Clipper and Diamond Heights Blvd
Noe Valley/Twin Peaks
This piece titled Redwood Sculpture, was done in 1968 by Stefan Novak.
Mr. Novak and his family are very private people, so there is little information regarding the artist. He was an instructor in the architecture department at UC Berkeley. He was born on August 22, 1918 and died on April 29, 2006 at 87 years old.
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The piece is owned by the SFAC.
San Francisco International Airport
Addison Model 2A Radio c. 1940
Many people know that there is art at SFO, but did you know there is an actual museum? Much of the art you see scattered around the airport as single pieces belong to the SFAC, however, the exhibits you see, carefully crafted for your enjoyment, are by an entirely different organization.
The SFO Museum was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purpose of humanizing the airport environment. In 1999, SFO Museum became the first exhibitions program in an airport to receive accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums. The museum contains more than twenty galleries throughout the airport with a rotating schedule (every 6 months) of art, history, science and culture.
Cape Clasp c. 1875
I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting Nicole Mullen, the curator of exhibitions at the SFO Museum. She let me loose at the Japanese Toy Exhibit (more on that in the future). Our airBART ride to the exhibit was most informative. She explained that the museum had a chance to engage with the public for just a short period of time, most often when they were anxious, tired or hungry. To curate exhibits for SFO was different than a typical art gallery, engaging people of all walks of life, many different cultures and different age groups, and all in a hurry to get somewhere, is challenging and very rewarding.
The collections are often put together with private collectors, giving the museum a unique pool to pull from of varying items.
There are four public displays in the International Terminal that don’t need a ticket to view. There is also an Aviation Museum and Library off International Terminal A that is open to the public.
SFO Museum has an excellent on-line map with links to all of the exhibits throughout the airport. You can view it here.
The photo above is from the Classic Plastics 1870’s – 1970’s. It runs until January of next year.
Chicken Coop (Ubi) 20th Century
The Philippine Basketry is from the Fowler Museum at UCLA and also runs through January of 2014.
These photographs come from beautiful handouts that accompany the exhibits. They are gorgeous, well-organized and extremely informative.
If you are looking for a unique museum experience, hop on BART and head to SFO. You can view their many exhibits before you go and plan your visit by going to their website and seeing what is currently showing.
Woman’s basket and rain cape (tudang) 20th century
San Francisco Presidio
Main Parade Ground
Anza and Sheridan
This is the third installation of Andy Goldsworthy’s at the Presidio in San Francisco. It is titled Tree Fall. There are two other Goldsworthy’s on the Presidio Grounds that have appeared in this site before and can be seen here.
The exhibit is in the Old Stone Powder Magazine on the Main Parade Ground. The room is 20 X 17 feet with walls two feet thick. The building dates to 1863, is one of the oldest structures at the fort and has never been opened to the public. Originally a domed roof topped the structure. This was so that in the event of an explosion the blast would project upward. The tile roof was added in 1941 as the post adopted a uniform Mission style of architecture. The building was used to store blank rounds for the daily 5pm evening gun salute until 1994 when the Army departed the post.
Goldsworthy’s team was not allowed to touch the walls. They built four walls inside the four walls with ventilation holes along the bottom, they then put in a dropped ceiling and poured a cement floor.
The tree is a Eucalyptus felled during the reconstruction of Doyle Drive.
An assembly line of community volunteers were brought in to mix the clay. The primary material was dirt unearthed during excavation for the nearby officers’ club restoration. The binding agent is a combination of straw and human hair from local salons. The clay was then put on by Goldsworthy himself.
“There is a lot of love and understanding with clay that has been won over many years,” he says, “and you never know how it will turn out.”
His hope was that the clay would dry and crack into puzzle pieces, to give the art detail and intricacy. This is a concept that Goldsworthy has been refining since he first built a clay wall, at the Haines Gallery at 49 Geary St., in 1996 (shown here in a San Francisco Chronicle Photograph). The Haines Gallery is the founder of the Fore-Site Foundation, and curator of all three of Goldsworthy’s installation at the Presidio.
Please don’t get me wrong. I have been a big, big fan of Andy Goldsworthy since I first discovered his book Stone in 1994, and I do own every one of his books. I also have traveled out of my way by many miles to see an installation if there is one near where I am. However, it is time, Presidio Trust and For-Site Foundation, to give other artists space. We have so very many great artists in California, and especially the city of San Francisco, it is time we honored them with space as unique and fabulous as the public space of the Presidio.
The textures and play of light in this exhibit are a photographers dream.
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This is the only light that enters the magazine.
The plaque reads:
OLD STONE POWDER MAGAZINE
Constructed by the U.S. Army
After the presidio was occupied
by American Forces
Built of materials salvaged from earlier
Spanish of Mexican structures
It dates back to the period of 1847-1863
Plaque presented by the Presidio Society Inc.
1958
The public can view the exhibit on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 4 pm through December 1, or on weekdays by reservation.
Lombard Avenue
On the drive up to Coit Tower
North Beach
This memorial to Guglielmo Marconi was placed sometime in 1938-1939.
A group called the Marconi Memorial Foundation incorporated in the 1930s for the purpose of enshrining Marconi as the inventor of the wireless (a fact contested by the Russians). They placed two memorials one on the slopes of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill and one at 16th and Lamont Streets in Washington D.C..
The Foundation collected public subscriptions from the supportive Italian-American community in North Beach, and on April 13, 1938, received permission from the U.S. Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt to erect memorials on public land. The foundation spent $65,115 for the two memorials.
Carved in Raymond California granite the latin on the base reads: Outstripping the lighting, the voice races through the empty sky.”
Marconi, is credited with not only developing radio telegraphy (wireless), but he brought it to England. A patent was granted him in 1896.
“In 1899 a team of San Franciscans reproduced Guglielmo Marconi’s method of communicating by radio waves and demonstrated its usefulness by sending a message in Morse code from a lightship anchored outside the Golden Gate to the Cliff House on the San Francisco Shore. This was the first wireless message broadcast on the West coast and the first ship-to-shore broadcast in the United States.” University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977 by Gerald McKevitt
A month later Marconi himself came to America and repeated some of his experiments.
On April 27th , 1934 Marconi celebrated his 60th birthday by receiving an honorary citizenship of San Francisco. It was conferred in a ceremony at the Academy of Italy by Father Oreste Trinchieri, representing Mayor Angelo Rossi. The inventor made a 10-minute talk. Marconi recalled his visit to San Francisco and the fact that California had welcomed thousands of Italians to her bosom. He asked Trinchieri to convey to the mayor his heartfelt thanks and say that he hopes to return to San Francisco soon.
The statues are often credited to Attilio Piccirilli (May 16, 1866 – October 8, 1945) an American sculptor, born in the province of Massa-Carrara, Italy, and educated at the Accademia di San Luca of Rome. He in fact did do the Marconi Memorial in Washington D.C. However, the sculpture in San Francisco has been attributed to Raymond Puccinelli by the Smithsonian Institute.
Puccinelli has been in this site before with his Bison Sculpture. Son of Antonio and Pearl Puccinelli, Raymond was born in 1904, on Jessie Street in San Francisco, and attended Lowell High School. Puccinelli studied art in both California and Italy, and for a time maintained a studio in Lucca, Italy. He was sculptor in residence of the Rinehart School of Sculpture of the Maryland Institute of Art and Peabody Institute.
The view from the Memorial is one reason many people don’t notice it is there.
Telegraph hill was named, not for radio telegraphy (wireless), but for the semaphore visual signaling device erected there at the instructions of ship Captain John B. Montgomery and used from 1846 until the turn of the century.
End of Cayuga Avenue at Naglee Avenue
Under the Bart Train and The 280 Freeway
Outer Mission
Cayuga Playground is once again open. Your first greeting is the painted still fence, titled Cayuga Portal. Through the City’s two-percent-for-art program, the SFAC commissioned artist Eric Powell to create two new decorative gates for the park. The design for the main entry gateway features vignettes drawn from Braceros’s sculptures linked together by images of plants and leaves that echo the park’s lush plant life. The gates were commissioned for $78,000 in the 2009 City Budget, Cultural Affairs Department.
Berkeley artist Eric Powell studied painting, drawing, and sculpture at California College of Arts & Crafts.
On his website his artist statement sums up so well the love-hate relationship most every artist goes through:
“From the beginning of my career as a metal artist in 1989, I had the clear and tenacious intention of having my work be a direct outcome and expression of my life experience, where life and work were not in two separate worlds. I wanted to love what I do, to have my work be a developmental experience and a forum for growth and expansion for all involved. In this culture such a notion is often seen as naïve, and indeed some naivety is required.
The work I have done and the relationships and business around it have certainly comprised a rich and growth-oriented journey. At times I would say that the whole thing is a dream come true and at other times I would say ‘don’t try this at home or anywhere else’. No matter how much experience or schooling or knowledge one has, most of what is needed has to be discovered or invented along the way. And I would not have it any other way.
The studio is a laboratory, a workshop and a factory. It is a place to learn and teach and to refine and deepen the sacred act of making something with ones’ own out of steel that ‘works’ aesthetically, functionally and in its’ craftsmanship. The studio itself is part of the work; it is a constantly changing work in progress. My collection of metal and other ‘magic’ objects (‘magic’ being in the mind of the beholder) is part and parcel of the studio atmosphere. I have been greatly enriched by viewing, studying and hearing the work of other creative people.
I felt early on that I wanted to add to the ‘soup’ of this long and rich lineage. It is not a matter of feeling qualified to add my part; it is a matter of not accepting that I am not qualified. Much of the art and music that I most admire, upon some investigation, sprung from this sensibility; from a place of receptivity. This is where the underground reservoir can be accessed. It is sometimes difficult to maintain this state of mind. But if the internal fire is burning, we don’t have much of a choice. ”
The entry gate off of Alemany Blvd.
Cayuga and Naglee Avenue
Outer Mission
In 2011 I read this wonderful article in Conversations.org and was intrigued to visit Cayuga Park and Demetrio Braceros’ work. I drove to Cayuga Playground to discover that it was closed. The sign said it would reopen in a few months. Alas, the work took until August of 2013 to actually finish the work.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:
…Demetrio was born in the Philippines. He had taught industrial arts there. He’d come to the Bay Area in 1977, I think He’d worked at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park for three years.
I didn’t get the details about how he was given responsibility for the undeveloped parcel of land on Cayuga Street, but it happened in 1986, twenty years ago. At that time the place was just a raw stand of weeds and unkempt trees. In the neighborhood, he told us, “there were prostitutes, drug dealers and crime. People got killed up there,” Demetrio told us, pointing to houses along the southern edge of the park. It was bad. “I thought to myself, how can I help this place?” he told us.
Speaking to Carlo, he tried to explain himself by quoting a biblical reference, “Let there be Light.” It was hard to make out the words. Demetrio took Carlo by the arm and we all walked over to another one of his sculptures, a bust which might have been the head of Jesus. It was hard to say, but under it was written, “Let there be Light.” Demetrio pointed to it. “There was darkness here,” he said. “Evil. It needed light.” “These are not mine,” he said, speaking of all the pieces of sculpture he’d made. Across the language barrier I made out something like this: “Whatever this creative ability it is that has been given to me, it is not mine to claim for myself, but to use for the good of all.” All that he did, he told us, was for someone else: his employer, “the taxpayers,” he said, pointing to us. It went beyond that, I knew.
The explanation was another piece of shorthand. Braceros, as best I could understand, landscaped the entire site, choosing the plants and getting them planted, and he’s maintained it ever since. But that was only the beginning of his work, the part he was being paid to do. There was another part, the part he felt called to do for other reasons. All the wood for his carvings comes from the park itself, he told us. The first large piece came from a big Monterey Cypress that had blown over. “Here it is, over here,” he said, leading us to an impressive carved figure that, somehow, I’d missed before. It was tucked into a half circle of large bushes. He explained that the piece showed a man reading “The Book of Knowledge.” As he searched for words to explain his idea more fully, I remembered what he’d said when my wife and I had met him earlier: “I wanted to inspire the kids.” This piece was about the importance of learning, of getting an education…
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The City of San Francisco and the SFAC worked with conservators to stabilize roughly 130 of Braceros’s sculptures. The process entailed removing the sculptures from the park, clearing away accumulated detritus such as dirt, mold and bugs, and applying a protective coating to help the artworks better withstand the elements. The revitalized sculptures are on display throughout the park, while the remainder are in storage or have been left in place to be reclaimed by the soil.
There are entirely too many sculptures for me to show them all to you here, but one day, take a stroll in the Cayuga Playground and just marvel at the work of Demetrio Braceros, and celebrate the fact that the city did right by Mr. Braceros, the neighbors, and the park by maintaining the sculptures as an integral part of the design.
Demetrio retired in 2008.
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Cayuga and Naglee Avenues
Outer Mission
The 3.89 acre, 63 year old, Cayuga Playground closed December 2011 for a badly needed $8.4 million renovation.
About $7.3 million of the renovation was paid for by the 2008 voter-approved parks bond, $711,000 from a state urban greening grant and $1.36 million from BART’s Earthquake Safety Program Impact Compensation.
The playground’s old clubhouse had fallen into disrepair before the renovation, vandalism had increased and the baseball field was usable for only about three months of the year because of irrigation problems from the creek that runs beneath the park. On one occasion, a lawnmower got stuck and had to be pulled out of the swampy field.
I couldn’t be happier to see that the Recreation and Parks Department, led by project manager Marvin Lee, did the right thing in making Demetrio Braceros’ sculptures the raison d’être for the park.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) provided the architectural and landscape design, engineering and construction management services for the renovation of playground and construction of the new clubhouse on behalf of Recreation and Parks Department.
DPW also collaborated with surrounding community members and the Recreation and Parks department to vacate and transfer a part of Cayuga Avenue to increase Cayuga Park by 8,400 square feet.
There are several dirt paths that one can wander to find the more hidden sculptures.
And spots where only nimble children can climb
As you enter the gate you first notice a pool and a drainage system lined in stone. One must assume that there is considerable design within the new park for the water problems that beset it for years.
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A fountain area that I am sure is just lovely during the rainy season, the stone, gravel, slate combination is really beautiful in person.
The Clubhouse has a green roof , a multipurpose room with surround sound and a sculpture garden that houses even more of Demetrio Braceros’ sculptures.
Fun Seating areas throughout the park.
The park incorporates a very large green open space as well as a tennis court and basketball court.
What also makes this park special is the unique plant materials. There are many species of plant not normally found in public parks. The bring color and differing texture that adds a lot to the special feel one gets at the park.
Presidio
Bay Ridge Trail
Presidio Cemetery Overlook
Dedicated on Veterans Day 2009, the Presidio cemetery overlook honors the service and sacrifices of America’s soldiers. A wooded section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail leads to the overlook, which is a perfect place for quiet contemplation.
The cemetery overlook offers one of San Francisco’s most stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Marin Headlands. The carvings are part of “The Young Dead Soldiers,” a poem by Archibald MacLeish, who served as an artillery officer in World War I.
The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
Who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night,
And when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
REMEMBER US.
They say: We have done what we could,
But until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished,
No one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
They will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for,
Peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
It is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died;
REMEMBER US.
by Archibald MacLeish,
1892-1982, American Poet
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The overlook is part of the Presidio Trust and was designed by their in-house landscape architect Rania Reyes. The stone is a quartzite from Montana (Chief Cliff Quarry). The company that did the engraving is Acme Memorial.
The overlook is the fourth of eight overlooks planned as part of the Presidio Trails, Bikeways and Overlook Campaign. It was made possible through a generous gift from Robert and Kathy Burke. It was cited as one of 2012’s Notable Developments in Landscape Architecture by the Cultural Landscape Foundation.
Ocean Beach
There is only one beach in San Francisco where bonfires are allowed. In response to beachgoers’ concerns that beach fires were leaving unsafe debris on the beach, as well as concerns about smoke blowing into neighborhood homes, Golden Gate National Parks initiated a public process to consider the future of fires on Ocean Beach.
Instead of banning fires, Golden Gate National Park joined several organizations in a creative partnership to install artistic fire rings on portions of the beach away from neighborhood homes. Those organizations, Surfrider Foundation, Burners Without Borders, Ocean Beach Foundation, and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, are working with Golden Gate National Park to allow fires to continue.
Burners Without Borders has begun donating artistic fire rings so that fires can be physically contained. Surfrider, Ocean Beach Foundation and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy are organizing beach cleanups to keep Ocean Beach clean and safe for both humans and wildlife.
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Burners Without Borders (BWB) coalesced from a spontaneous, collective instinct to meet gaping needs where traditional societal systems were clearly failing post Hurricane Katrina. Since that time, BWB has emerged as a community led, grassroots group that encourages innovative, civic participation that creates positive change locally.
Following the 2005 Burning Man event, several participants headed south into the Hurricane Katrina disaster area to help people rebuild their devastated communities. As the volunteer numbers grew, they focused their initial efforts on rebuilding a destroyed Vietnamese temple in Biloxi, Mississippi. After several months, that job done, they moved to another needy Mississippi community, Pearlington, to continue to work hard — gifting their time — to help those in need. Over the course of eight months, BWB volunteers gifted over $1 million dollars worth of reconstruction and debris removal to the residents of Mississippi. The important thing is to create collaborations and bring as much creativity and fun to the project as possible.
Historic Odd Fellows Columbarium
1 Loraine Court
Inner Richmond
During the closure of SFMOMA the museum is placing art around San Francisco. This Exhibition is part of an overall group. The museum commissioned the four award winners of the 2012 SECA Art Award to create work outside the traditional gallery context.
These three pieces are by Josh Faught and are hanging around the Neptune Society / Historic Odd Fellows Columbarium.
According to an article by Kenneth Baker the San Francisco Chronicle’s art critic: “Partly because its restoration so nearly coincided with the early years of the AIDS crisis, the Columbarium began to take on special meaning for the LGBT community. Faught’s pieces quietly evoke this fact.
Titled “BE BOLD For What You Stand For, BE CAREFUL For What You Fall For” his three connected pieces celebrate and to an extent satirize the practice of adorning the urn niches of deceased loved ones with objects and messages of special significance – to the survivors anyway.
Faught annexes the ready-made sentiments and humor of greeting cards and slogan-blazoned buttons, as if bemused by people’s difficulty finding sincere idioms of expression in a culture of synthetic sentiment.
Beneath the symbols and jokes threaded into Faught’s work …lies a call to authenticity of feeling in a setting of quiet solemnity.”
Faught (born 1979, St. Louis, Missouri) lives and works in San Francisco. He earned his BA at Oberlin College and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the California College of Arts in Oakland and San Francisco. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as the Rubell Family Collection.
The Presidio
SFMOMA is closed until 2016. It is undergoing a $610 million expansion. As a result they are scattering art around the city. The first exhibit was the di Suvero’s at Crissy Field.
This particular exhibit “Frog Woman Rock” is part of David Wilson’s Arrivals series. Wilson will develop a series of intimately composed sites at six out door locations in San Francisco for the series.
Finding the art is half the fun. You must begin at SFMOMA on 3rd street where David has installed a small kiosk. In the kiosk are these wonderful hand drawn maps (one to appear about every 2 weeks). You are told how to catch the bus, and the sights you might see along the way. You are guided as to where exactly to get off, and then where exactly to walk to find this piece sitting amongst a grove of Eucalyptus trees somewhere in the Presidio.
Once you arrive at the Presidio you find yourself wandering a lovely path…
meandering around with amazing views…
to happen upon art!
This framed landscape drawing is approximately 16 feet high, propped against a tree. It is a treasure to behold.
The drawing is of a natural rock face north of Cloverdale, California. It was made on site out of sumi ink, oil pastel and twenty four folded rice paper sheets. The image will deteriorate quickly. The drawing is covered with plexiglass, however, the frame is not tight, and condensation is already seeping in.
According to Wilson’s website:
Oakland based artist David Wilson engages with experience of place through a meditative drawing practice and through the orchestration of site-specific gatherings. The events that he organizes as ‘Ribbons’ grow out of long periods of space discovery and en plein air study, and draw together a wide net of artists, performers, filmmakers, chefs, and artisans, into situation based collaborative relationships.
I am so thrilled with this new series, it really is out of the box for SFMOMA, I hope they continue with the idea long after they have their new additional 78,000 square feet of gallery space.
Welsh and 5th Street
SOMA
Thanks to a recent upgrade to this mural I can write about it. It was originally done in 1992 and has been so faded it was difficult to see.
The mural is by Johanna Poethig who has been in the website so very many times.
Staff members from the San Francisco Human Services Agency contacted her about restoring her mural, “To Cause to Remember,” better known as the Statue of Liberty mural. It’s located on the side of a homeless shelter in the city’s South of Market district.
On the 40-foot by 80-foot wall, Lady Liberty lies on her side with chains on her feet and her hand outstretched.
According to Johanna’s blog:
“Everyone who comments on the mural mentions the chains first of all. . . . This symbol, the fallen Liberty, speaks to the issues of poverty, immigration, mental illness, incarceration, drugs, war veterans, families and the elderly.
“The image has been published in books about street art. In my 30-year career as a muralist and public artist, this work of art has weathered the test of time. The Liberty in recline has proven herself to really mean something to the people who live with her chains and to those who remember what she means.”
The assistants were all students at Cal State Monterey Bay Visual and Public Art School.
If you would like read more of Johanna’s ruminations on the mural click here.
One Leidesdorff
Financial District
The plaque outside this building celebrates the architect, leaving one to assume that that is who this person is. However, this is William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr.
Leidesdorff was born to a Dane and a Creole in the Virgin Islands in 1812. Legally recognized by his Danish father, Leidesdorff came under the wing of a British planter who taught him business skills. The planter sent him to New Orleans to work with a cotton broker with business ties to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
Although neither the planter nor the broker was a blood relation, both died in the late 1830s and left their fortunes to Leidesdorff.
Leidesdorff’s future as a wealthy Louisiana merchant seemed settled as he became became engaged to be married. His mentors had told him to never mention his race, but he felt compelled to confide in his white bride-to-be.
She called off the wedding, saying her father would never accept it.
Leidesdorff bought a ship and prepared to sail away. The evening before he set off, a funeral cortege passed with his fiance’s family in the lead coach. When he asked, Leidesdorff was told the young woman had died of a broken heart.
For three years, Leidesdorff sailed back and forth between the Sandwich Islands and Yerba Buena, carrying sugar from Hawaii and hides from California.
By then, he captained the J.D. Jones. When the ship was sold, Leidesdorff opted to settle in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1841, building the first shipping warehouse at the site of the current Leidesdorff and California streets, the first hotel and general store at Kearny and Clay streets, the first lumberyard and shipyard, and, later, the first public school.
He sailed the first steamship into San Francisco Bay.
Fluent in six languages, Leidesdorff became a Mexican citizen to receive a land grant from the provincial governor, Michel Micheltorena. That grant is now known as the city of Folsom, California. Leidesdorff then acquired 47 lots in what is now San Francisco’s Financial District.
Leidesdorff began to advocate an American takeover of California, becoming the U.S. vice consul. In that role, he not only relayed the word of the Bear Flag Rebellion, but borrowed against his property to pay for supplies for American sailors and soldiers during the Mexican War. He later served on the first municipal council under U.S. rule.
Once the war was over, Leidesdorff translated and posted the proclamation declaring California part of the United States. The welcoming reception for Commodore Stockton and his troops was held at Leidesdorff’s home at the corner of California and Montgomery streets.
As evidenced by the naming of the first street laid out on landfill after Leidesdorff, no one placed a larger footprint on the origins of San Francisco than William Alexander Leidesdorff. – From a 1997 SF Gate Article by John Templeton
Leidesdorff, Jr. achieved a high reputation for integrity and enterprise; he is said to have been “liberal, hospitable, cordial, confiding even to a fault.”
William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. died of brain fever on May 18, 1848.
I have been unable to find the name of the sculptor of this piece.
Portsmouth Square
Chinatown
This marks the site of the first public school in California.
Erected in 1847 Opened April 3, 1848
This commemorative marker was erected in 1957 by the grand lodge of free and accepted masons of the state of California California Historical Landmark 587.
The following contemporary account of the little schoolhouse in Portsmouth Plaza was written by Charles P. Kimball in 1853 for the San Francisco Directory:
In April 1847, the number of inhabitants exclusive of Indians, was 375. Eight months afterwards, when a census was taken by the Board of School Trustees, the number exceeded 800. Of these there were adult males, 473; adult females, 177; children of age proper to attend school, 60. This increase of more than an hundred per cent, in eight months, took place some months before the discovery of gold, and when California was sought merely for agricultural and commercial purposes.As early as January 1847, a complaint was published in the California Starthat there was no school for children, the writer stating that he had counted forty children playing in the street. A public meeting was then called, to adopt measures to found a school. But the project failed. Some months later it was revived, with better success. A school house was built, and completed by the 1st of December….
The first American school in California was duly opened on Monday, the 3d day of April, 1848….
This first American school on the Pacific coast south of Oregon, though founded apparently on a basis so safe and economical, had a short lived existence. In less than a year the gold excitement was to sweep over the country like a whirlwind, and for a season to crush everything like intellectual and moral culture, substituting the one all-absorbing passion for the accumulation of wealth.
At this time, I have been unable to find who the sculptor was.
Franklin between Starr King and Geary
Japantown/Western Addition/ Fillmore
Due to the lack of land their are very few bodies actually buried within the City of San Francisco. This is why the Sarcophogus of Thomas Starr King is so unusual.
Thomas Starr King, a young, inexperienced Unitarian minister, came to San Francisco in 1860 when the state was undergoing an intense political struggle to determine which side of the Civil War it would follow. In public speeches, up and down the state, King rallied against slavery and secession. Through his eloquence and the sheer strength of personality he is credited with shifting the balance and making California a Unionist state. In his oratories King prodded Abraham Lincoln to issue an emancipation proclamation well before it was actually enacted.
During the Civil War, King turned his energy to raising funds for the United States Sanitary Commission, which cared for wounded soldiers and was the predecessor to the American Red Cross. King personally raised over $1.5 million, one-fifth of the total contributions from all the states in the Union. Exhausted from his campaigning Thomas Starr King died in 1864 of pneumonia and diphtheria. He never lived to see the end of the war or the Union re-established. Today Union Square is still named for the pro-Union, abolitionist speeches that he delivered on that site. (From the Fog Bay Blog)
The sculpture was commissioned in 1954 by the San Francisco Unified School District to be installed at the new Starr King Elementary School. In 1965, the sculpture was damaged by vandals and repaired on site by the artist, Ruth Cravath. The sculpture was extensively damaged by vandals in 1970 and was removed to the artist’s studio for repair. Because of the history of vandalism to the sculpture, the newly repaired sculpture was given on long-term loan to the First Unitarian Church, where it was installed in 1978. Martin Rosse, architect for the First Unitarian Church, designed the base; and Sheedy Drayage served as the contractor during the 1978 installation.
Sarcophagus of Thomas Starr King
Apostle of liberty, humanitarian, Unitarian, minister, who in the Civil War bound California to the Union and led her to excel all other states in support of the United States Sanitary Commission, predecessor to the American Red Cross. His statue, together with that of Father Junipero Serra, represents California in the national capitol. His name is borne by a Yosemite peak. “A man to match our mountains.”
California Registered Historical Landmark No. 691
Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the California Historical Society and the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco.
April 24, 1960
Ruth Cravath (1902-1986) has been in this website with a sculpture at the Forty-Niners Stadium. In 1965 she gave a wonderful interview to the Smithsonian, the history of the art world of San Francisco opens up so beautifully in her interview.
Presidio
Lincoln and Harrison Boulevards
This memorial is in the memory of the soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coast guardsmen, who lost their lives in service of their country in the American coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean during World War II. The memorial consists of a curved gray granite wall decorated with a bas relief eagle sculpture on the left end of the memorial and a statue of Liberty on its right flank. On the wall are inscribed the name, rank, organization and State of each of the 412 American missing whose remains were never recovered or identified.
The architect was Hervey Parke Clark, a Detroit native. Mr. Clark studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He moved to San Francisco in 1932 and practiced until 1970. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Other than the war memorial in the Presidio, Clarks work included buildings at Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Barbara and the United States consulate in Fukuoka, Japan.
The Landscape Architect was Lawrence Halprin who has appeared in this website several times before.
The sculptor was Jean de Marco, who won the 1965 Henry Hering Memorial Award for his work here. Jean de Marco was born on May 2, 1898 in Paris, France. While in Paris he served as an apprentice at the Attenni and Sons Studios, a statuary, stone and marble carving atelier. De Marco studied at the art schools of Paris from 1912-1917 and at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs. After serving in the army in 1917 he continued his studies in casting and finishing.
De Marco came to the US in 1928 and settled in New York. De Marco taught at Columbia University, The National Academy of Design and Iowa State University. He died in 1990.
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Maxine Hall Health Center
1301 Pierce Street
Western Addition
This mural, by Win Ng, is 10′ x 6′ and made of ceramic tiles. The mural depicts various elements of medical science. The mural was installed in 1968.
Win Ng (1963-1991) was born in Chinatown, San Francisco. He studied at Saint Mary’s Academy and the City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University. After serving in the United States Army he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1959. He began the Masters of Fine Arts program at Mills College in 1960 but did not complete the program.
In 1965 Ng met artist Spaulding Taylor and shifted his focus toward utilitarian work. The two founded Environmental Ceramics which later became one of my favorite stores – Taylor and Ng.
Win Ng created pottery, book designs and linens for over 20 years.
Taylor & Ng not only created a signature style still in demand by collectors, but helped to popularize Asian culture and cuisine. The Taylor & Ng company is credited with bringing the Chinese wok to the U.S. and making it a common kitchen utensil. The Taylor & Ng department store closed in 1985.
Ng died on September 6, 1991 from AIDS related complications. He was 55.
Another large mural by Ng, measuring 100 by 16 foot mural, graces the concourse level of the Orinda BART station in Contra Costa County.
His artwork is in the collections of the Smithsonian, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the De Young Museum.
This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission
Marini Plaza
North Beach
Frank Marini (1862-1952) is mentioned often in Alessandro Baccari’s book, “Saints Peter and Paul: ‘The Italian Cathedral’ of the West, 1884-1984.” Marini was a major civic benefactor, participating in the work of the Salesian groups at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. He was a sponsor of the boys’ club, to help troubled immigrant boys who had little English speaking ability, education or guidance. He was a fundraiser to pay off the debt for building the church and Salesian school. He gave the money to build a gymnasium at St. Francis Church, on Vallejo Street, for the church-sponsored basketball teams.
This statue that stands in a park bearing his name . According to the Smithsonian the artist was Gladys Nevada Guillici (1862-1952). The statue was dedicated in 1954.
The plaque reads:
“Frank Marini
1862-1952
Benefactor
A Founder Of The San Francisco Parlor No. 49,
Native Sons Of The Golden West.”
Pier 39
Fisherman’s Wharf
Guardians of the Gate by Miles Metzger
Metzger attended Denver University and the Instituto de Allende in Mexico.
Guardians of the Gate, which depicts a “nuzzling” male and female with a pup, was created in 1990 and cast in Everdur bronze in 1991. Metzger considers the sculpture one of his favorite pieces. He said of his work: “(My) sculptures mean to inspire, encourage and appreciate humanity and the natural world. The family (of sea lions) seemed such a beautiful, emotional moment.” Metzger claims he knew that sea lions would be the subjects of his work upon learning the statue had been commissioned by the pier’s owner. In 2012, he said of the sculpture’s prominent placement: “I’ve been told by many people it is (one of the) most photographed pieces of sculpture in the United States. It’s so populated in that particular spot. Everybody sees that piece. It’s one of those places where you can sit on the sculpture and get your picture taken.”
Guardians of the Gate is administered by Pier 39 Limited Partnership Beach Street and the Embarcadero Center.
Ghirardelli Square
Fisherman’s Wharf
This fountain is titled Andrea’s Fountain and is by Ruth Asawa. It sits in Ghirardelli Square.
There is a plaque next to the fountain that tells the story of the piece, it reads:
Then-owner William Roth selected Ruth Asawa, well known for her abstract, woven-wire sculptures, to design and create the centerpiece fountain for Ghirardelli Square. Although it was unveiled amid some controversy in 1968, Asawa’s objective was to make a sculpture that could be enjoyed by everyone. She spent one year thinking about the design and another year sculpting it from a live model and casting it in bronze. Although landscape architect Lawrence Halprin attacked Asawa’s design of a nursing mermaid seated on sea turtles for not being a “serious” work, Asawa’s intentions were clear: “For the old it would bring back the fantasy of their childhood, and for the young it would give them something to remember when they grow old! “I wanted to make something related to the sea…I thought of all the children, and maybe even some adults, who would stand by the seashore waiting for a turtle or a mermaid to appear. As you look at the sculpture you include the Bay view which was saved for all of us, and you wonder what lies below that surface.” The most photographed feature of Ghirardelli Square the fountain was named in honor of Andrea Jepson, the woman who served as the model for the mermaid.
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I found the sign to be of interest as I had always heard of this conflict between my two heroes, and it was nice that they put a sign up to “clear the air”. Lawrence Halprin was responsible for Levi Plaza and was a man I admired both as a visionary and a legend in his field. Ruth Asawa, who has appeared many times in this website is also one of my favorite local artists.
As far as Ghirardelli Square: San Franciscan William M. Roth and his mother bought the land in 1962 to prevent the square from being replaced with an apartment building. The Roths hired landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons to convert the square and its historic brick structures to an integrated restaurant and retail complex. Ghirardelli Square was the first major adaptive re-use project in the United States.
Sadly, Ruth Asawa passed away earlier this month. The link to a lovely tribute in the San Francisco Chronicle can be read here.
100 Buchanan
UCSF Dental Center
Market Street/Hayes Valley
These two abstract sculptures are by Andrew Harader. Harader attended Cal State University in Long Beach and then received an MFA in 1976 at the Maryland Institute’s Rhinehart School of Sculpture. He is presently the coach at Andy’s Tennis Camp in Palo Alto.
The piece is owned by the Dental Center
April 2016 Update: These pieces have been removed. The building is slated to be torn down in 2016 or 2017.
850 Bryant
South of Market
The Seal of San Francisco adopted in 1859 features a sailor and a miner flanking a shield that bears a steamer ship entering the Golden Gate. Above the shield a Phoenix foretold of the great fire to come in 1906 and below the shield, the city’s motto, ‘Gold in Peace, Iron in War.’
This particular seal graces the outside of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice on Bryant Street and was created by my dear friend Spero Anargyros (1915-2004). Spero has appeared in this site before here.
This monument began as a 42 ton block of White Sierra granite from the Raymond Granite Quarry, Raymond, California, in the Sierra foothills of Madera County. Starting in early 1960 and after several months, the monument was moved to and completed in San Francisco. It is 15 ft. in diameter, 2 ft. thick and weighs approximately 20 tons. At the time it was considered to be the largest single piece of granite statuary in California.
From a wonderful article in the San Francisco Chronicle following Spero’s death:
“It turns out I’m very radical,” Mr. Anargyros often said, “because I do things people recognize.”
His commissions took the sculptor around the world, and he designed official medallions to commemorate the Golden Gate Bridge, Hawaii’s statehood, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park and the Alaska Centennial.
Mr. Anargyros dismissed modern sculpture instructors who “teach the virtue of hoping for happy accidents.”
“There is enough beauty around us to copy,” he said in a 1964 interview. “Why try to improve on it by imagining things?”
Mr. Anargyros, the son of a Greek immigrant florist, was a native of New York City and a student at the Art Students League of New York. He worked on the enormous 70-figureMormon Church monument in Salt Lake City titled “This Is the Place” before coming to San Francisco in the 1950s.
From his light, lofty studio on Clay Street in North Beach, Mr. Anargyros crafted such pieces as the 21-ton granite seal for the Hall of Justice and restored the 23-foot-tall neoclassical figures for the Palace of Fine Arts. He later moved his studio to Brisbane.
In 1974, a bemused Mr. Anargyros found himself in the center of an art censorship flap when a photograph of his female nude sculptures was ordered ripped from 10,000 copies of the monthly magazine of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
“The one with the breasts … is less scandalous than the Venus de Milo, who had no arms to distract attention,” Mr. Anargyros said.
In 1981, he was commissioned to recreate two historic bronze sculptures for the front doors of the state Capitol, which was undergoing restoration. The sculptures depict a bear and a horse, and the other shows an Indian woman protecting her baby from a buffalo.
Mr. Anargyros also sculpted actor Kirk Douglas, restaurateur Vic Bergeron and airline executive Edward Daley. Last year, while confined to a wheelchair, he completed a 3-by-5-foot bas relief sculpture of Nelson Mandela.
“I was lucky,” he said. “Early in life I found something I loved to do, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Entryway to the Olympic Club
524 Post Street
Union Square
Domoxenus
Established on May 6, 1860, The Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being America’s oldest athletic club, which makes it appropriate, that these two statues of Damoxenus and Kreugas stand outside its front door.
Damoxenus and Kreugas were boxers. Domoxenus of Syracuse was excluded from the Nemean Games for killing Kreugas in a pugilistic encounter. The two competitors, after having consumed the entire day in boxing, agreed each to receive from the other a blow without flinching. Kreugas first struck Damoxenus on the head, and then Damoxenus, with his fingers unfairly stretched out, struck Kreugas on the side; and such, observes Pausanias, “was the hardness of his nails and the violence of the blow that his hand pierced the side, seized on the bowels, and, drawing them outward, caused instant death to Kreugas.”
Then, “His pitying countrymen placed the olive crown upon the head of the dying Kreugas; and, struck with horror at the deed, condemned the ferocious conqueror to perpetual exile.”
Kreugas
The sculpture of Domoxenus was given to the Olympic Club in 1913 by Ludwig M. Hoefler. Kruegas was given in 1912. Hoefler bought the sculptures in Rome. The fabricator was Morelli e Rinaldi.
Queseda and Newcomb
Bayview/Hunters Point
The Quesada Gardens Community Mural & Gathering Space emerged with leadership from QGI Co-Founders Sharon Bliss and Mike Aisenfeld. Neighbors wanted to express the magic of the garden and spirit of community. In the end, a gritty urban space was transformed when community-based artist Deirdre DeFranceaux, with fellow artist Santie Huckaby, breathed life into a potent symbol of hope and unity. The mural was dedicated in 2004.
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Santie Huckaby’s work has been in this site before. According to his website: Born in Ohio, I have spent the past 40 years in San Francisco working as a professional musician, sign painter and muralist. My mural career includes over 15 interior and 12 exterior murals painted over a span of 14 years. Included in my resume is the Rosa Parks mural, awarded best mural of 1997. My work-in-progress is the Tribute to jazz: mural at What a Grind cafe at Fillmore and Eddy. St. in San Francisco. I am currently the artist in residence at Hunter’s Point Shipyard, artist in residence at the Bayview Opera House, an art teacher with the Carver Mural Program in San Francisco and continuing my vocation as a sign painter.
Dierdre De Franceaux is a painter and sculptor residing in San Francisco, California. She received her AA from the Maryland College of Art and Design, her BFA from Skidmore College and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her additional studies included the Ecole des Beaux Arts, in Paris, France and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Her large scale public sculptures have graced the Playa at the Burning Man Festival, in Black Rock City, Nevada. Deidre has taught at such schools as the San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, The College of Marin, and the San Francisco Waldorf High School. She has also taught numerous years with various non-profits, working with at risk youth, and creating large scale murals with groups of school children throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
This project was funded by the Mayor’s Neighborhood Beautification Fund and approved by the Visual Arts Commission.
Mission Dolores
16th and Dolores
The Mission District
This mural is in the hallway between the Mission and the Basilica.
The brass plaque that accompanies it reads:
Guillermo Granizo
1923-1996
This ceramic mural is the work of Guillermo Granizo a native San Francisco Artist. Shortly after Guillermo’s birth in 1923 the Granizo Family moved to Nicaragua for a period of eleven years. The family then returned to San Francisco. Extensive travel and research in Mexico and Central America in 1958 has provided flavor of many of his works.
This mural depicts the arrival of the San Carlos in San Francisco Bay while presenting at the same time the arrival of the military representative of Spain, Juan Bautista de Anza, and Father Junipero Serra to symbolize the bringing of the Good News of the Christian Chapel to the natives of California. Father Serra holds in his hand a plan for the facade of Mission Dolores.
The sails of the ship tell the story of the coming of civilization to the area. REY signifies Spanish sponsorship of the colonization: DIOS the spiritual element brought by the Franciscan Fathers: PUEBLO the city of San Francisco that was to grow out of this expedition and MUERTE to in indicated the gradual disappearance of the Naive People of this area. The artist then asks himself, QUIEN SABE? What would have happened if the civilization had not come. If the people who inherited this land had been left to themselves. He leaves the answer tot the imagination of the viewer.
The green area surrounded by brown in the lower left hand corner of the mural represents the island of Alcatraz, and the pelicans symbolize the same island in the San Francisco Bay.
We are grateful to the artist for placing this mural on extended loan to Mission Dolores since 1984.
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Granizo was born in San Francisco and became a noted ceramic-tile muralist, who worked in bright colors, geometric shapes, heavy lines and varying textures, which gave his work a festive feeling. In the eleven years he lived in Nicaragua he absorbed influences of pre-Columbian primitive art and also styles of the Mexican muralists.
He graduated from the San Francisco College of Art, and then served as Art Director of KRON TV in San Francisco where he produced educational films. He became the resident artist for Stonelight Tiles in San Jose in 1970, and devoted the rest of his career as a ceramic tile muralist. He died in 1997.
Mission Dolores
16th and Dolores
The Mission District
This sculpture, found inside the cemetery is by Arthur Putnam. The cast stone sculpture is one of a series of allegorical figures originally commissioned to depict the history of California for the estate of E. W. Scripps. This cast was funded by D. J. McQuarry at the cost of $500. It was placed at Mission Dolores in 1918 when the Mission was remodeled.
Arthur Putnam (September 6, 1873–1930) was an American sculptor who was recognized for his bronze sculptures of wild animals. His bats grace the First National Bank and his other animals can be found on the street lights of Market Street. He was a well-known figure, both statewide and nationally, during the time he lived in California. Putnam was regarded as an artistic genius in San Francisco and his life was chronicled in the San Francisco and East Bay newspapers. He won a Gold Medal at the 1915 San Francisco world’s fair, officially known as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and was responsible for large sculptural works that still stand in San Francisco and San Diego. Putnam exhibited at the Armory Show in 1913, and his works were also exhibited in New York, Chicago, Paris, and Rome.
16th and Dolores
The Mission District
Mission Dolores is one of my favorite places in all of San Francisco. I try to visit at least once every two months or so. The history of the mission is well know to every Californian (we are required to study them in the 2nd grade), so I will not go into that. Wikipedia most likely has a wonderful dissertation if you are so inclined. My favorite part of the mission is the cemetery. When I first started going, many, many years ago, the cemetery was in very sad shape. Over the years a significant amount of restoration has taken place, making it a wonderful respite from the hustle and bustle of our fair city. The plants are representative of the 1790’s when the mission was founded, the garden also contains an Ohlone Indian ethno-botanic garden and examples of Native American plants and artifacts
Mission Dolores is the final resting place of some 5,000 Ohlone, Miwok, and other First Californians who built Mission Dolores and were its earliest members and founders. Other notables include the first Mexican governor, Luis Antonio Arguello, the first commandant of the Presidio, Lieutenant Moraga, and victims of the Committee of Vigilance, Cora, Casey, and Sullivan. Cemetery markers date from 1830 to about 1898.
Just before you enter the cemetery you are greeted with a small statue of Father Junipero Serra, the founder of the Mission Movement in California.
This life-size bronze sculpture was commissioned by the Hannon Foundation they are being placed at many spots around the country. The artist is Dale Smith.
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400 Parnassus
UCSF Medical Center
Inner Sunset
Sunarte by Juana Alicia
Juana Alicia’s SANARTE: Diversity’s Pathway represents healing traditions worldwide, community cooperation, the internal work we do to heal ourselves as well as the social and natural movements that have brought about diversity, with a focus on the special history of UCSF.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Juana moved to the Bay Area in 1973 and works in a variety of media as a muralist, illustrator, print maker, and painter. She is best known for large-scale murals, particularly in San Francisco and Central America that are infused with social, political, and spiritual themes.
Juana was selected through the efforts of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity to celebrate the diversity at UCSF. The murals are the result of in-depth historical research and design development, in dialogue with students, staff, and community members.
Juana Alicia has been in this website before. You can see her murals in the Mission District here.
624 Taylor Street
Nob Hill
These four bas-relief, terra cotta panels are between the second and third floors of the Bohemian Club on the Post Street side. The first panel depicts Art and Architecture represented by a semi-nude turbanned male figure kneeling. In his proper left hand is a mallet which rests on the ground by his proper left leg. In his raised proper right hand he holds a fluted Greek column with an Ionic capital. Behind the figure is a painter’s palette and brushes.
The second panel depicts Playwriting and Acting represented by a nude male figure kneeling on his proper right knee. The figure wears a helmet with wings, and he holds a partially unrolled scroll at ground level in his proper right hand and a draped mask of tragedy in his raised proper left hand. Draped owl masks (the symbol of the Bohemian Club) hang over the figure’s proper right shoulder.
The third panel depicts Literature represented by a bearded nude male figure. He wears a scribe’s hat and kneels with a large open book resting in his lap, the edge of the book held with his proper left hand. Behind the figure is a skull, a bookshelf with books, and an owl.
The fourth panel depicts Music represented by a partially nude male figure, whose thighs are covered with cloth. His head is covered with a helmet of an owl design. His proper right arm encircles a lyre or harp with a base designed to look like a turtle shell. The figure reaches across to pluck the instrument’s strings. Behind the figure’s proper left shoulder is a disc symbolizing the moon.
These figures were done by Carlo Taliabue. Born in Cremona, Italy on March 26, 1894, Taliabue studied on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Art in Milan. He immigrated to California in 1924 and lived in the Lincoln-Sacramento area until the late 1930s. At that time he settled in San Francisco where he produced statuary on Treasure Island for the Golden Gate International Exhibition. During the 1940s his work won awards in the annuals of the Society for Sanity in Art at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. His last years were spent in Walnut Creek, CA until his death there on July 21, 1972.
624 Taylor Street
Nob Hill
The artist, Jo Mora, created and donated the sculpture to the Bohemian Club of which he and Bret Harte were members. In 1933, when the old Bohemian Club was torn down, the memorial was removed and reinstalled on the new club in 1934,
Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.
The plaque which is on the Post Street side of the club depicts 15 characters from Harte’s works.
The characters represented come from a handful of stories and a poem that established Harte’s reputation. He wrote these while living in San Francisco during the gold rush: Tennessee’s Partner, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, M’Liss and The Luck of Roaring Camp. Through his poem “Plain Language from Truthful James,” Harte created a wily Chinaman who outwits his Anglo gambling opponents shown on the far right as the Heathen Chinee.
Jo Mora has been in this site many times you can read all about his life and other works here.