Evening on the San Francisco Embarcadero
Artist
Jack Laycox
(1921 - 1984)
Datec. 1959
MediumOil on board
Dimensions22 x 49 in. (55.9 x 124.5 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of the Hilbert Collection
Object number2019.335
DescriptionDuring the 1950’s and 1960’s Bay Area artist Jack Laycox found inspiration for his art on the streets of San Francisco. On several occasions he went to the Embarcadero section of the city, just south of the Ferry Building. This painting depicts an evening scene looking north from the area just below Rincon Hill, right near where Folsom Street meets the Embarcadero. It is abstract art, although the subject matter and location that inspired the art is easily recognized. Laycox developed a personal painting language apparent in this work and was known for his experimental use of color. This painting serves as both interesting art and as a historical record of a reasonably short lived freeway that once existed between downtown San Francisco and the Embarcadero.
All the low land sections of this painting is landfill; made from dirt, sand, trash and rubble that was pushed out into the San Francisco Bay to create additional land to build on. The buildings on the right side are the base structures for the many piers that went out into the bay. Ships would pull up to those piers to load and unload cargo. The name Embarcadero means; the place to embark.
The Ferry Building is the tall tower to the right side of this painting with a clock on it. That building was where incoming ferry boats landed and departed with people, cars and cargo. Those ferry’s were the primary mode of transportation between Oakland and San Francisco and Marin County and San Francisco during the years prior to the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge being built.
The tower on the hill in the center is Coit Tower, originally built as a lookout for ships entering the San Francisco Bay. To the left and sweeping into the center of this painting is the Embarcadero Freeway; also known as California State Highway Route 480 or the Embarcadero Skyway. That freeway opened in 1959 and was completely dismantled and demolished after much of it collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Today this area is a very popular San Francisco destination for local people and tourists to dine and shop at the many stores that have opened since the commercial shipping companies either went out of business or moved to Oakland. Many of the spaces where the freeway, railroad tracks and warehouse were, are now parks and places where the public can gather and spend the day along the San Francisco Bay waterfront.
Copyright 2016 Gordon T. McClelland
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