SFMOMA

WPA Map of San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on February 25, 2019

Feb 252019

January to May 2019
At San Francisco’s Public Libraries

This exhibit is something after my own heart. A WPA map of San Francisco combines my love of the projects that stemmed from the WPA and the history of San Francisco. This exhibit is called Take Part and more information about the locations of the parts of the map can be found here.

Coit Tower and its surroundings. This section is in the North Beach or Chinatown Branch Library depending on the date you visit.

The model is a detailed wooden replica of the city of San Francisco at a scale of one inch to one hundred feet. It was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s, under the New Deal. It shows San Francisco from San Bruno Mountain to Yerba Buena Island to the Presidio.

The original project was the brainchild of San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger with City Planning Commission sponsoring it. Plans were drawn using aerial photographs and surveys. It was constructed in an unidentified church and took 300 craftspeople two years to build at a cost of $102,750.

Parts of the South of Market area at the Main Branch of the SF Public Library

There is little known about the historical timeline of the map. The completed model was displayed just once, intact, in the Light Court at City Hall. Then World War II broke out and the Light Court became a war room, so the map was taken apart and put in crates.

It eventually found its way to the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. The model was used as an urban planning tool by the students, and when one examines their neighborhood closely one can see that at times, the map was updated by students and professors at UC. I found several buildings that were from the 1960s.

The area showing City Hall and its environs in the Main Library of the SF Public Library

Eventually, it again saw the light of day when a curator of SFMOMA, who knew of its existence decided to do an educational outreach program called Public Knowledge. That program involved both SFMOMA and the San Francisco public library.

The map fits together like building blocks. There are 6000 of these city blocks.

There are some pieces missing, and the group sponsoring this event are hoping people that may know of their whereabouts will come forward with them. Even without the missing pieces, the map is considered to be the largest and most intact of any of a number of city models built across America by the WPA.

The North Beach area found at the North Beach Branch or the Chinatown Branch, depending on the month.

Take Part is a collaboration between Dutch, Rotterdam based artists Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol, and SFMOMA. Working globally in a variety of forms including performance, publications, videos and public projects, the artists explore how “publics” are formed and come together. Several of their projects deal with archives and collections, while others are about particular places and local histories.

Not all the pieces are on display but the ones that are, can be found in branch libraries across the city. However, I recommend you start on the 6th floor of the Main Library as there is an explanation of the map, with historic photos, then venture out to explore the neighborhoods. The project runs through March, after that, it is hoped a home can be found for the entire model.

North Beach Area found in either the North Beach Branch Library or Chinatown Branch Library

I will be visiting all the libraries over the next two months and adding photos as I do, so please come back and take a look.

The Mission Bay Library is so small there was only room for the piers that surround the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street

A small piece that is on display at the Mission Bay Branch Library

A composite image of the entire map can be found at David Rumsey’s website here.

Here is a link to the aerial photos used for the project, again at the incredible David Rumsey Map Collection.

Continue reading about map sections in other libraries.

WPA Map of San Francisco – Part 2 – SFMOMA, Mission, Noe Valley and Eureka Valley Branch Libraries

Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2019

Feb 052019

SFMOMA
Mission Branch Library
Noe Valley Library
Eureka Valley Library

This is the second post in a series covering the joint SF Library system and SFMOMA project Take Part showing the map of San Francisco built by the WPA. Click here for Part 1

The old Transbay terminal as shown on the map at SFMOMA

The hub of the San Francisco commuter bus and Greyhound system was the old Transbay Terminal. It is shown on the WPA map of San Francisco.

San Francisco’s former Transbay Terminal was built in 1939 at First and Mission Streets as the terminal for East Bay trains using the newly opened Bay Bridge. The Terminal was financed and operated as part of the Bay Bridge and was paid for by Bay Bridge tolls (which were then 50 cents per automobile, or about $7.75 today). At the time, trucks and trains (primarily the Key System) used the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, and automobiles operated in both directions on the upper deck.

Ten car trains arrived every 63.5 seconds. In its heyday at the end of World War II, the terminal’s rail system served 26 million passengers annually. After the war ended and gas rationing was eliminated, the Terminal’s use began to steadily decline to a rate of four to five million people traveling by rail per year. In 1958, the lower deck of the Bay Bridge was converted to automobile traffic only, the Key System was dismantled and by 1959 the Transbay Terminal was converted into a bus-only facility.

A new bus terminal, complete with Public Art has been built. However, due to complications, it was closed soon after its grand opening, and as of this writing (February 5, 2019), it has not yet reopened.

Potrero Hill Branch Library

San Francisco General Hospital as portrayed on the map in the Potrero Hill Library

While a hospital sat on this property for years, in 1915 the “New San Francisco General Hospital”, which was a landscaped, red brick, Italian Renaissance style complex, was dedicated during the City’s celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal, at that time motorized ambulances replaced the horse-drawn vans.

One of the map sections at the Potrero Hill Branch Library

The history buff, and someone who has an entire map of San Francisco in his head, my friend Ted, pointed out that the section in the upper right was moved way too far to the right, none-the-less the map of this area shows how the shipyards and PG&E electrical plant were the main items in the area at the time the map was built.

The produce market as shown on the Potrero Hill Branch Library

The San Francisco Produce Market as shown at the Potrero Hill Branch Library

I could only find a reference to the stadium on a 1950 Sanborn Map calling it “Formerly San Francisco Stadium – removed”. (volume 11 – page 786)

Mission District Public Library

The old San Francisco and San Jose Railroad with its raised beds and bridges as shown on the Mission Branch library section

One of the more interesting things on the Mission Branch library map is the section that shows how the San Francisco/San Jose Railroad (1860s) line actually came through this part of town on raised beds and large bridges where it crossed street intersections. Here is a fun documentary made by CalTrain about the history of the line.

Notice the light wells that abound on the homes that sit wall to wall in the Mission District

Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Branch Library

Mission Dolores, angled off the grid in the center at the bottom, can be found at the Eureka Valley Branch Library

Mission Dolores, the light brown building center bottom, can be found at the Eureka Valley Branch Library

The Eureka Valley section shows primarily the residential neighborhoods, but one interesting building was the German Hospital that sits in the block made up of Noe/Duboce/ Castro and 14th.

The German Hospital

In 1854, the German General Benevolent Society formed the German Hospital to provide healthcare, food, and shelter for San Francisco’s German immigrants, who flooded the City during the Gold Rush. Founder Joseph N. Rausch, M.D., also proposed one of the country’s first pre-paid health plans: for a dollar a month, German-speaking immigrants qualified for a private hospital bed if they ever needed it, at a rate of one dollar per day. In 1895, the Society expanded its membership and was treating all citizens of San Francisco by century’s end.

If you have the chance, please try to visit this project, it is up until March. It is a wonderful view of San Francisco long ago.

If you do, the Librarians have stamps to prove you have been there, so grab a “Take Part” map at your local branch, collect all the stamps when visiting SFPL branches, and return your completed stamped map to win a SFMOMA prize.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fletcher Benton at Symphony Hall

Posted by Cindy on July 2, 2013

Jul 022013

201 Van Ness
Civic Center

Titled, Balanced Unbalanced T, this Steel and Flat Black Enamel piece sits on the exterior second floor of Davies Symphony Hall, it is accessible at all times via a staircase that can be accessed off of Grove Street.

The piece, done in 1981, is by Fletcher Benton, who has been in this website before .

Fletcher Benton (born February 25, 1931 Jackson, Ohio) is from San Francisco, California

He graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1956. From 1964 to 1967 he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and taught as an associate professor and then professor of art at San Jose State University from 1967-1986.

This piece is actually owned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Keith Haring

Posted by Cindy on September 13, 2011

Sep 132011

SOMA

Moscone Center

Corner of Howard and 3rd Streets

This piece has become iconic in the city. It is viewed by anyone that is heading into the Moscone Convention Center.

Keith Haring is controversial on his best days. Which is sad because he was a truly gifted artist who was passionate about facing up to discrimination of all types, and gave of himself freely to charitable work, children’s issues and causes he felt powerful about.

The first time he had a showing at SFMOMA, this was the sign that stood outside:

IMPORTANT PARENTAL ADVISORY:Some of these exhibitions contain artwork of a sexually explicit nature that is not appropriate for children and that some people may find offensive. We recommend that children have restricted access.

He became a household name through his New York subway art, depicting the essence of the figures above. Born in 1958 he died of AIDS in 1990. He established a foundation before his death that holds tight reins on his work and makes sure profits go to AIDS awareness and education. His full biography can be read here (text only).

The pieces are painted steel. It is untitled, but is often referred to as Three Dancing Figures. The piece, originally done in 1989 was purchased and installed by the city in 2001 with art enrichment funds generated by the expansion of the Moscone Convention Center. The purchase came on the heels of a successful 1998 retrospective of Haring’s work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Thanks to a $65,00 grant from the Haring Foundation the piece had a full restoration in 2012.

During another retrospective of Haring at the DeYoung (November 2014 – Februay 2015) The guest curator Dieter Buchart, summed up Haring very nicely in his statement ” “Haring understood that art was for everybody—he fought for the individual and against dictatorship, racism and capitalism. He was no utopian, but he had a dream that ‘nothing is an end, because it always can be the basis for something new and different.”.

At the DeYoung exhibit a film titled The Universe of Keith Haring by filmmaker Christina Clausen runs in the Koret Auditorium, and is worth the time to view. It was filmed in 2008 using archival film from Haring’s lifetime.