Focus on this artwork and analyze the History.
Ashurbanipal was designed by Fred Parhad, an Iraqi-born artist of Assyrian descent. Parhad rejected formal arts studies at the University of California, Berkeley and relocated to New York, where the Metropolitan Museum of Art allowed him to study its Assyrian collection. The work was commissioned by the Assyrian Foundation for the Arts under the direction of its president, Narsai David. The Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation also claims to have commissioned the work. Funds were collected from Assyrians throughout the United States.In 1987, The Telegraph reported that the work cost $100,000 and was the first "sizable" bronze statue of Ashurbanipal. It was presented to the City of San Francisco as a gift from the Assyrian people on May 29, 1988, unveiled at the entry to the Asian Art Museum on Van Ness Avenue. The statue now stands on Fulton Street between the Main Library and Asian Art Museum, within the city's Civic Center. It is administered by the City and County of San Francisco and the San Francisco Arts Commission.The Smithsonian Institution lists Frank Tomsick as the installation's architect and MBT Associates as its architectural firm. Ashurbanipal was surveyed by the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! program in 1992. In 1996, plans for a Civic Center pedestrian mall were being developed by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association; one planner advocated for construction of an Assyrian garden, including lotus blossoms, pomegranate trees and reeds, at the site of the statue.
Fred Parhad Narsai David San Francisco Arts Commission Ashurbanipal Van Ness Avenue University of California, Berkeley Assyria Assyrian The Telegraph Asian Art Museum Smithsonian Institution Assyrians throughout the United States Civic Center lotus Sculpture bronze California San Francisco Main Library Save Outdoor Sculpture! Iraq statue Metropolitan Museum of Art Assyrian people