bart art
March 23, 2008
I was just up in San Francisco a couple weekends ago and had a whirlwind food tour of the foggy city as a last farewell romp with my brother, Bruce, berfore his happy relocation to new york city. I’m trying to get all my postings up, but in the meantime, i wanted to whet your appetite with a feast for the eyes that one can encounter in a unique urban landscape such as SF.
After walking to SF herb company, my travel buddy, jen, and myself headed towards the Mission street BART station. Before leaving the house in hayes valley, we had mapped out our route to hop on BART and take it to the embarcadero exit to visit the Ferry Building. This was a great idea considering we were loaded down with enough herbs to spice rub down an army of pigs.
Much to our surprise, the BART station turned out to be quite a visual treat. The entire entrance was covered in monumental concrete wall relief sculptures. The sculptures took on an air of wall tapestries from that 70’s era. After taking several photos of a fashion editorial worthy location, we got on our train. The impression of this station has not left me.
The sculpture / installment was one of many that the artist William Mitchell had done for the BART system in the 1970’s. I had never heard of this artist and was craving more information on him upon my return home. I find it so fascinating that it seemed so much more acceptable back then for a fine artist to also have a thriving career in commercial art. These days people want to pigeon hole you and your validity as either a fine artist or a commercial artist can be compromised. i am a firm believer in people being able to do both, mutually exclusive of one another.
Here’s some information i found on the BART history site.
“august 17th, 1972- Public viewing of the 16th and Mission street Bart station. Outstanding features of the station are ceilings of acoustic pan with wood panels, can cast concrete sculptures lining the entrance walls leading from the street level plazas down to the concourse.”
This was only about 10 days after another work of William Mitchell was unveiled at the Richmond Bart Station that same month.
I unearthed, or rather googled, more information about this London born sculptor. I condsider him the larger than life version of Curtis Jere. My BF thought the work reminded him of Louise Nevelson -an interesting comparison as she was practicing much earlier with her geometric reliefs and sculptures.
So it goes without saying, it’s worth taking notice of your surroundings.
I was just up in San Francisco a couple weekends ago and had a whirlwind food tour of the foggy city as a last farewell romp with my brother, Bruce, berfore his happy relocation to new york city. I’m trying to get all my postings up, but in the meantime, i wanted to whet your appetite with a feast for the eyes that one can encounter in a unique urban landscape such as SF.
After walking to SF herb company, my travel buddy, jen, and myself headed towards the Mission street BART station. Before leaving the house in hayes valley, we had mapped out our route to hop on BART and take it to the embarcadero exit to visit the Ferry Building. This was a great idea considering we were loaded down with enough herbs to spice rub down an army of pigs.
Much to our surprise, the BART station turned out to be quite a visual treat. The entire entrance was covered in monumental concrete wall relief sculptures. The sculptures took on an air of wall tapestries from that 70’s era. After taking several photos of a fashion editorial worthy location, we got on our train. The impression of this station has not left me.
The sculpture / installment was one of many that the artist William Mitchell had done for the BART system in the 1970’s. I had never heard of this artist and was craving more information on him upon my return home. I find it so fascinating that it seemed so much more acceptable back then for a fine artist to also have a thriving career in commercial art. These days people want to pigeon hole you and your validity as either a fine artist or a commercial artist can be compromised. i am a firm believer in people being able to do both, mutually exclusive of one another.
Here’s some information i found on the BART history site.
“august 17th, 1972- Public viewing of the 16th and Mission street Bart station. Outstanding features of the station are ceilings of acoustic pan with wood panels, can cast concrete sculptures lining the entrance walls leading from the street level plazas down to the concourse.”
This was only about 10 days after another work of William Mitchell was unveiled at the Richmond Bart Station that same month.
I unearthed, or rather googled, more information about this London born sculptor. I condsider him the larger than life version of Curtis Jere. My BF thought the work reminded him of Louise Nevelson -an interesting comparison as she was practicing much earlier with her geometric reliefs and sculptures.
So it goes without saying, it’s worth taking notice of your surroundings.
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