City-owned art collections in California: vast, varied and sometimes forgotten

SAN FRANCISCO -- For a city boasting Rodins and Munchs in its public collection, the basement of Building 30 at San Francisco General Hospital is no place for art. Steam pipes lattice the ceiling, the dust on rusting file cabinets thickened by the years.\nSan Francisco owns more than 3,000 pieces of art, acquired mainly through commissions and gifts and valued at about $30 million. But decades of poor record-keeping and other factors have landed work by noted artists here at the hospital.\n"It's dirty. It's hot. It's moist. There's steam," said Carol Marie Daniels, a project manager for San Francisco's civic art collection who has spent more than a year sifting through the hospital basement and similar places for the city's lost and misplaced art.\n"These windows don't even have glass on them, so when it rains water can pool in here," she said. "There's rat droppings all over."\nThe city has hired art technician Brian Boeddeker to help Daniels inventory the collection and rescue treasures that have fallen into disrepair. Required physical inspections of art installations haven't been conducted for decades. Now a team of five is playing the dual role of art sleuths and data entry specialists.\nTheir task is considerable: Of the 3,301 pieces listed on the city's new art database, locations have been entered for just 793. Some items have not yet been archived from an outdated record-keeping system, while others are just now being rediscovered in dank corners of the city. Of the 793, 318 are listed as being in storage.\n"We had an old system of cataloging," said Richard Newirth, director of cultural affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission. "We never really had the capacity to keep up with it on an ongoing basis to make sure we know exactly where every piece is. In fact, we've discovered that some pieces have disappeared."\nAmong the missing items are a painting by the late Jay DeFeo, a two-time National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient and highly regarded Bay Area artist.\n"It went to a branch library," said Susan Pontious, deputy director of the city's public art program. "That's one we would like to have back. ... Things that are not bolted down go away."\nWork by more well-known artists seems to get better treatment. Early prints by Richard Diebenkorn are safely installed in a meeting room at the art commission offices. And Wayne Thiebaud's work can be seen at San Francisco International Airport.\nOther big cities have done a better job keeping track of their art collections.\nChicago has more than 700 pieces of public art, ranging from a 70-foot Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza to smaller pieces by the renowned sculptor Richard Serra. Everything is completely accessible to the public, said Elizabeth Kelley, curator of that city's public art program.\nPortland, Ore., has more than 2,000 pieces of art, and city departments that have the works displayed in their offices are responsible for their upkeep.\n"We're actually having them sign agreements that they are responsible for this work and if the work gets damaged while it's in their care then they are the responsible party financially," said Kristin Calhoun, who manages the collection.\nThings have historically played a little looser in San Francisco. And now the art is paying the price.\nOne recent weekday at the hospital, Daniels and Boeddeker rediscovered Ray Luazzana's etching, "The Last of the Unrealists," and "Nude in Studio," an acrylic by the well-known California artist Joan Brown, stacked like worthless pallets against a dirty wall.\nBrown, who died in 1990, won a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship during her lifetime. Today, her posthumous award would be having "Nude in Studio" rescued from a dusty forgotten heap by the caring hands of Daniels.\n"It's heartbreaking," she said, brushing her hand along the dusty frame.\nWhen Daniels and Boeddeker find a painting, they cut it from its frame, store it between acid-free archival sheets and relocate it to the Arts Commission offices. They also attempt to reconcile the artist information with a hit list of works they expect to find so someone can later enter it into the new and growing database.\nArt migrates from the hospital walls to the basement for a variety of reasons, Daniels said.\n"People move. People retire. People don't like the work and put it in a closet," she said.\nThe largest piece uncovered in the hospital basement is "Loosender's Lost Summer Weekend," by Frederick Brayman. The 1976 painting, nearly 5 feet wide and 10 feet tall, once boasted bright colors. Daniels and Boeddeker found it against a wall wearing a coat of dirt and mildew, with a fist-sized depression in the canvas.\nReached at his home in Salt Lake City, Brayman said the fate of the painting was a sign of the times.