Rincon Center – Obelisk

Rincon Center
Embarcadero

This sculpture, simply titled “Obelisk” is in the Rincon Center.  It 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, The Four Seasons Obelisk on the rooftop deck of 343 Sansome street, and this one.  Sadly, in 1990, she was killed while doing an obelisk installation in India.