco’s Wave Organ
Yacht Road Marina Green * The View towards the wave organ from Marina Green Looking back towards downtown and Fort Mason from the Wave Organ The Golden Gate Bridge from the Wave Organ Palace of Fine Arts and the San Francisco Yacht Club, view from the Wave Organ The Wave Organ is an exhibit of…
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San Francisco’s Holocaust Memorial
Land’s End Legion of Honor Holocaust Memorial by George Segal Time has taken its’ toll on this memorial. The hand on the man above was not to touch the wire as they were electrified. * * This memorial shows ten figures sprawled, recalling post-war photographs of the camps. Placement of this work was controversial. The…
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Mural Projects in the Tenderloin
The Tenderloin 126 Hyde Street This group was shot on May 6, 2012 * * True Compassion by Evan Bissell This temporary mural was created through twelve workshops with local artists about the nature of compassion. The double portraits depict the artists interacting with themselves in a compassionate gesture of their choosing. The portraits will…
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Heads by Jun Kaneko, San Francisco Civic Center
Civic Center 301 Van Ness * Heads by Jun Kaneko This is a temporary installation in front of the San Francisco Opera House This is the press release that accompanied the installation of these heads: “The San Francisco Arts Commission announced Rena Bransten Gallery’s installation of two 6-foot ceramic heads by acclaimed artist Jun Kaneko…
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Mitchell Brothers Theater Mural
Corner of O’Farrell and Polk The Tenderloin This sweet and rather innocuous mural is on the side of Mitchell Brothers Theater. The Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre is an adult club, opened as an X-rated movie theater by Jim and Artie Mitchell on July 4, 1969, the O’Farrell remains one of America’s oldest and most notorious…
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Qi Lun in Little Saigon, San Francisco
Little Saigon The Tenderloin Qi Lun by Walter Wong – Marble and Granite 2008 These dragons mark the entrance to a two-block corridor of Larkin Street between Eddy and O’Farrell officially declared Little Saigon in 2004. There are about 250 Vietnamese American-owned businesses in the Tenderloin and eighty percent of the businesses on the two…
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Miguel Hidalgo in Mission Dolores Park
Mission Dolores Park The Mission Miguel Hidalgo – Liberator of Mexico 1810 On the back in the marble is carved: Monument Presented by The Mexican Colony To the City of San Francisco September 16th, 1962 Below it is a brass plaque that reads Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla Father of Mexican Independence 1753-1811 The liberation of…
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Liberty Bell of Mission Dolores Park
Mission Dolores Park The Mission * * The plaque reads: Mexico’s Liberty Bell (A…
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California Volunteers Memorial on Market Street
Market Street at Dolores Mission/Castro * * * California Volunteers by Douglas Tilden – Bronze on a granite base Dedicated August 12, 1906 Erected by the Citizens of San Francisco In Honor Of The California Volunteers Spanish American War 1898 First to The Front At the end of the Spanish-American War, when the troops returned,…
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American Indian Occupation in the Tenderloin
The Tenderloin/Polk Gulch Austin at Polk * American Indian Occupation by Jaque Fragua and Spencer Keaton Cunningham Jaque Fragua is an acclaimed multi-media artist from New Mexico. From his cultural background, he has developed a yearning for creativity and for the intrinsic process that is Art. Experimenting with various mediums, such as aerosol, found-objects, earthworks,…
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Earth Air and Sea on the Great Highway
Ocean Beach Sloat and The Great Highway West Side Pump Station Earth Air Sea – 1986 – by Mary Fuller Mary Fuller, along with her husband Robert McChesney, has been in this site before. Mary Fuller McChesney, a California sculptor, has been carving “giant totems and goddesses” for nearly 50 years. Her artwork embodies numerous…
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Joan of Arc at the Palace of the Legion of Honor
Lands End Legion of Honor * * Joan of Arc by Anna Huntington Joan of Arc, nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans” is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred…
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Dogie Diner Sign
Ocean View 45th Avenue and Sloat near The Great Highway Restored Dogie Diner Sign The Doggie Diner (1949-1986) restaurants could be seen throughout the Bay Area during their heyday. Mr. Al Ross, the Doggie Diner Chain’s owner asked Harold Bachman an ad and billboard layout designer, to draw up designs for the sign, it is…
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Money Mural on South Van Ness and 15th
The Mission South Van Ness and 15th * * * Signed Curve E. Pastime, one must assume this was done by Pastime of the LORDS crew. Pastime has other work in San Francisco. LORDS Production Crew has been operating in San Francisco for almost two decades, manipulating the stark walls of the urban landscape…
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Generator by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble
The Mission 18th and Lexington Generator by Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble * * * * * This description of the mural is from an absolutely amazing, September 1, 2004, article in the SF Weekly by Sam Chennault. It not only gives a wonderful description of the two artists, but chronicles their artistic life. More…
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A Ross – Ziegler Collaboration
435 Duboce Duboce Triangle/ Lower Haight Ian Ross and Zio Ziegler * * * * After these two worked together on a juxtaposed mural South of Market, it was an obvious step to combine forces. The result is truly fabulous. Obviously a temporary installation while construction is occurring behind this, but you have to love the…
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Jon Krawcyzk in SOMA
SOMA 303 2nd Street * * Jon Krawczyk’s new sculpture sits in the public space of 303 2nd Street . It is a central part of a recent redesign by Gensler and landscape architects Smith + Smith for owner Kilroy Realty. Krawczyk’s steel and bronze sculptures divulge organic gestures that are the antithesis of the…
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Roald Amundsen at the Beach Chalet
Land’s End Beach Chalet 1000 The Great Highway * This memorial sits in the parking lot of the Beach Chalet, it has been there since 1930. It marks where Amundsen’s ship, the Gjoa (pronounced “Joe”) was in dry-dock. It had been pulled ashore here in 1909, and placed on dry-dock display. Amundsen donated the ship…
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Beach Chalet Murals Part III
Land’s End The Beach Chalet – Part III 1000 The Great Highway Lucien Labaudt’s Beach Chalet murals: John McLaren (G.G. Park Superintendent) in left foreground on bench, with Jack Spring (later General Manager of Parks and Rec Dept.) holding redwood tree’s root ball, while behind on horseback (upper right corner) sit sculptor Benny Bufano and…
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Beach Chalet Murals – Part II
Land’s End The Beach Chalet Part II 1000 The Great Highway * * It was common for WPA muralists to place people they knew or people of note in their work. Here Lucien Labaudt inserts Arthur Brown Jr.. Brown was the Architect of City Hall (shown over his left shoulder) and architect of Coit Tower,…
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Beach Chalet Murals
Land’s End The Beach Chalet – Part I 1000 Great Highway The Beach Chalet has its own fascinating history. This is however, about the WPA work found at the Beach Chalet. Port Scene by Lucien Labaut -Beach Chalet Murals Fisherman’s Wharf A peaceful beach scene that incorporates some of Labaudt’s friends and family. …