Search Results for “di suvero” – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Search Results : di suvero

Huru by di Suvero

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2013

Jul 192013

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 at other times a gladiators helmet.

This is my favorite, which is why I have left it for last. I could not quite put my finger on why it was my favorite, and oddly, as I have been writing about all the others, I’m not so sure why this stole my heart above and beyond any number of the others. At the time, my photography partner mentioned that it was the only piece that sat all by itself and for that reason could be appreciated the way I had been lamenting that large sculpture should be appreciated, which may very well be why it was my favorite.

Will by di Suvero #3 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 13, 2013

Jul 132013

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 to be a lasting inspiration, as the scale and color of the structure have influenced di Suvero throughout his life. Di Suvero notes, “It was like a rainbow, a bridge coming to the New World starting a new life. The woman who chose the color of the bridge, Malo Lowell, taught me how to work wood as a teenager and from there, all was freedom.”

Magma by Mark di Suvero #2 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 12, 2013

Jul 122013

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 distinguished by a big pair of cut circles (or C’s, or G’s) that can slide along the horizontal beam, matched by a pair of similar rings that wrap around the joint at one of the ends.

Mark di Suvero, has other pieces permanently around San Francisco.

di Suvero was born in Shanghai, China, in 1933. He immigrated to the United States in 1941 and received a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. Di Suvero began showing his sculpture in the late 1950’s and is one of the most important American artists to emerge from the Abstract Expressionist era. A pioneer in the use of steel, di Suvero is without peer in the exhibition of public sculpture worldwide.

Frog Woman Rock

Posted by Cindy on September 17, 2013

Sep 172013

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.

Are Years What? #7 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 18, 2013

Jul 182013

Crissy Field

Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore) – 1967

“Are Years What (for Marianne Moore)”, is the first sculpture Mr. di Suvero made entirely with steel I-beams. Its main feature is a steel V-shaped angle that hangs and swings freely in space, counteracting the solidity of its two vertical and four sprawling diagonal beams. (The tall beam from which it hangs—itself held in place by thin cables—is 40 feet long.)

Are Years What is part of the Hirshhorn Museum Collection.

What Are Years?
By Marianne Moore

What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt,—
dumbly calling, deafly listening—that
in misfortune, even death,
encourages others
and in its defeat, stirs

the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.

So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.

Old Buddy #6 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2013

Jul 172013

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 ears) by a straight 50-foot-long silver-painted spine. But it’s far more than a sentimental gesture. The precisionist rear section and the long connecting beam are painted silver; the tripod, circles and “ears” of the front section are left rust-brown. And one can admire it—especially if viewed from either end—as a masterly complex of steel beams in perspective, framing the sky. (from the NY Times)

Mother Peace #5 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 16, 2013

Jul 162013

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 removal. The work is now installed at Storm King Art Center.

Di Suvero himself moved to Europe in 1970 to protest against the war in Vietnam, returning to the United States in 1974.

Mother Peace is built around one 42-foot vertical beam (a V-shaped horizontal piece hangs from and swings about the top), the two lower horizontals (one moving), and two long diagonal props.

Figulo #4 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2013

Jul 152013

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 backbone extends outward as joints become gracefully visible, angles more acute. The sky seems closer than ever, as meandering clouds seem to collapse into the slats between the beams.

Dreamcatcher first in a series of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 10, 2013

Jul 102013

Crissy Field

In light of the closing of SFMOMA for its expansion, the museum is placing art “all around town”.

This exhibit of EIGHT of Mark Di Suvero’s massive metal sculptures is the first of the series. As much as I love and respect the curators of the SFMOMA, I have always felt that they never quite understood the subtleties of culling an exhibit down to its finer points.

This retrospective is no different. It is the opinion of this writer, that large sculpture should either overwhelm its environment so that it becomes the focal point, or is overwhelmed by its environment so that the eye focuses on the piece. In the case of this exhibit the sculptures not only compete with the background of road construction, but with each other.

None-the-less, local boy makes good is the point of this exhibit and it is well worth the visit if you are given the opportunity.

This piece is titled Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher is 55 feet high and normally resides at Storm King in New York. The piece was done from 2005 to 2012. There are four unusually high and symmetrical tilting beams joined at the top, where they blossom into an interlocked array of cut-out steel circles. Held horizontally to a stainless steel spire in the middle and above the circles is a giant hand of four splayed similar beams, joined at one end, which blow freely in the wind, “catching dreams”.

Storm King is one of America’s finest outdoor art galleries, and a space where large sculpture is given its true due by the vast open spaces that surround each piece.

Artifact from a Coal Mine

Posted by Cindy on October 25, 2012

Oct 252012

SOMA
Third and Townsend

Mark Stevens -2007

“Artifact From a Coal Mine,” although the individual pieces have working names of: the ghost, gingerbread man, fire, whale tail and circle

Weighing well over 10,000 pounds, these pieces were affixed as public art to the outside of a contemporary brick and concrete condominium building at 177 Townsend at Third Street. Three of the pieces are four stories tall.

According to a 10.28.07 SF Gate article by Julian Guthrie:
“They evoke a lost world and the uncertainty of climate change,” said artist Mark Stevens.” The pieces – shaped as flames, a ghost, a gingerbread man, a whale skeleton, and a series of small circles inside a larger one – are characters in an allegory. It’s about fueling our future by consuming our present. The ghost represents us. Fire is the fuel that powers. The rings inside the big circle represent the various ages of man, starting with the Stone Age. This is all of human achievement. I should have thought this through better. I think that we, meaning humanity, put ourselves in a situation where we think something will save us. The little character that looks like a gingerbread man represents our faith in redemption.”

Stevens, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., dropped out of high school at age 16 to work as an artist. He bought his first welding gun the same year. His favorite childhood pastime was scrounging in junkyards at night to find scraps of metal and other discarded detritus.

His mother told him he could remain at home rent-free as long as he had a show or paying project lined up. He taught himself through trial and error, and by studying artists he admired – notably renowned sculptors Mark di Suvero and Richard Serra.

“I just always liked the feeling of cutting steel,” he said, rubbing his callused, gray-hued palms together. “Cutting steel gives you a real sense of power. It’s like you’re claiming space. It sounds greedy and selfish. But that’s how I see it: You build something, you claim space.”

The steel originated at a company in Alaska, and arrived at his Seattle studio in 20-by-6-foot sheets. It is grade 304L, he said, which is the same kind of metal used in silverware.

“It won’t rust,”

William Wareham at SFSU

Posted by Cindy on September 26, 2012

Sep 262012

San Francisco State University
Lakeside

Buckeye and the Benches by William Wareham
In front of the Gymnasium

Buckeye is an abstract modern sculpture.To enhance its functionality,Wareham was commissioned to build three benches consistent to the central piece. Throughout his distinguished career as a sculptor, William Wareham has remained true to his inner spirit, capturing viewer’s consciousness through his powerful abstract works. A compatriot of Mark di Suvero, Wareham creates works with a strong common thread, using recycled steel as his primary material. Featured in many strong National collections, William Wareham achieves some of the most consistently accomplished compositions in contemporary sculpture.

His impressive education includes:

1971 MFA University of California, Berkeley, CA
1969 MA University of California, Berkeley, CA
1964 BFA Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1964-67 Peace Corps, Cuzco, Peru
1963 Yale university, Award Scholarship, Summer Program of Music and Art, Norfolk, CT
1962 University of the Americas, Mexico City, Mexico

Lincoln Park – Pax Jerusalem

Posted by Cindy on April 15, 2012

Apr 152012

Lincoln Park

Legion of Honor

Pax Jerusalem by Mark di Suvero

This piece sits on the sculpture pad in front of the Legion of Honor, one of our finer museums in San Francisco. It is by Mark di Suvero, who has been in this blog before. It was controversial the day it was installed. Many felt is was not representative of the quality people had come to expect from di Suvero, it also was a runner up, when the city lost out on a sculpture by di Suvero’s boyhood friend Richard Serra. Di Suvero and Richard Serra grew up on the same block in San Francisco. Both their fathers worked on the docks. Being by the water and the docks and the wharfs and the piers plays a powerful role in their work.

The piece is owned by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and was purchased in 1999.

The Legion of Honor was the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, wife of the sugar magnate and thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder Adolph B. Spreckels. The building is a three-quarter-scale version of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur also known as the Hôtel de Salm in Paris. This version is by architects George Applegarth and H. Guillaume. It was completed in 1924.

The Embarcadero – Sea Change

Posted by Cindy on January 24, 2000

Jan 242000

The Embarcadero

Sea Change by Mark di Suvero

At Pier 40 on the lawn near the baseball park is this giant sculpture, that you can see from blocks away. Constructed in 1995 it is 70 feet tall and weights 10 tons. The circular top moves with the wind.

Marco Polo “Mark” di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born Marco Polo Levi in Shanghai, China in 1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended UC Berkeley to study Philosophy. While working in construction, he was critically injured in a freight elevator accident and focused all his attention on sculpture.

While in rehabilitation, he learned to work with an arc welder. His early works were large outdoor pieces that incorporated railroad ties, tires, scrap metal and structural steel. This exploration has transformed over time into a focus on I-beams and heavy gauge metal. Many of the pieces contain sections that are allowed to swing and rotate giving the overall forms a considerable degree of motion.