sculpture – Page 7 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Open Book at the Library

Posted by Cindy on March 27, 2013

Mar 272013

960 4th Street
Mission Bay

This piece, by Vince Koloski, is in the Mission Bay Branch Library. The artwork is an illuminated book sculpture with quotes about reading and text from a variety of ancient and contemporary cultures.

Vince Koloski was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1953. In 1977 he attended New College in Sarasota, Florida and graduated with a dual B.A. in Sculpture and Poetry. Koloski returned to Minneapolis to refine his craft as a neon sculptor and skilled neon glassblower. He spent two years as a neon instructor in the Extension Division of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He was an integral member of the original group that founded the American School of Neon and St. Elmo’s Gallery.

Koloski now resides in San Francisco specializing in glass and neon.

According to Koloski’s website the sculpture follows the form of an accordion-fold book starting with a “cover” panel carved to look like a rock slab covered with petroglyphs. This is followed by eight 5-foot high by 4-foot wide Lexan panels which serve as the pages of the book. Each of these pages holds two smaller panels of Plexiglass whch have been engraved with the text of a quotation or hand carved with an illustration. The final panel serves as the rear “cover” of the book. It is a wood panel covered with small illustations and symbols which tell the history of the Mission Bay neighborhood from prehistory to the present.

The Plexiglass panels engraved with the quotations and illustrations are illuminated by LED lights along the edges of the panels. These LEDs shine into the panel and create a colored glow withing each quotation and illustration. This allows the spirit of the quotations to shine whether the library is open or closed much as the spirit of the library itself is felt whether the building itself is open or closed.

There are twelve quotations in the book. They were chosen by a committee of community members, libary staff and members of the Arts Commission from the submissions of Library patrons. Among them are quotes from local authors Anne Lamott, Ben Fong-Torres and Jewelle Gomez. Others with their words in light are Spike Lee, Groucho Marx and Jorge Luis Borges.

There are four hand-carved illustrations among the pages as well. These illustrations trace the development of human writing from the cuneiform to just before modern printing began.

This piece was part of the SF Arts Commission 2006-2007 budget year and was commissioned for $36,000.

Globe by Topher Delaney

Posted by Cindy on March 22, 2013

Mar 222013

299 2nd Street
Courtyard Marriott Hotel – 1st Floor
SOMA – Financial District

Globe by Topher Delaney – Bronze

This piece is a result of the 1% for Art and POPOS programs in San Francisco. It is available for viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. – However, if you step into the Lobby you can view it through the window if the courtyard area is not open.

Topher (Christopher) Delaney‘s forty year career as an environmental artist has encompassed a wide breadth of projects which focus on the exploration of our cultural interpretations of landscape architecture, public art and the integration within the site spiritual precepts of “nature.” Her practice, SEAM Studio, has evolved to serves as a venue for the investigation of cultural, social and artistic narratives “seamed” together to form dynamic physical installations. Ms. Delaney’s projects place an emphasis on the integration of physical form with narratives referencing the currency of a site’s unique historical, cultural, physical and environmental profiles. Ms. Delaney received her Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley after studying philosophy and cultural anthropology at Barnard College.

SEAM studios was responsible for the Fort Mason-SEATS exhibition that can be viewed here.

Time to Dream

Posted by Cindy on March 20, 2013

Mar 202013

Joseph P. Lee Rec Center
1395 Mendell
Bayview

Time to Dream by Amana Johnson

The Joseph P. Lee Rec Center, like many in San Francisco is behind a locked gate and only open during very limited hours. I have relied on the artists website for a description of the piece and the photo of the book.

“Time To Dream” is a life-sized figure carved from a 3,000-pound block of Basalt Spring Stone found only in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. The figure, which took Johnson over nine months to carve, is deliberately not identified as either male or female in order to recognize the variations of gender that are present in today’s world. The sculpture, supported by a circular bench of colored concrete, embellished with sculptural medallions, holds an open book whose pages are engraved with inspirational text by Johnson, that reads: “We Need time to dream, time to remember and time to create the world we envision.”

we need time to dream, time to remember, and time to create the world we envision

As stated by Johnson, “At a time of profound change in American history, ‘Time To Dream’ arrives as a beacon to encourage new directions of thought and vision towards creating a world of social, economic, and racial equality.”

Amana Brembry Johnson is a prolific sculptor and mixed-media artist who has created figurative work in stone for nearly two decades. Her current work reflects an integration of stone sculpture and ceramic work with other materials to create multi-layered, sculptural environments into which the audience can enter and become a part of the work itself.

Johnson earned a MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and studied at the University of California at Irvine, where she received her BA in Social Ecology. She has created public work throughout the United States and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants.

This sculpture was commissioned by the SFAC for $60,000.

Dos Leones at SFGH

Posted by Cindy on March 16, 2013

Mar 162013

1001 Potrero
San Francisco General Hospital

So much of the collection paid for by the San Francisco Art Commission is not readily available to the general public. This piece is no exception. On the patio of the 3rd floor of SFGH, the doors were locked, however, you can see the sculpture through the window.

Titled Dos Liones, this sculpture, done in 1974, is by Mary Fuller. Mary Fuller has many pieces of public art work around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mary Fuller was born in Wichita, Kansas on October 20, 1922. Creating totemic figures, playful animals and dancing goddesses (to honor older women and their fiery spirit), she is also an author with one major art historical work, three mystery novels, and a host of short fiction and art reviews to her credit. Fullers family moved fom Kansas to California in 1924.

She grew up in the farm country of California’s Central Valley. She studied philosophy and literature at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1940’s, working as a welder in the Richmond shipyards in 1943 during World War II.

Mostly a self-taught artist, she apprenticed in ceramics at the California Faience Company in the 1940s and began to exhibit in 1947, wining first prize at the 6th and 8th Annual Pacific Coast Ceramic Show, 1947 and 1949. In 1949 she married the painter Robert McChesney, and many of her subsequent writings are published under the “Mary McChesney” name. As a mystery writer in the 1950s, however, she used the pseudonym “Joe Rayter” to publish The Victim Was Important; Asking for Trouble and Stab in the Dark. Fuller began to construct concrete sculpture in the 1950s while pursuing her writing career. She free-lanced for major art journals, including Art in America and Art-forum, throughout the 1960s, while also conducting research on 1930s Works Progress Administration artists for the Archives of American Art. A Ford Foundation fellow in 1965, she conducted research on modernist art in the Bay Area that culminated in A Period of Exploration, San Francisco 1945-1950, termed one of the key documentary works in the field of modern California art history.

Beginning in 1974, she was awarded the first of many public art commissions, including Dos Leones.

The above is excerpted from Women Artists of the American West by Susan Ressler.

American Bison at SFGH

Posted by Cindy on March 13, 2013

Mar 132013

1001 Potrero
San Francisco General Hospital
2nd Floor – Cafeteria Patio

Buffalo by Raimondo Puccinelli

Raimondo Puccinelli, (1904-1986) born and raised in San Francisco, is known above all for his sculpture which has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His standing as a sculptor was confirmed early on, firstly by the interest shown by the great museums on the West Coast of America and then by the commitment demonstrated by influential New York galleries in which his works were exhibited alongside the great artists of the time: as did both the Ferargil Gallery with its exhibition “Degas, Maillol, Puccinelli” and the Westermann Gallery with “Barlach, Lehmbruck, Puccinelli” in 1936.

However, apart from the hundreds of sculptures still owned by his family, Puccinelli’s estate includes about 7,500 drawings and sketches among which 1,700 are devoted to the subject of dance. The evidence of the labels of the San Francisico Museum of Modern Art found on the original mounts indicates that, at least in the 1930s, Puccinelli’s dance drawings were also exhibited in this museum. These drawings have remained unknown to dance experts in the USA and Europe; to this day, there is no entry under Raimondo Puccinelli’s name in the New York Public Library’s catalogue, the world’s largest dance archive. This is surprising, considering Puccinelli had an almost unique opportunity to meet the celebrities of the dance world and to draw them.

In the early 1930s, he regularly visited Ann Mundstock’s Laban Studio in San Francisco to draw from life. It was here that dancers such as Harald Kreutzberg or Yvonne Georgi took classes during their tours. It was also here at Ann Mundstock’s, that Puccinelli met and fell in love with the young dancer, Esther Fehlen, whom he married in 1940.

Puccinelli drew Katherine Dunham and her dancers, or Tina Flade, Hanya Holm, Mary Wigman and her dance group. He became friends with Martha Graham and was frequently able to draw at her New York studio; Martha Graham herself during rehearsals, but also the members of her dance group and her pupils. Guest performances of celebrated dancers in both metropolises in which he was at home led to regular personal contacts and numerous sketches also encompassing Indian dance (Uday Shankar) or Flamenco.

This work, titled American Bison – Buffalo was donated to the San Francisco Art Commission in 1974.

Anish Kapoor in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on February 22, 2013

Feb 222013

235 2nd Street
SOMA Financial District

Making the World Many by Anish Kapoor – Stainless Steel

Making the World Many is part of the 1% for Arts and POPOS programs of San Francisco. While viewable through the building window, the piece is available for closer viewing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F.

Anish Kapoor, (born 12 March 1954) is an Indian-born British sculptor born in Mumbai. Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.

He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize. In 1991 he received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. His most notable U.S. public sculptures include Cloud Gate, Millennium Park, Chicago, Sky Mirror exhibited at the Rockefeller Center, New York.

Anish Kapoor became known in the 1980s for his geometric or biomorphic sculptures made using simple materials such as granite, limestone, marble, pigment and plaster. In the late 1980s and 1990s, he was acclaimed for his explorations of matter and non-matter, specifically evoking the void in both free-standing sculptural works and ambitious installations. Since 1995, he has worked with the highly reflective surface of polished stainless steel. These works are mirror-like, reflecting or distorting the viewer and surroundings.

A Joan Brown Obelisk at 343 Sansome Street

Posted by Cindy on February 15, 2013

Feb 152013

343 Sansome Street
The Financial District

Four Seasons by Joan Brown

This tiled obelisk is by Joan Brown. Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who was born in San Francisco and lived and worked in Northern California. She was a notable member of the “second generation” of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

She studied at the California School of Fine Art (now San Francisco Art Institute), where her teachers included Elmer Bischoff. Her sculpture is not as well known, and yet she did several of these obelisks, there are at least 3 in San Francisco. These include the Pine Tree Obelisk in Sidney Walton Park, Obelisk in the Rincon Center, and this one. Sadly, in 1990, she was killed while doing an obelisk installation in India.

The sculpture is a result of both the 1% for Arts Program and the POPOS program of San Francisco and is available for viewing between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.

Privately-owned public open spaces (POPOS) are publicly accessible spaces in forms of plazas, terraces, atriums, small parks, and even snippets that are provided and maintained by private developers. In San Francisco, POPOS mostly appear in the Downtown office district area. The 1985 Downtown Plan created the first systemic requirements for developers to provide publicly accessible open space as a part of projects.

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.

Bufano at Westside Courts

Posted by Cindy on January 31, 2013

Jan 312013

Westside Courts Housing Project
2501 Sutter Street
Lower Pacific Heights

This sculpture, by well known San Francisco sculptor Beniamino Bufano, is titled Saint Francis on Horseback. Standing 8′ x 6′ and of black granite it is located in the central courtyard of the project. It was made in 1935 but not placed here until 1945.

Westside Courts were built in 1943, Westside includes 136 units in six buildings that cover a full city block. Westside s unusual because it is located in a thriving, mixed-income neighborhood. Another distinction is in its construction, which relied on heavy cement blocks, creating buildings that have suffered less from degradation over time.

Westside is a development that has exceeded its useful life. The development is more than 65 years old, and residents live with outdated appliances; unpredictable plumbing, mechanical, and electrical systems; extensive rodent problems; and other issues that affect their health and quality of life.

Westside comes under the purvue of HOPE SF, a subsidiary of the San Francisco Housing Authority.

1360 Montgomery Street – A Streamline Moderne Dream

Posted by Cindy on January 17, 2013

Jan 172013

1360 Montgomery Street
The Malloch Apartments
Telegraph Hill

The Spirit of California.

Muralist Alfred Du Pont (also known as Dupont) was hired to design the images that grace the exterior 1360 Montgomery Street. Du Pont produced two 40-foot high silvery figures in sgraffito, or raised plaster, on the western facade of the building, and a third on the north side. Du Pont applied colored concrete to the exterior and carved it into shape.

Sgraffito on walls has been used in Europe since classical times, and it was common in Italy in the 16th century, and can be found in African art. In combination with ornamental decoration these techniques formed an alternative to the prevailing painting of walls. The procedures are similar to the painting of frescoes.

Spanish Explorer

As a teenager Dupont ran away from home and rode the rails to San Francisco. His art studies were at the CSFA, UC, and CCAC. Active as a muralist in the 1930s, he painted ceilings at Hearst Castle and other public places in southern California. At the Golden Gate International Exhibition of 1939 he painted murals in the mining building. While serving in the Navy during WWII, he did illustrations of ships and manuals and painted portraits of Admirals Nimitz and Halsey. He received two Purple Hearts for wounds received when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941 and in the battle of Okinawa in 1945. After the war he settled in Laguna Beach and painted many marines and coastals of that area. On March 2, 1982 Dupont suffered a heart attack while driving in Newport Beach and died of the injuries.

The Malloch Building has a fascinating history and is well worth the read.

Presidio’s Arguello Gate

Posted by Cindy on January 4, 2013

Jan 042013

Arguello and Pacific
Entry to the Presidio

The Arguello Gate was built by the Army in 1896. The designer was architect J.B. Whittemore. The gate was commissioned in 1895 and installed between 1896 and 1897.

Over the decades, it experienced much wear and tear, including being hit by a truck in 1996. This collision knocked off one of the beautifully carved sandstone capstones. Additionally, one of the large piers upon which the capstones sit had a crack so sizable that a passerby could see through to the other side.

In 2008, the Presidio Trust worked with master carver Oleg Lobykin, founder of Stonesculpt, to repair the historic gate and its adjacent walls, and to recreate the intricate carvings on the capstone. “We very much respect the labor which went into creating something like that. It’s a monument. It’s an artifact. It’s a piece of history. So we try to preserve it as much as we can,” said Lobykin.

In 2009, the Presidio Trust was honored with a Preservation Design Award in the Craftsmanship Category from the California Preservation Foundation its efforts.

Essayons is the motto of the US ARMY CORP of Engineers. The literal meaning of essayons is “let us try” in French. It is the only non-latin motto in the U.S. Army heraldry.

The US Army Corps of Engineers was created during America’s War for Independence, with the support of professional French Military Engineers. Today, that French heritage is still seen not only in its motto but within the language of the Engineer – “abatis,” “gabions,” “fascines” and “pontons” — all have their roots in 18th century France.

A reader sent me the following, that I found very interesting:

You know that American Eagle with the olive branch and arrows? During peacetime the eagle is supposed to be facing the olive branch while during wartime it faces the arrows. This means that U.S. military officers need to buy a new hat when a war starts. Admiral Spruance was too cheap for that so in pictures from WW2 he is usually the only one with the eagle facing the olive branch.

Yes I had to look up Admiral Spruance, this is what Wikipedia had to say:

Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral in World War II.

Spruance commanded US naval forces during two of the most significant naval battles that took place in the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The Battle of Midway was the first major victory for the United States over Japan and is seen by many as the turning point of the Pacific war. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was also a significant victory for the US. The Navy’s official historian said of the Battle of Midway “…Spruance’s performance was superb…(he) emerged from this battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history”. After the war, Spruance was appointed President of the Naval War College, and later served as American ambassador to the Philippines.

Spruance was nicknamed “electric brain” for his calmness even in moments of supreme crisis: a reputation enhanced by his successful tactics at Midway.

Ruth Asawa at the Parc 55

Posted by Cindy on December 26, 2012

Dec 262012

55 Cyril Magnin
Union Square Area
Parc 55 Hotel porte-cochere

San Francisco Yesterday and Today by Ruth Asawa 1984 – Cast Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Ruth Asawa used baker’s clay to sculpt these panels. Ms. Asawa has many works around San Francisco. An American artist, who is nationally recognized for her wire sculpture. Ruth, at the age of 16, along with her family, was interned in Rohwer camp in Rohwer, Arkansas at a time when it was feared the people of Japanese descent on the West Coast would commit acts of sabotage. It was the first step on a journey into the art world for Ruth. In 1994, when she was 68 years old, she said of the experience: “I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am.”

Bufano in Valencia Gardens

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2012

Dec 202012

Valencia Gardens Housing Project
Corner of Maxwell Court and Rosa Parks Way

These animal sculptures at Valencia Gardens were sculpted by Beniamino (Benny) Bufano. They were done in the 1930s for the Work Progress Administration Project at Aquatic Park. In the 1940s, when the federal government pulled out of San Francisco the sculptures were given to the City of San Francisco and became the charge of the San Francisco Art Commission.

There are two other sculptures that were part of this grouping. The Frog and The Seal are still at Aquatic Park.

This collection of statuary is by San Francisco darling Beniamino Bufano. They sit in a courtyard of the completely newly rebuilt Valencia Garden Housing Project.

During the work that was done at Valencia Gardens, the statues were placed at the Randall Museum for restoration and the enjoyment of the citizens of San Francisco.

The $66 million development of the new Valencia Gardens replaced 246 dilapidated and blighted housing units with 260 affordable homes for extremely-low and low-income families and seniors. Valencia Gardens is located on a 4.9-acre site between Valencia, Guerrero, 15th, and 14th Streets in the Mission District, the same location as the previous public housing which stood for over sixty years.

After almost a decade of planning, the revitalization of Valencia Gardens was made possible through a network of partnerships and collaborations at the local, state and federal levels. As a HOPE VI development, $66 million in development financing was provided by both the public and private sectors.

The design and architecture of Valencia Gardens are based on new urbanism principles that have shown to increase the quality of life and sense of community in other HOPE VI affordable housing developments. Most importantly, Valencia Gardens is integrated into its neighborhood with new public roads and walkways, as opposed to being isolated by fencing, as was the case with the previous project.

Aero #8 by Moto Ohtake Spinning in the Richmond

Posted by Cindy on December 7, 2012

Dec 072012

851 27th Avenue
Richmond District

Aero #8 by Moto Ohtake – 2012 – Stainless Steel

Inspired by the natural elements on both macro and microscopic levels, aero #8 is a self-contained wind driven system that creates an infinite number of movements in response to changes in weather patterns.

Moto Ohtake was born in 1952 in Tokyo Japan. He holds a BFA from Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan, a BFA in sculpture from the Academy of Art College and an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institue. He is presently an instructor in sculpture, three dimensional design and furniture design at De Anza College in Cupertino, California.

The video is actually of Aero #5, however they are very similar and the video will give you a good feeling of how they move.

This piece was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for $48,000.

Art at the Richmond District Library

Posted by Cindy on November 23, 2012

Nov 232012

351 9th Avenue
SF Public Library
Inner Richmond

According to Scott Donahue’s website “these sculptures were designed to integrate into the very symmetrical renovate library landscape and building. Each dome is a relief sculpture map. On is the entire Bay Area and portrays a time in history from 15000 years ago to 100 years ago. The other is a close0yo view of San Francisco and the Richmond District from today. The interpretation exaggerates certain features like the mountains and hills and there are little reliefs and images depicting how virtually everyone arrived, or their relatives arrived, to be looking here and now at these sculptures. I say no one is native to San Francisco and even Native American’s relatives had to walk here, or maybe boat here a long time ago.”

Scott holds a BFA from Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA from University of California Davis. Scott is also responsible for the sculpture on the Taraval Police Station in San Francisco.

Titled “Touching Earth” this piece was commissioned by the SFAC for $36,000 in 2007.

Ghost Figures of the Financial District

Posted by Cindy on November 18, 2012

Nov 182012

580 California at Kearney
Financial District

This building sits on the corner of Kearny and California Streets. It has twelve untitled figures along the four top edges resembling ghost forms wrapped in long cloth garments. They were created by the sculptress Muriel Castanis from 1982-85 for a commission by the building architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee.

The sculptures are made of molded fiberglass, selected due to its strength, light weight (1200-1300 lbs. each) and weathering properties. The three female figures in each tableau are reproduced on each of the four sides of the building.

Muriel Brunner Castanis (September 27, 1926 – March 22, 2006) was an American sculptor best known for her public art installments involving fluidly draped figures. Though she attended New York’s High School of Music and Art, she did not begin her art career until she’d spent 10 years as a wife and mother. Her 1980 exhibit at the OK Harris Works of Art in Manhattan led to her breakthrough. She died from lung failure in Greenwich Village.

These figures are even mentioned in her NY Times obituary.

Goddess of Democracy

Posted by Cindy on November 6, 2012

Nov 062012

Portsmouth Square
Chinatown

During China’s 1989 Tianamen Square protests, when hope for sought-after reforms seemed to be fading, artist activists unveiled a 33-ft. tall paper mache and foam sculpture of the “Goddess of Democracy.” The statue, in the tradition of other giant torch-brandishing women, became an icon for the Democratic Movement, though it was demolished by government troops only five days after its appearance.

Not surprisingly, replicas and tributes to the figure cropped up in other countries. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, a 10-ft. tall bronze version on a granite base was dedicated in 1994. The work was created by sculptor Thomas Marsh from the San Francisco Academy of Art, with the assistance of a group of anonymous Chinese students and other volunteers.

Thomas Marsh was born in Cherokee, Iowa in 1951. He received a BFA in painting from Layton School of Art in Milwaukee Wisconsin and an MFA in sculpture from CSU Long Beach. He is a classic figurative sculptor.

Creazione by Dimitri Hadzi

Posted by Cindy on October 24, 2012

Oct 242012

Dimitri Hadzi’s Creazione, a bronze sculpture with a spirited sense of movement was inspired by the music of Mozart.

Dimitri Hadzi (1921-2006) was born in New York City. As a child he was sent to a Greek after-school program, where he received instruction in Greek language, mythology, history, and theater. His artistic ability won him a drawing prize and his strength in math and science gained him admission to Brooklyn Technical High School. Upon graduating he worked as a chemist by day while continuing to study chemistry by night. On July 4, 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served in the South Pacific, where an officer encouraged his efforts at drawing. After the war, he returned to New York, decided to turn away from chemistry, and became a student of painting and sculpture at Cooper Union. At the age of 29, a Fulbright Scholarship took him to Athens where he studied the history of Greco-Roman sculpture while learning the technical demands of carving in stone. The GI Bill subsequently allowed him to continue his studies in Rome, where he set up his first studio. At his death, Mr. Hadzi was emeritus professor of visual and environmental studies at Harvard, where he had taught sculpture and printmaking for many years.

Icosaspirale

Posted by Cindy on October 12, 2012

Oct 122012

1 Maritime Plaza

Icosaspirale by Charles Perry – 1967 – 8 feet – Brass

This sculpture is constructed of bronze rods brazed together into triangular sections. Those sections were assembled into an Icosahedron shape. Note that each triangle that makes up the Icosahedron is itself a spiral. Hense the name “Icosaspirale

Charles O. Perry (1929-2011) was born in Montana. After graduating from Yale, Perry practiced architecture in San Francisco, California with the firm of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, from 1958- 1963. During his architectural career he had developed many sculptural models and was offered a one-man sculpture show in San Francisco. At the same time, he won the Rome Prize, a prestigious award granted by the American Academy in Rome for two years study in Italy. Prior to leaving for Rome in 1964, he had secured two major sculpture commissions. “The basic difference in the discipline of architecture and sculpture is that one can’t force a solution in sculpture, whereas in architecture, one can arrive at an apparent ‘rational’ solution through continual work.” For Perry, the appropriateness of the form is the criteria for the final goal.

As an industrial designer, Charles Perry invented and patented three unique prize winning chairs. He designed other objects of art such as a collection of jewelry and silver for Tiffany, chess sets, and puzzles.

This piece was commissioned by the Golden Gateway Building Company and dedicated to the City of San Francisco, it is part of the Golden Gateway Center Collection of Fine Art.

Mark Twain and his Jumping Frogs

Posted by Cindy on October 7, 2012

Oct 072012

Foot of the Transamerica Pyramid
600 Montgomery
Financial District

Frog Pond by Richard Clopton
Bronze 1996

Redwood Park

Transplanted from the Santa Cruz Mountains 60 miles to the south, magnificent redwoods dominate this park designed by Tom Galli. The fountain designed by Anthony Guzzardo is decorated with the jumping frog sculptures, in a fond remembrance of Mark Twain, who for a time lived and wrote on this site.

Richard Clopton (1945- ) has his studio in Richmond, California. Training in the life sciences and the technical and aesthetic demands of a career in dentistry combined with an interest in the natural world have produced a feeling for naturalistic form and detail evident in his work. He completed his first bronze sculpture in 1991. His work includes both animal and human figurative subjects.

The park is only open during the week from 7:00 am to 5:30 p.m.. It is owned by the Transamerica Pyramid owners.

Richard Mayer at Hastings Law School

Posted by Cindy on September 30, 2012

Sep 302012

Civic Center

Hastings Law School

200 McAllister at Hyde

I would like to extend a big thank you to Suzanne Parks, the Volunteer Art Curator at Hastings Law School for this information.

This sculpture is titled “Gary Diptych #1” and is by San Francisco Bay area artist Richard Mayer. He loaned Hastings the sculpture back in the early 1980’s and then gave it to them in 2008.

In his statement, the artist said: With its affirmation and ambiguity, “Gary Diptych #1 is intended as a metaphor for our times.

Mayer sat on the board of the SFAC when Arneson was chosen to make the, at the time, highly controversial sculpture for a memorial to slain mayor George Moscone

Garden of Remembrance

Posted by Cindy on September 28, 2012

Sep 282012

San Francisco State University
Lakeside

Head by Shu-hie Yang – Student work

This piece resides in the Garden of Remembrance.

The Garden of Remembrance is located in the quiet courtyard between Burk Hall and the Fine Arts Building, it was dedicated in 2002. It honors the 19 former SF State students who were pulled from their classes under U.S. military and government orders and forced to live in remote camps across the country during World War II, along with the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who suffered the same fate.

Designed by Japanese American artist and honorary SF State Master of Fine Arts recipient Ruth Asawa, the garden contains 10 boulders that serve as symbolic reminders of the different internment camps. A waterfall on the east side of the memorial represents energy and renewal, and the Japanese Americans’ return to their homes. The garden also features a plaque, which provides historical information regarding internment and the SF State Students directly affected by it.

Aristides Demetrios At SFSU

Posted by Cindy on September 27, 2012

Sep 272012

San Francisco State University
Lakeside

Caring by Aristides Demetrios

Aristides Demetrios has several pieces around San Francisco. Aristides Burton Demetrios (1932- ) was born and raised in Massachusetts. His father, George Demetrios, was a classical sculptor, trained by Bourdelle, a student of Rodin. His mother, Virginia Lee Burton was the renowned author and illustrator of children’s books, including Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and The Little House, for which she won the prestigious Caldecott prize. After graduating from Harvard College, Mr. Demetrios spent three years as an officer in the Navy and then studied at the George Demetrios School for three years. In 1963, he won his first national sculpture competition when his proposed design was selected for a major fountain commission on the campus of Stanford University (The White Memorial Fountain: “Mem Claw” ). Shortly thereafter, he was chosen to be the sculptor for a public art commission in Sacramento in front of the County Courthouse; subsequently, he was selected by David and Lucille Packard to design and fabricate the sculpture to grace the entry to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The Mathematical Concept of Tau in Sculpture

Posted by Cindy on September 25, 2012

Sep 252012

160 Spear Street
SOMA’s Financial District

Tau by Roger Berry – Stainless Steel – 1984
96″ Diameter 14″ Deep

Each of the four intersecting cones of Tau describes the form of the solar year. The forward side is in full light in the winter the back surfaces are filled with the summer sun. The building to the south of Tau casts a shadow on the sculpture much of the day.

A prominent and highly respected northern California sculptor, Roger Berry, who has been called a “monumental master” has been commissioned to make over 30 site-specific sculptural works for municipalities and corporations from the West Coast to the United Kingdom. Berry attended Raymond College at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California and graduated in 1972.

This piece is part of San Francisco’s 1% for Art Program.

Ornamental Gates at Rolph Playground

Posted by Cindy on September 13, 2012

Sep 132012

Rolph Playground
Potrero at 25th &
Utah and 25th
Mission/Potrero Hill

Isis Rodriguez has created two rolled iron ornamental artworks, one for each side of Rolph Playground.

Isis Rodriguez is a second generation Mid-Western Latina who grew up in Topeka, Kansas and received her first lessons in art from copying Hannah-Barbera cartoons by hand. She attended the University of Kansas where she received her BFA in Painting in 1988.

Two years later, she moved to San Francisco to pursue her cartoon inspired artwork using various art forms: murals, paintings, silk screens, graffiti, flyers, and posters. Isis worked on murals for the Clarion Alley Mural Project in San Francisco from 1993 to 2002 and as a result, she emerged as one of the artists from an ad hoc artistic movement known as “The Mission school”, that included painters like Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Rigo, Carolyn Castaño, and Aarron Noble.

In 2003, Isis completed her first public art commission of designing cartoon mosaics for “Parque Niños Unidos” at 23rd and Treat, San Francisco and received the Norcal Sanitary Fill Artist in Residency Program, San Francisco.

Isis Rodriquez now resides in San Miquel de Allende, Mexico.

Hermes and Dionysus Shake it Up

Posted by Cindy on August 30, 2012

Aug 302012

411 Sansome Street
Financial District

This bronze, done in 1986, titled Hermes and Dionysus-Monument to Analysis is by Arman. (1928-2005)

The French-born American artist Arman told an interviewer in 1968. “I have never been — how do you say it? A dilettante.” Arman’s vast artistic output ranges from drawings and prints to monumental public sculpture. His work—strongly influenced by Dada, and in turn a strong influence on Pop Art—is in the collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Born in Nice in 1928, Armand Pierre Fernandez signed his early work with his first name only; he retained a printer’s 1958 misspelling of his name for the rest of his career. After studies at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice, Arman went to Paris to study art history at the Ecole du Louvre.

Enamored by the artistic energy of New York in the ’60s, Arman moved into the Chelsea Hotel in 1967, and became an American citizen (adopting the official name of Armand P. Arman) in 1973.

Throughout his career, Arman remained passionately engaged with human rights issues important to him. For five years, he served as President of the New York Chapter of Artists for Amnesty International. In 1990, on the occasion of a major retrospective of his work that was to be the inaugural attraction at the Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art in his hometown of Nice, Arman made a major statement against religious prejudice. Only weeks before the scheduled opening, Nice hosted the convention of the Front National, a right-wing French political party whose guest of honor had been a German Neo-Nazi. The Mayor of Nice honored the F.N., and in the uproar that followed made anti-Semitic remarks. In protest, Arman cancelled the retrospective, and, as a consequence, waited until 2002 for his work to be exhibited in the city of his birth. Some friends had advised Arman not to mix politics with art. He responded, “If you are not willing to mix with politics sometimes, politics may one day mix with you—whether you want it or not.”

After passing away in 2005 his wife, Corice Canton Arman, formed the Arman P. Arman Trust, which handles his work today.

Hermes and Dionysus is part of the Embarcadero Center Art Collection. The collection was created by Embarcadero Center developer David Rockefeller and Embarcadero Center architect John C. Portman, Jr., who shared the vision of integrating fine architecture with fine art.

Joan of Arc at the Palace of the Legion of Honor

Posted by Cindy on July 13, 2012

Jul 132012

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 Years’ War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais, and burned at the stake when she was 19 years old.

Anna Huntington has been on this site before. This piece was one of her earliest public works, exhibited at the Salon of 1910 in Paris. Several replicas were made, and the statue won Anna the Legion of Honor from the French government. In 1927.

Jon Krawcyzk in SOMA

Posted by Cindy on July 8, 2012

Jul 082012

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 material. According to a correspondent for Art in America, his sensual and timeless works “elicit similarly tactile responses” from his viewers.

A graduate from Connecticut College, Krawczyk has studied fine art throughout Europe. Krawczyk’s sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and public arenas across the nation, and are part of several private international collections.

Krawczyk works on many scales, but this massive piece is truly impressive and gorgeous, his love for organic shapes shines in this piece.

Marina Green – William C. Ralston Memorial

Posted by Cindy on June 16, 2012

Jun 162012

The Marina Green

Near the end of Fillmore Street

Memorial to William C. Ralston by Haig Patigian 1941

William C. Ralston made his fortune in Nevada’s Silver Comstock Lode. He was one of the richest and most powerful men in California, founding the Bank of California and building the Palace Hotel. In 1875, after a combination of the expense of building the Hotel, his attempt to buy and resell the Spring Valley Water Company and the effects of the Panic of 1873, which crashed the stock value of his Bank, his body was found in the Bay. Whether due to a stroke during his regular swim, or from suicide it will never be known. It is said nearly 50,000 people watched his funeral procession.

This statue to Ralston was commissioned and paid for by Edward Bowes(14 June 1874, San Francisco – 13 June 1946, Rumson, New Jersey) Bowes made his fortune in real estate in San Francisco. The 1906 earthquake made him reevaluate his life, he moved to New York and became involved in the entertainment industry. Major ( a rank he obtained in WWI, and insisted on being addressed this way for the rest of his life) Bowes’ Amateur Hour was the best-known amateur talent show in radio during its eighteen-year run (1934-1952) on NBC Radio and CBS Radio.

I have no idea what linked the two gentlemen’s lives.

The Woman is holding an eagle on one hand and a weapon in the other. On the east and west sides, were ornamental fish, they are no longer there. The sculptor, Haig Patigian has been in this site many times before.

SOMA – Large Pieces of Marble

Posted by Cindy on December 12, 2011

Dec 122011

631 Folsom Street

SOMA

These giant pieces of carrara marble are by Richard Deutsch are titled Frammenti. Deutsch has been in this site before and I recommend you visit his website. He is a very accomplished artist with work all over the world.

This piece is titled Fragmented. The day I was there the fountain was not running, but Deutsch’s website has some really gorgeous photos of the fountain while it is working.

The Richmond – Speaking Stones

Posted by Cindy on September 25, 2011

Sep 252011

The Richmond District

Richmond Recreation Center

251 18th Avenue

Throughout the park is poetry cast into concrete benches and carved into stones.

The artist, Seyed Alavi titled this piece Speaking Stones. It was to be a poetry garden with metaphors for health, contentment and community.

Seyed Alavi received a Bachelor of Science degree from San Jose State University and a Masters of Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. Alavi’s work is often engaged with the poetics of language and space and their power to shape reality.

The various concrete benches read from left to right :

They stained my fingers at a touch. They were crimson yesterday on the branch. So fresh that this morning I searched for them in vain. For they had already vanished and fell to the bottom of the pool.

The stones were not as easy to read, but the snippets were thoughtful.

The problem with this installation is the lack of maintenance. The stones and the hard concrete require lush plantings to convey their message. Sadly, the plantings were sparse and the maintenance very poor. Alavi’s work deserves better.

Older Entries Newer Entries