Tag: Public Art
-
The Bridge between North Beach and Chinatown
Grant Avenue and Jack Kerouac Alley Chinatown/North Beach This community mural is on the corner of Jack Kerouac Alley and Grant Street. Titled The Bridge, the lead painter was Robert Minervini along with over a dozen local youth from Chinatown. It was sponsored by the Chinatown Community Development Center and the Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project…
-
California Masonic Memorial Temple
1111 California Street Nob Hill Designed by Albert Roller (April 20, 1891 – July 12, 1981) the California Masonic Memorial Temple was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1958. An icon of mid-century modernist architecture, the structure is located at the top of Nob Hill across the street from Grace Cathedral. It is a testament to simple lines,…
-
U.S. Custom House Sculpture
555 Battery Street Financial District U.S. Customs House Most of the granite sculptures on the U.S. Custom house were done in-situ by unknown artists. The roof top sculpture, however, was done by Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper (April 8, 1875 – 1937) was an American sculptor. Born in Glenwood, Iowa, and based in Denver, Colorado, Cooper studied under Preston…
-
Richard L. Perri and the Giant Pill
7th and Market Street SOMA/Mid Market The Odd Fellows Temple (you can read my post about the IOOF building here) is getting a CVS on the ground floor. Artist Richard L. Perri has brightened up the construction zone with a really fun mural. Richard L. Perri has a studio in the Odd Fellows Building. Born in Rockville…
-
Hippocrates
400 Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Inner Sunset Hippocrates by Costos Georgakas A sign on the base of the statue reads: Provided through the great generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John Nicholas Pappas. Mr Pappas, A Greek emigrant from Kiparisi, Lakonia, Greece, and his wife, Jennie Pappas, donate this statue in appreciation of San Francisco the home…
-
Elegant Stag Poses at Lands End Lookout
Lands End Lookout GGNRA 680 Point Lobos This stag sits in a small seating area at the front entrance to the new Lands End Lookout building. This is a copy of a statue that originally sat in the park across the street, Sutro Heights Park. The two lions that grace the entry to the park,…
-
Farm Girl by Aryz
Polk and Eddy The Tenderloin This five-story farm girl — and her bushel of apples looks over the corner of Eddy and Polk. Aryz deliberately used muted colors, especially flesh tones, to paint the lady onto this beige building. *** “I feel it’s really aggressive when you paint in a public space, so I don’t…
-
Regardless of History
400 Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Inner Sunset Regardless of History by Bill Woodrow Bill Woodrow (1948) was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s onto the international contemporary art scene. Woodrow’s early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in…
-
Huru by di Suvero
Crissy Field Huru 1984-1985 Steel “Huru”, at 55 feet, is the tallest sculpture in the exhibit. A simple tripod base supports a six-ton upper section made of two long pointing pieces, like open scissors that move in the wind. Some read them as welcoming arms; to me they looked like futuristic machine guns, or…
-
Old Buddy #6 of 8
Crissy Field Old Buddy (For Rosko) 1993-1995 “Old Buddy (For Rosko)” (1993-95), a tribute to the artist’s dog, could be read as an abstract animal. A rear upright section on two legs (which might have a tail) is joined to a front upright section on three legs (which might have a circular face and upward-pointing…
-
Mother Peace #5 of 8
Crissy Field Mother Peace – 42 feet tall, painted Steel 1969-1970 Mother Peace was originally installed near an entrance to the Alameda County courthouse in Oakland, but a judge, so offended by the peace sign that di Suvero had painted on one of the I-beams, transformed himself into an art judge and insisted on its…
-
Figulo #4 of 8
Crissy Field Figulo (2005-11) 47′ × 55′ painted steel, steel buoys – collection of the artist From the Brooklyn Rail when this piece was exhibited at Governor’s Island: From afar, it looks to be a drafting compass fit for the gods. Its red extension beams ignite in the afternoon sunlight. At close range, the dimensions shift perceptually. The sculpture’s…
-
Will by di Suvero #3 of 8
Crissy Field Will, 1994- steel- Doris and Donald Fisher Collection This exhibit on Crissy Field coincides with di Suvero’s 80th birthday, the exhibition holds particular significance for the artist, who immigrated to San Francisco from Shanghai at the age of seven. His passage beneath the Golden Gate Bridge—which opened a few years before his arrival—proved…
-
Magma by Mark di Suvero #2 of 8
Crissy Field “Magma” (2008-12), steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero, measures 25 feet tall by 48 feet wide. Leant by the artist, this piece is on public view for the first time. Magma appears as a giant sawhorse in which a 48-foot I-beam is supported between two of the artist’s traditional, uneven tripods. It is…
-
Tromp l’oeil by John Wullbrandt is gone
Turk and Hyde The Tenderloin This tromp l’oeil was done by John Wullbrandt in 1983. John is a Carpenteria, California – Hawaii based painter responsible for creating much of the artwork on the Island of Lana’i, Hawaii. He founded the Lana’i Art Program in 1989, where he engaged local talent to embellish the award-winning Lodge at…
-
Fletcher Benton at Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness Civic Center Titled, Balanced Unbalanced T, this Steel and Flat Black Enamel piece sits on the exterior second floor of Davies Symphony Hall, it is accessible at all times via a staircase that can be accessed off of Grove Street. The piece, done in 1981, is by Fletcher Benton, who has been…
-
The City in Bronze
275 Sacramento Street Financial District These three whimsical buildings, titled The City, are by Alexander MacLeitch. They are bronze and were installed in 2009 by the owners of the Patson Building at 275 Sacramento Street. This is part of the percent for Art Program in San Francisco. According to MacLeitch’s website: I create art using…
-
Jo Mora’s California Bears
1000 Van Ness Tenderloin Flanking the doorway of the Cadillac building are two spirally-fluted columns with Ionic capitals, each topped by a bear seated on its haunches. According to the Smithsonian, these were also done by Jo Mora. I have been unable to find any other attribution, and while they are in terra cotta, they…
-
Richmond District Police Station
461 6th Avenue Richmond Police Station Richmond District The Richmond District Police Station was built in 1927 in a red-brick Romanesque Revival style. The Horse Barn Behind the police station this brick building housed horses with a loft to hold their feed in the back. Both buildings were renovated in 1990 and the horse building…
-
Washington High School and the WPA
George Washington High School 600 32nd Avenue Richmond District George Washington High School opened on August 4, 1936, to serve as a secondary school for the people of San Francisco’s Richmond District. The school was built on a budget of $8,000,000 on a site overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The architect was Timothy Pflueger, here he begins…
-
Herakut #7
McCoppin Between Gough and Valencia Mission / SOMA This mura, by Herakut is on the walls of the Flax Art Store on Market Street. Herakut has been in this website before with a piece in the Tenderloin. According to Flax’s website: In 2004 Herakut came together, finding a magic synthesis between the artistic skills and specialties of…
-
The Doors of Court
400 McAllister Civic Center This building houses the Superior Court of California and was designed by Mark Cavagnero and Associates. * There are three identical doors at the entry to the building. They were designed by Albert Paley. Paley’s work can also be found at 199 Montgomery Street. Albert Paley is a modernist American metal sculptor,…
-
Five Questions
Mint Plaza SOMA/Market Street Area/Union Square WHAT is on the Side of the San Francisco Chronicle Building at 5th and Minna These two sculptures are part of a large project, within an even larger project. The larger project is called the 5M project. The 5M Project is a creative development in downtown San Francisco designed…
-
Jaques Schnier on Treasure Island
Treasure Island Building #1 These two cast stone sculpture represents India and were done by Jacques Schnier for the Golden Gate International Exposition. They have been known by several names, including “The Tree of Life,” but the preferred name is “Spirit of India.” These are just two of twenty that were part of the Unity…
-
Helen Phillips and the Golden Gate Exposition
Treasure Island Building #1 This cast stone sculpture is by Helen Phillips. Titled Flutist, it is from the Chinese Musicians Group produced for the Golden Gate International Exposition. This was one of a group of 20 sculptures titled Unity that were produced for the Court of the Pacific. This is from Helen Phillips obituary: Phillips…
-
Bliss Dance
9th and Avenue of the Palms Treasure Island This piece, by Marco Cochrane , was featured at Burning Man in 2010. According to the supporting art group Black Rock : The sculpture, of a dancing woman, stands 40 feet tall, weighs 7000 pounds and is ingeniously constructed of triangulated geodesic struts. By day, the dancer’s…
-
Thomas Garriue Masaryk
Rose Garden Golden Gate Park Located at the entrance to the Rose Garden just off of JFK Boulevard is this bust of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk. Masaryk was the first president of Czechoslovakia, a statesman, philosopher, liberator and humanitarian. The bust was sculpted by Josef Mařatka in 1926 and was exhibited at the 1939 Golden Gate International…
-
Florence Nightingale
Laguna Honda Hospital Forest Hill / Twin Peaks This graceful painted cast stone statue of Florence Nightingale titled Lady of the Lamp is by David Edstrom and was done in 1937. The project was part of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Federal Artists Program. The statue sat in the Court of the Seven Seas during the…