Outsider Art Tower - made by a German refugee nun in the 1930s | ||
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Posted 12 years ago
ho2cultcha
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This tower was made from architectural fragments in the 1930s by a nun was supposed to be more than a little 'touched'. She must have had enormous strength and energy to make this HUGE tower. I love outsider art and religious art, and this piece is really great i think.
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Wonderful! Where on earth is it situated? There are Hebrew inscriptions on each on each of the shields? Do you know anything more about them? The
no, i don't know a whole lot about them. this is part of a whole little 'village' of monuments built near the original Mission San Jose in Fremont, California. The mission was given to the Dominican Sisters a couple hundred years ago and they maintain it as their West Coast Mother House.
Perhaps it was by Sister Justina Niemierski?
This is fabulous I would love it as feature in my garden........:-)
Sister Justina ( 1879 - 1960 ) is noted principally for the sculptural work of external frieze work at St. Anne's Church located at 850 Judah Street @ 14thAve, San Francisco (1931). It is amazing!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Anne_of_the_Sunset_Church_in_San_Francisco
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And The Christian Stations of the Cross of 1940. Sculpture: stone, rose colored; Base: concrete. Owner: Administered by Dominican Nuns Mother House, Mission San Jose, San Jose, California.
850 Judah Street @ 14thAve, San Francisco (1931)
Detail photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/candiedwomanire/2072689638/in/photo...
Painted cast concrete
wow! thanks vetraio50. i didn't know about her. i had a couple of friends who lived there and they showed it to me and told me what they remembered, but it wasn't much. i always assumed that the pieces were all architectural fragments from other churches, etc... particularly from the hebrew script.
I live 5 blocks from St. Anne's in SF, and love the frieze there - the style is strikingly similar. Thanks for posting this ho2cultcha!
The figure on top of the tower has me captivated.
I've seen her before!
I'm reminded too of the terracotta friezes of George Tinworth at Truro and elsewhere. He worked for Doulton in England.
There are Gothic elements and they could well be memories from Germany/Poland. The surname has connections with both areas. I can also see the Secession building in Vienna. There are twelve figures twice at the top, 64 robed priests (?), the Noah story. She's played with the numbers 4 and 3. Yours are the only photos on the net that I've been able to find.
Maybe miKKo can help us with some of the Hebrew names (?).
Touched = not understood, I suppose.
There surely must have been some work on her before this?
i don't know. we always referred to her as the bondage queen of the disco - because she looks tightly wrapped up and she's on top of a large mirror ball.
sorry, i can't be more helpful!
in case you haven't seen the sculptures at St. Anne's: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35917634@N05/4804401047/lightbox/
and another work of hers in Fremont: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM7G64_Dominican_Sisters_of_Mission_San_Jose_Fremont_CA
Thanks Hunter. The Way of the Cross. There is the Catholic ritual of the Stations of the Cross that I remember on Good Friday mornings and here in Sydney on a path that wound up the hill in the beach suburb of Manly. They are usually in all Catholic churches set up around and along the main body of the Church: normally set up in two rows of seven. Here she has them out in the open in a row close together. It's quite striking as a group. The church building has evaporated and they're set up together out in the open - the Natural Cathedral.
She was certain 'out there'!