Bronze – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Rabbinoid on Cell Phone

Posted by Cindy on June 11, 2018

Jun 112018

Laguna Honda Hospital
Garden Area
375 Laguna Honda
Forest Hills

This life size bronze is called Rabbinoid on Cell Phone and is by California artist Gerald Heffernon

Gerald Heffernon lives in Winters, California. He has shown at galleries and museums nationally as well as in France, including the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He has been awarded over a dozen public art commissions since 1978, including those for fire stations in San Jose and Sacramento, parks in Sacramento and Denver (both in progress), and the Light Rail Station in Sacramento. Mainly depicting animals, most of his sculptures are made of bronze. He also works with concrete, granite and aluminum and has created suspended sculptures, paintings and other wall-mounted works. He says, “Many of my pieces are whimsical. I like a playful, rather upbeat approach.”

This piece was originally in Stern Grove, placed there in 2005, at a cost of $50,000. Due to vandalism, it was placed in storage for many years, and now resides at Laguna Honda Hospital.

Healing Hearts

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2017

Jul 152017

San Francisco General Hospital
1001 Potrero Avenue
Potrero Hill

The plaque that accompanies these pieces reads: San Francisco General Hospital is known as the “heart of the city” and the phrase inspired this series of sculptures. Mother with Children in the entry pavilion and the smaller Hearts figures sited along the walkway celebrate the crucial role the hospital plays in preserving and maintaining the community’s health and well-being

The pieces were all created by sculptor Tom Otterness who was born 1952 in Wichita, Kansas. He is a prolific public art sculptor who has been creating whimsical satirical pieces since the 1970s.

Otterness employs the “lost wax” process to cast his bronze figures, which range from monumental to palm-sized. About his sculptures, the artist says, “I try to make work that speaks a common language that people understand, a visual language that doesn’t intimidate them.”

The sculptures are part of the San Francisco Art Commission Collection and cost $700,000. Otterness has other pieces on a building in the Union Square area that you can see here.

Moscone Park

Posted by Cindy on July 11, 2017

Jul 112017

Moscone Park
1800 Chestnut Street
Marina District

This Leatherback Sea Turtle and the Pink Short Spined Starfish in the playground of Moscone Park were gifts to the San Francisco Arts Commission from the Friends of Moscone Park

These bronze sculptures were the work of Jonathan Roberson Beery.

Jonathan Beery is a California native and studied at the California State University in Long Beach.

The tiled seating was also a gift of Friends of Moscone Park and was a joint project between the artist and children of the neighborhood. The bench cost approximately $9500.

Standing Lincoln

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2016

Jul 172016

Off N. Lake Shore Drive near W. North Avenue
Chicago

This is one of the two sculptures in Lincoln Park that were bequeathed to Chicago upon the death of lumberman Eli Bates.

This 12 foot tall figure known as the “Standing Lincoln” was the first of Saint-Gaudens’ statues of Lincoln. He received the commission for this monument in 1884 and began work the following year.

Lincoln had made quite an impression on Saint-Gaudens when he saw Lincoln in 1860 . “Lincoln stood tall in the carriage, his dark uncovered head bent in contemplative acknowledgement of the waiting people, and the broadcloth of his black coat shone rich and silken in the sunlight”.

To capture Lincoln’s appearance, Saint-Gaudens relied on plaster life masks made by Leonard Volk of Lincoln’s Hands and face. To achieve the pose Saint-Gardens used Langdon Morse a 6 foot 4 farmer from Windsor Vermont.

As he worked out the design for the statue, St. Gaudens experimented with a variety of poses: seated and standing, arms crossed in front of his body, or holding a document. Art critic Marianna Griswold Van Rensselaer described the decision in her review of the statue in The Century (1887):

“The first question to be decided must have been: Shall the impression to be given base itself primarily upon the man of action or upon the man of affairs? Shall the statue be standing or seated? In the solution of this question we find the most striking originality of the work. The impression given bases itself in equal measure upon the man of action and the
man of affairs. Lincoln is standing, but stands in front of a chair from which he has just risen. He is before the people to counsel and direct them, but has just turned from that other phase of his activity in which he was their executive and their protector. Two ideas are thus expressed in the composition, but they are not separately, independently expressed to the detriment of unity. The artist has blended them to the eye as our own thought blends them when we speak of Lincoln. The pose reveals the man of action, but represents a man ready for action, not really engaged in it; and the chair clearly typical of the Chair of State reveals his title to act no less than his methods of self-preparation. We see, therefore, that completeness of expression has been arrived at through a symbolic, idealistic conception.”

Architect, Stanford White, of the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White, designed the monument’s base. He added the long, curving exedra bench to encourage visitors to sit and enjoy the statue,

This was one of 20 such artistic collaborations between White and Saint-Gaudens who also became close friends.

The monument was cast in bronze by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company in New York, and dedicated on October 22, 1887, to a large crowd. Lincoln’s son, Robert, considered this the best sculpture of his father of the many that were done.

After Saint-Gaudens’ death, his wife authorized an edition of smaller bronze copies. These are found in public institutions around the country. Full- size casts of the statue were later installed in London, England, Mexico City, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Hollywood Hills, California. The image of Lincoln used for the commemorative stamp
of 1909, was drawn from the head of this statue.

Saint-Gaudens has been in this site before, you can read about him here.

Shakespeare in Chicago

Posted by Cindy on July 16, 2016

Jul 162016

N. Lincoln Parkway West and W. Belden Avenue
Chicago

According to the Chicago Parks Department:

“When Samuel Johnston, a successful north side businessman, died in 1886, he left a sizeable gift in his will for several charities as well as money for a memorial to William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park.

A competition was held to select a sculptor. The winner was a Columbia University graduate, William Ordway Partridge (1861–1930), who had studied sculpture in France and Italy after a short stint as an actor.

This commission presented a unique challenge for Partridge since the only known portraits of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) had been done after the death of the famous English playwright and poet. Partridge made an intensive study of Shakespeare and life in Elizabethan England. He visited Stratford and London, reviewed dozens of existing artworks, and examined a death mask that was then believed to have been authentic.

Partridge also consulted with Shakespearean actors including Henry Irving and his costumer, Seymour Lucas, who helped him portray the world-renowned literary figure in authentic period clothing.

Partridge displayed a plaster model of the William Shakespeare Monument at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. He had the work cast in bronze in Paris and shipped to Chicago.

The donor’s grandniece, Miss Cornelia Williams, unveiled the sculpture on April 23, 1894, the supposed anniversary of both Shakespeare’s birth and death. At the dedication ceremony, Partridge said: “Shakespeare needs nothing of bronze. His monument is England, America, and the whole of Saxondom. He placed us upon a pedestal, but one cannot place him on one, for he belongs among the people whom he so dearly loved.” The artist’s remarks offer insight into the sculpture’s unusually low pedestal, which provides exceptional visual and physical access to the artwork.”

On the base is inscribed Shakespeare’s words from Hamlet.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!

On the opposite side are Samuel T. Coleridge’s words,
“he was not for an age but for all time, our myriad- minded Shakespeare….”

William Partridge was born in Paris to American parents. Partridge travelled to America to attend Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn and Columbia University (graduated 1883) in New York. After a year of experimentation in theatre, he went abroad to study sculpture.

Aside from his public commissions, his work consisted mostly of portrait busts. In 1893 eleven of his works were displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

Partridge went on to lecture at Stanford University in California, and assumed a professorship at Columbian University, now George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.

He died in Manhattan on May 22, 1930.

Eli Bates Fountain

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2016

Jul 152016

This whimsical fountain is known as both the Eli Bates Fountain and “Storks at Play”.

Eli Bates was a Chicago lumberman who died in 1881. He bequeathed a fund for the commission of Standing Lincoln, also by Saint-Gaudens, and this fountain, both to be placed in Lincoln Park.

Installed in 1887 it was a joint collaboration between Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his student Frederick W. MacMonnies

The figures for the fountain were cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company of New York.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens has been in this site before, you can read about him here.

In 1880 MacMonnies began an apprenticeship under Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and was soon promoted to studio assistant, beginning his lifelong friendship with the acclaimed sculptor. MacMonnies studied at night with the National Academy of Design and The Art Students League of New York.

In Saint-Gaudens’ studio, he met Stanford White, who was using Saint-Gaudens for the prominent sculptures required for his architecture.
In 1888, Stanford White helped MacMonnies win two major commissions for garden sculpture, a decorative Pan fountain sculpture for Rohallion, the New Jersey mansion of banker Edward Adams, and a work for ambassador Joseph H. Choate, at Naumkeag, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

In 1891 he was awarded the commission for the Columbian Fountain, the centerpiece of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago: the sculpture of Columbia in her Grand Barge of State, in the central fountain of the Court of Honor became the focal point at the Exposition and established MacMonnies as one of the important sculptors of the time.

In 1894, Stanford White brought MacMonnies a commission for three bronze groups for the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza.

Three of MacMonnies’ best-known sculptures are Nathan Hale, Bacchante and Infant Faun, and Diana.

Monumento al Cimmarón

Posted by Cindy on July 31, 2015

Jul 312015

Monumento al Cimarron by Alberto Lescay

The Monumento al Cimarrón, by Alberto Lescay, or Monument to the Runaway Slave is in the Cuban town of El Cobre. El Cobre is home to the cathedral that houses Cuba’s patron Saint the Virgin on Caridad.

Lescay has said “I feel the spirit of that work in others and I think I’ve found a road, because it is a very open proposal, not at all schematic or dogmatic and those are very universal codes that are expressed in it.”

Lescay goes on to say that being a cimmarón is an attitude toward life, and will continue to exist as long as any trace or expression of slavery exist in the world, because “being free, never being fettered, is the most humane attitude there is.”

Cimmaróns were enslaved Africans who had escaped from their Spanish masters and lived together as outlaws. The term Cimarrón comes from the Taino word ‘si’maran’ meaning “the flight of an arrow”.

The sculpture requires an approximately 400 step climb after traveling for approximately 1/2 mile on a dirt road, but is well worth the visit.

Lescay has been in this site before with a piece in Santiago de Cuba.

The African American Monument of Savannah’s Riverfront

Posted by Cindy on May 19, 2015

May 192015

Savannah Riverfront
East Side – near the Hyatt Elevator
This monument was built in 2002, designed by Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) professor Dorothy Spradley, it shows a family embracing with the chain of slavery at their feet.

Maya Angelou’s Poem

“We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each others excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together. Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even some joy.”

Dorothy Spradley was born in 1946. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Agnes Scott College, 1967 and a Master of Fine Arts, from the University of Georgia, 1976.

Antonio Maceo

Posted by Cindy on April 21, 2015

Apr 212015

This piece, titled Antonio Maceo sits in Revolution Square in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Created by Alberto Lescay, a Santiago born artist, it was installed in 1991. This monument is dedicated to the 19th century war hero, General Antonio Maceo. Saw-toothed “machetes” rise from the grass and surround a large sculpture of the General on horseback.

Alberto Lescay Merencio graduated with a degree in Painting in 1968 from the “José Joaquín Tejada” Fine Arts Workshop; In 1973 he added a degree in Sculpture from the “Cubanacán” National Art School. He became an Art Professor in 1979 at “Repin” Academy of Sculpture, Architecture, Painting and Graphic, in San Petersburg, Russia. Lescay now keeps a studio and his foundation in Santiago de Cuba.

Studio Lescay
Avenue Manfully No. 453 Entre 17 y 19
Reparto Vista Alegre

Lescay was the founder and creator of the Caguayo Foundation for Monumental and Applied Arts. The institution represents over 300 Cuban artists.

There are 23 “machetes” representing the date March 23 1878, when Maceo issued his “Protest of Baraguá” showing his disagreement with the Pact of Zanjón

The group that helped to get this off of the ground included the Structural Engineer Esteben Ferrer Esotiu. The project took over nine years.

There is a river running underneath the project site forcing some serious engineering to be accomplished. There is over 600 tons of steel underground to keep the entire thing stable.

Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales (June 14, 1845 – December 7, 1896) was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence.

El Caballero de Paris

Posted by Cindy on January 22, 2015

Jan 222015

El Caballero de Paris Sculpted by José Villa Soberón

This is one of my favorite public sculptures in Havana, and as you can see how the patina has been worn off, I am not the only one that has a fondness for this character.

El Caballero de París was José Maria López Lledín (1920s-1977), was a well-known street person in Havana, Cuba in the 1950s.

Lledín lost his mind and became “El Caballero de París” when he was arrested in late 1920 and sent to the prison at “El Castillo del Príncipe” in Havana, Cuba. The reasons are unknown but he always claimed in all interviews his innocence.

He sported long unkempt dark brown hair a beard and twisted uncut fingernails. He always dressed in black, covered with a black cloak, even in the summer heat. He was usually seen with a portfolio filled with papers and a bag where he carried his belongings

The stories of how Lledín got his nickname are many, however, his sister Mercedes stated that he got his nickname due to a girlfriend from Paris, who was killed during her trip to join him in Havana.

The sculpture was done by Cuban based artist Jose Villa Soberón in 2001 – it sits in front of Saint Francis of Asisi in Havana.

Bizim Cebish Muellim

Posted by Cindy on October 20, 2014

Oct 202014

Baku Boulevard
Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku Boulevard is a beautiful walking esplanade on the Caspian Sea that fronts almost the whole of Baku. There are hundreds of bronze whimsical statues along the boulevard.

This fellow is a character from the Movie “Bizim Cebish Muellim”.

I found no signatures on any of the sculptures and there is no markings anywhere to say who the sculptors were, but it is a divine way to spend the afternoon, strolling and appreciating the quality of public art that defines the boulevard.

For more information on traveling in Azerbaijan check out PassportandBaggage.com

The Responsibility of Raising a Child

Posted by Cindy on October 20, 2014

Oct 202014

5th Avenue between Yamhill and Taylor Streets
Portland, OR

Along the TriMet route you will find this 2004 bronze buy Rick Bartow. Rick Bartow weaves Native American symbols of parenting and life cycles throughout The Responsibility of Raising a Child. The sculpture started out expressing the difficult circumstances of single parents, but by placing the infant in the basket it becomes a hopeful, encouraging and optimistic work.

Rick Bartow was born in 1946 in Newport, Oregon to a Yurok and Wiyot father who relocated to Oregon for work and married Bartow’s Euro-American mother. His artwork is influenced not only by his Native American heritage, but also by the effects of a thirteen-month tour of duty in Vietnam. He graduated from Western Oregon University in 1969 with a degree in Secondary Art Education, prior to being drafted into the Army.

Bartow is highly prolific working in sculpture, print, etching, monotype, ceramics, mixed media, and painting.

Bartow is currently working on a permanent outdoor installation for the Smithsonian Institute-National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

Burls will be Burls

Posted by Cindy on October 20, 2014

Oct 202014

6th Avenue between Burnside and Ash
Portland, OR

According to the TriMet website:

Burls Will be Burls, by Bruce Conkle, is a tribute to snowmen and to the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The cast bronze figures of Burls Will be Burls represent what might happen when a snowman melts and nourishes a living tree—water is absorbed by the roots and carries the spirit of the snowman up into the tree where it manifests itself as burls.

According to Conkle’s own website:

Bruce Conkle declares an affinity for mysterious natural phenomenon such as snow, crystals, volcanos, rainbows, fire, tree burls, and meteorites. His work combines art and humor to address contemporary attitudes toward nature and the environment, including deforestation and climate change. Conkle’s work often deals with man’s place within nature, and frequently examines what he calls the “misfit quotient” at the crossroads. His work has shown around the world, including Reykjavik, Ulaanbaatar, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet/MAX Light Rail, and Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art + Residency. In 2011 Bruce received a Hallie Ford Fellowship and in 2010 and an Oregon Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. His 2012 show Tree Clouds was awarded a project grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Talos Number 2

Posted by Cindy on October 20, 2014

Oct 202014

Southwest 6th Avenue and Stark
Portland, OR

Titled Talos Number 2 this bronze sculpture is by James Lee Hanson.

“Talos No. 2 is part of the Portland Transit Mall. It was completed during 1959–1977, and was funded by TriMet and the United States Department of Transportation. The abstract sculpture depicts Talos, the giant man of bronze in Greek mythology who protected Crete from invaders. The piece is 7 feet tall and is administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which offers the following description of Talos and the sculpture he inspired:

“He had one vain running from his neck to his ankle which flowed with lead, a sacred fluid believed to be the blood of the gods. This sculpture transforms the mythic figure into an abstracted form. Rather than mimicking the monumentality of the character, Kelly invokes him though this vaguely human but altogether otherworldly creature that seems to take in its surroundings from three directions at once, acting as a guardian to those who pass by”

James Lee Hansen was born in 1925 and graduated from the Portland Art Museum School in 1950. He has spent a great time of his adult life as a teacher of Sculpture:
1964-1990 Professor in Sculpture, Portland State University, Portland, OR
1967 Instructor in Sculpture, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
1958-196 Fine Arts Collaborative, architectural art and art in public places
1958 Instructor in Sculpture, University of California, Berkeley
1957-1958 Instructor in Sculpture, Oregon State University, Corvallis

California Grizzly

Posted by Cindy on October 15, 2014

Oct 152014

San Francisco Zoo
In Front of the California Grizzly Exhibit

This Grizzly sculpture is by Scientific Art Studio. From their website:

We are designers, sculptors, painters, welders, builders, crafters, fabricators, and – above all – dreamers. We live to see the world through new eyes, to laugh and play like children, and to explore boldly and fearlessly. We push boundaries and relish challenges.

For the past 33 years Scientific Art Studio has been the design and fabrication studio pushing the envelope of the latest fabrication techniques and bringing beautiful to everything we do. Under Ron Holythuysen’s creative direction, our multi-talented team has designed and built engaging exhibits, themed environments, immersive playgrounds, and engineered icons around the world.

Originaly sculpted and cast for an outdoor trail exhibit the bear statue was recast and placed in the interpretive center of Hearst Grizzly Gulch.

Recognized as the California state mammal and the symbol of the California state flag, the grizzly bear is now extinct in the state. Between 1800 and 1975, the grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states decreased from 50,000 to less than 1,000. The decline can be attributed to human development, livestock depredation control, commercial trapping and unregulated hunting.

Dianne Feinstein

Posted by Cindy on February 7, 2014

Feb 072014

City Hall
Mayors Balcony
Civic Center

Dianne Feinstein was the head of the Board of Supervisors on the day that Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were tragically assassinated. She instantly became Mayor.

This sculpture (the second of Dianne Feinstein to sit in City Hall) was done in 1996 by Lisa Reinertson.

According to Lisa’s website:

Lisa Reinertson is known for both her life size figurative ceramic sculptures and her large-scale public sculptures cast in bronze.

Coming from a family of peace and social activists, Reinertson’s work has an underlying humanism that can be seen both in her poetic ceramic figures with animals, to her more historic public commissions that express ideals of peace and social justice. In her public sculptures of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez she blends bas-relief into her three-dimensional sculptural forms creating an historic and powerfully moving narrative. Her work combines a realism rooted in figurative art traditions, with a contemporary expression of social and psychological content.

Reinertson completed her MFA at UC Davis in 1984, studying with Robert Arneson, and Manuel Neri. She has taught at several universities and colleges in Northern California including CSU Chico, Santa Clara University and UC Berkeley. Her ceramic work has been in exhibitions and museums nationally and internationally, and is in several public and private collections including the Crocker Art Museum, the ASU Art Museum and the Mint Museum. Reinertson has completed over 20 public commissions in bronze.

George Moscone

Posted by Cindy on February 4, 2014

Feb 042014

City Hall
Mayor’s Balcony
Civic Center

This bronze bust is of the late Mayor George Moscone. Moscone was assassinated by Dan White along with Harvey Milk in November 1978, a tragedy for the City of San Francisco. Moscone was our 37th mayor.

The bust was done by my dear friend Spero Anargyros. Spero has a few works throughout San Francisco, and you can read about them here.

Many people are aware of the highly controversial, but in my opinion, excellent, sculpture of Moscone by Robert Arneson. The bust that Arneson created was not liked by the powers that be. The new mayor, Dianne Feinstein, had a letter hand delivered to each Arts Commissioner just before their vote on whether to accept the bust, asking them to reject it, and they did, by a seven-to-three vote. The bust, being shown at Moscone Center, was removed and Robert Arneson returned the thirty-seven thousand dollars he had been paid to do the work.

In December 1994, Spero Anargyros’s sculpture of George Moscone was unveiled.

The pedestal reads: San Francisco is an extraordinary city, because its people have learned to live together with one another, to respect each other, and to work with each other for the future of their community. That’s the strength and beauty of this city – it’s the reason why citizens who live here are the luckiest people in the world.”…a quote from George Moscone.

Frank Marini

Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2013

Aug 312013

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.”

Guardians of the Gate

Posted by Cindy on August 28, 2013

Aug 282013

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.

Ruth Asawa at Ghirardelli Square

Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2013

Aug 272013

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.

***

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.

Bret Harte at the Bohemian Club

Posted by Cindy on August 6, 2013

Aug 062013

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.

Regardless of History

Posted by Cindy on July 20, 2013

Jul 202013

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 plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cut-out attached as if by an umbilical cord to the mother form. Collecting all manner of things, altering them and giving them a new context, allowed Bill Woodrow an element of narrative in his work.

Regardless of History is a quarter scale version of a sculpture with the same title created for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, England, which was installed there from the spring of 2000 to the summer of 2001. Bill Woodrow chose to explore a recurring theme in his work—challenging and questioning man’s inability to learn the lessons of the past. A critic has observed that by placing the book over the man’s ears and the tree’s roots over his eyes, Bill implies that mankind listens to history but cannot see the lessons. We carry on ‘regardless of history’—an appropriate symbol and reminder for the entrance to a library. However, the work also evokes the theme of human frailty and of the strength and importance of knowledge and understanding.

Thomas Garriue Masaryk

Posted by Cindy on June 5, 2013

Jun 052013

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 Exhibition on Treasure Island. It was given to the park in 1962 as a gift of the San Francisco Chapter of Sokol, a Czechoslovakian gymnastics association.

Josef Mařatka was a Czech visual artist who was born in 1874. Mařatka studied Applied arts at Celda Klouček and then under Josef Vaclav Myslberka at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1900 he worked briefly in the studio of August Rodin in Paris.

In the beginning he worked in the expressionism movement, but under the influence of Rodin he began to focus on Art Nouveau symbolism. He was later influenced by the likes of Bourdelle. After the war he tended to focus on socialist tendencies and neoclassical art. The artist died in 1937.

According to the Smithsonian the piece was originally owned by Franta Anýž. Anýž was a fascinating businessman in Czechoslavakia and this is what I found about him while reading a retrospective of his work that took place at the Municipal House in Czechoslavakia.

The name of Franta Anýž, a talented visual artist, meticulous jeweller, sought-after chaser and medal designer, excellent craftsman highly acclaimed in the first half of the twentieth century, and, finally, responsible and modern entrepreneur in the applied art industry, is nowadays perhaps only known to a group of experts.

The charismatic František Anýž (1876 – 1934) excelled with his talent and industriousness already at the School of Applied Arts in Prague where he studied with professors Celda Klouček and Emanuel Novák. With his tireless drive and thanks to his no less effective organisational capacities, he worked himself up from running a small workshop, founded in Prague in 1902, to become the owner of an esteemed art metalworking factory in the course of a single decade.

A side note – the sculpture is credited in the Smithsonian to a J. Matatka. This is incorrect and has led most everyone to continue to repeat the misspelling

Lions and Bears in the Park

Posted by Cindy on May 23, 2013

May 232013

The Brown Gate
8th and Fulton Street

This bear and lion that grace the pillars when you enter the park at 8th and Fulton are by M. Earl Cummings. Cummings has been in this website many, many times, he also has quite a few sculptures within Golden Gate Park.

These sculptures were a gift of Susanna Brown, a one time resident of San Francisco. Ms. Brown gave $5000 to create the animals which were installed in 1908 to honor her late husband.

Gustave Albert Lansburgh of Lansburgh and Joseph, a firm noted for its movie theater design, is responsible for the stonework.

The Bard and The Park

Posted by Cindy on May 22, 2013

May 222013

Shakespeare Garden
Golden Gate Park

This is the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park, a favorite spot for weddings. Behind that iron door is a bronze bust of Shakespeare. On either sides are plaques engraved with excerpts from some of the Bard’s works that mention plants.

The purpose of the garden was to showcase plants and trees mentioned in William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. Some of the original plantings in the garden were from seeds from Shakespeare’s garden in Stratford-upon-Avon, supplied by plant purveyor Sutton and Sons. The garden was established by the California Blossom and Wild Flower Association in July 1928.

The bust is one of two copies made from an original in stone carved sometime before 1623 by Garrett Jansen. George Bullock created the bronze copies in 1814. The second copy resides in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. The bust is usually shuttered except for special occasions.

Torso With Arm Raised II by De Staebler

Posted by Cindy on April 17, 2013

Apr 172013

475 Sacramento Street
Financial District

De Staebler has appeared on this website before. Stephen De Staebler, a sculptor whose fractured, dislocated human figures gave a modern voice and a sense of mystery to traditional realist forms, died on May 13 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 78.

This bronze sculpture is an abstract figure of a human torso with an arm partially raised. The arm is incomplete. The sculpture was purchased for the Embarcadero Art in Public Places project.

Sumer #24 by Larry Bell

Posted by Cindy on April 6, 2013

Apr 062013

101 Second Street
SOMA Financial District

Sumer #24 by Larry Bell – Bronze

Sumer #24 is a result of the POPOS program and the 1% for Art program of San Francisco. While it is viewable through the windows of the building it is available for viewing up close from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm M-F.

Larry Bell (born in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois) is a contemporary American artist and sculptor. He lives and works in Taos, New Mexico, and maintains a studio in Venice, California. From 1957 to 1959 he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles as a student of Robert Irwin, Richards Ruben,Robert Chuey, and Emerson Woelffer. He is a grant recipient from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and his artworks are found in the collections of many major cultural institutions. Bell’s work has been shown at museums and in public spaces in the United States and abroad over the course of his 40-year career.

Larry Bell’s art addresses the relationship between the art object and its environment through the sculptural and reflective properties of his work. Bell is often associated with Light and Space, a group of mostly West Coast artists whose work is primarily concerned with perceptual experience stemming from the viewer’s interaction with their work.

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.

Empire Park

Posted by Cindy on March 11, 2013

Mar 112013

600 Block of Commercial Street at Kearny
Empire Park
Chinatown

Empire Park (once called Grabhorn Park) is a POPOS (privately-owned public open space). It is provided and maintained by, The Empire Group, owners of 505 Montgomery Street. The spire perched atop 505 Montgomery is said to be a replica of the Empire State Building, but that is most likely because a giant inflatable gorilla was hung from the spire to announce the opening of the building.

This tiny little park is an oasis on a beautiful, carless portion of Commercial Street. The delightful water feature is by Pepo Pichler and is the focal point of the courtyard. In the spring, the entrance is draped in white wisteria. Other highlights are gigantic tree ferns planted throughout and potato vines climbing up the surrounding buildings.

Pepo Pilcher was born in 1948 in Klagenfurt, Austria. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to San Francisco in 1975 and now commutes between Austria and San Francisco.

This street holds so much San Francisco History:

Not far from Empire Park at 650/652 Commercial Street is the former site of the Eureka which was once the site of the Eureka Lodgings, where, paying 50 cents a day, Emperor Norton lived for 17 years, from sometime in either late 1862 or early 1863 until his death in January of 1880.

Emperor Norton in the 1870s. (Source – Collection of the California Historical Society)

In the newspaper offices of The San Francisco Call Building, next door at 636 Commercial one could have found Mark Twain writing at his desk on the 3rd floor during his 18-month tenure in the 1860s, or Bret Harte, working for the Mint just one floor down in sublet offices on the second floor.

Twain once wrote of Emperor Norton: “Oh, dear, it was always a painful thing to me to see the Emperor (Norton I., of San Francisco) begging; for although nobody else believed he was an Emperor, he believed it. … What an odd thing it is, that neither Frank Soulé, nor Charley Warren Stoddard, nor I, nor Bret Harte the Immortal Bilk, nor any other professionally literary person of S.F., has ever “written up” the Emperor Norton. Nobody has ever written him up who was able to see any but his (ludicrous or his) grotesque side; but I think that with all his dirt & unsavoriness there was a pathetic side to him. Anybody who said so in print would be laughed at in S.F., doubtless, but no matter, I have seen the Emperor when his dignity was wounded; and when he was both hurt & indignant at the dishonoring of an imperial draft; & when he was full of trouble & bodings on account of the presence of the Russian fleet, he connecting it with his refusal to ally himself with the Romanoffs by marriage, & believing these ships were come to take advantage of his entanglements with Peru & Bolivia; I have seen him in all his various moods & tenses, & there was always more room for pity than laughter. He believed he was a natural son of one of the English Georges–but I wander from my subject.”
– letter to William Dean Howells, September 3, 1880

Despite this letter, Twain would later base the character of “The King” in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, on Emperor Norton.

608 Commerical Street:

The original mint is no longer there. At present, the home of the San Francisco Historical Society occupies the 1875 U.S. Subtreasury Building, which was built after the original mint building was demolished.

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. Prior to 1985, developers provided POPOS under three general circumstances: voluntarily, in exchange for a density bonus, or as a condition of approval. The 1985 Downtown Plan created the first systemic requirements for developers to provide publicly accessible open space as a part of projects.

The Downtown Plan also established the “1% Art Program” which is how the fountain came to be.

Peter Voulkos Hall of Justice

Posted by Cindy on October 27, 2012

Oct 272012

7th and Bryant
SOMA

Peter Voulkos – (nicknamed)Hall of Justice – 1971
24 X 26 X 11 Feet – Bronze

Peter Voulkos (1924–2002), was an American artist of Greek descent. He is known for his Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculptures, which crossed the traditional divide between ceramic crafts and fine art.

Born in Bozeman, Montana, he first studied painting and ceramics at Montana State University (then Montana State College), then earned an MFA degree from the California College of the Arts. He began his career producing functional dinnerware in Bozeman, Montana. In 1953, Voulkos was invited to teach a summer session ceramics course at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1954, after founding the art ceramics department at the Otis College of Art and Design, called the Los Angeles County Art Institute, his work rapidly became abstract and sculptural. He moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he also founded the art ceramics department, and where he taught from 1959 until 1985.

This was the first piece restored by the organization called ArtCare.

It underwent a specialized cleaning, repatination, and application of a protective coating—all made possible with private funds (estimated at $35,000) issued by the newly formed ArtCare. The program aims to enlist private donors to complement the existing city government–provided annual budget of $300,000. Currently 15 public artworks in parks, plazas, and other public spaces are slated for repair.

According to the San Francisco Art Commission, there are approximately 3,500 objects in the collection of public art project in need of restoration, estimated in excess of $86 million dollars. The City of San Francisco allocates approximately $15,750 annually toward the care of the entire collection.

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