2006.70.4

Ralph Stackpole (1995-1973), brother of photographer Peter Stackpole, was an artist active in the 1930-1940s in San Francisco. He was a contemporary and friend of Diego Rivera and Frita Khalo, who shared a flat with him in San Francisco. Rivera and Stackpole were among artists commissioned to paint murals in the interior of the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Stackpole's design honored workers and their industry. Stackpole is most popularly known for his monumental human figures on the facade of the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, San Francisco, known as "Mother Earth" and "Man and His Inventions." He created the 80-foot "Pacifica" statue as the symbol of the Golden Gate International Expositoin of 1939-1940, held at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Stackpole taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and Mills College. In 1949 he moved to Paris. This object represents a gigantic man, dressed as a workman with hardhat and boots, raising Coit Tower. According to the donor, it was a maquette used to apply to a commission to construct the Joseph Strauss Memorial for the engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge (1941). The commission did not materialize, and another sculptor won the contract. This has not been confirmed by another source. The donor says it was set in her garden for many years. PCK

Used: maquette (?)