San Francisco’s Armand Vaillancourt controversial brutalist fountain slated for removal

We regret the decision by the San Francisco City Arts Commission to remove the Fontaine de Vaillancourt. This fountain has had an iconic past and has been a source of pride for the City of San Francisco. It is recognized by artists and art historians as a
major work of 20th-century art.

Claude Gosselin, General and artistic director
Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal
www.ciac.ca

Artnet published the last and possibly final update about the removal of Armand Vaillancourt’s fountain Québec Libre in San Francisco.

The saga of San Francisco’s most controversial public sculpture is at an end. The Brutalist sculpture by Armand Vaillancourt will be removed, following a Monday vote by the city’s Art Commission, which decided the structure posed safety concerns, the New York Times reported.

Excerpt from the article:

• San Francisco’s Art Commission voted to remove Armand Vaillancourt’s Brutalist fountain, citing safety issues.
• The artist and local groups had long advocated for the sculpture’s preservation, claiming a lack of transparency over its repair costs.
• The artwork will be disassembled and stored for up to three years.

In June, the sculpture in Embarcadero Plaza was fenced off by authorities owing to alleged safety and security issues. In August, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) asked the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) to deaccession and demolish the sculpture to redevelop the plaza, citing the prohibitive cost of restoration. The sculpture’s removal will make way for private developer BXP to transform the plaza into a waterfront park.

The 96-year-old sculptor behind the work, who had traveled from Quebec to San Francisco earlier this year to advocate for it, called this latest decision “a shame,” telling the Times: “They know when they remove the sculpture, it’s the end of the work.”

Read the entire article on Artnet’s website:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vaillancourt-fountain-recreation-parks-department-controversy-2699795