353 Sansome Street
The Financial District
L’Octagon by Pol Bury – Marble and Steel
L’Octagon is a result of the 1% for Art program in San Francisco. It is available for viewing between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. M-F
This lovely sculpture actually moves. The balls slightly fill with water on the bottom and roll approximately 90 degrees, once the water drains they roll back to their upright position.
Pol Bury was born on April 26, 1922 in Haine-Saint-Pierre, Belgium. In 1939 he met the poets Achille Chavée and Andre Lorent and joined their Groupe de recherches surréalistes (Surrealist research group): Ruptures. He then discovered the work of Tanguy and started to paint, influenced by the work of René Magritte.
In 1947 Bury turned towards abstract painting and entered the Jeune Peinture Belge (Young Belgian Painting) group. In 1949 Bury broke away from the group and committed himself to geometric abstraction.
After seeing the Alexander Calder exhibition at the Maeght Gallery in Paris in 1950, Bury began to move away from painting towards three-dimensional work. He moved to Paris in 1961. He became professor at Paris’s Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (National School of Fine Arts), where he led a class in monumental sculpture until 1987.
Pol Bury died on September 27, 2005 at the age of 83, in Paris.
The public art requirement created by the downtown plan is commonly known as the “1% for Art” program. This requirement, governed by Section 429 of the Planning Code, provides that construction of a new building or addition of 25,000 square feet or more within the downtown C‐3 district, triggers a requirement that provide public art that equals at least 1% of the total construction cost be provided.
Credit is given to Pol Bury at the cornerstone of the building.
