David Ireland's 500 Capp Street Foundation

The former home of David Ireland photographed from the outside. Concrete rectangle-shaped structure with a black front door. The garage door is open and we see pictures in black frames hung on the wall.

The San Franciscan former home of David Ireland has been reopened as the 500 Capp Street Foundation

(Image credit: Henrik Kamm)

last updated 24 August 2022

While the masses descended upon Fort Mason for the third installment of the FOG Design+Art fair last weekend, a decidedly quieter, more limited crowd headed to San Francisco’s Mission District for the opening of 500 Capp Street, also known as the home of the late, beloved Bay Area artist David Ireland.

After returning home from travels in the Far East in 1975, Ireland, who earned an MFA from and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, purchased 500 Capp (previously home to an accordion-maker) for $50,000. He then began a 30-month renovation project that transformed the non-descript space into a home and studio, as well as a living Gesamtkunstwerk filled with art crafted from the objects left behind by the former tenant. These included everything from old wooden dining chairs fitted with issues of the San Francisco Chronicle for cushions and mason jar portraits made with all sorts of bric-a-brac, to cement and wire sculptures, and his famed late 1970s junk dada masterpiece, Broom Collection with Boom, hewn from 18 multi-colored sweeps and now in the collection of SF MoMA.

Over the course of four decades in the home, Ireland famously varnished the walls to the point of amberising them and managed to excavate the clay in the basement — for his gold mine/grotto —to a depth that left the foundation teetering in place by a few shims or four-by-fours, while the staircase was chockful of sediment.

‘Structurally, it was in an incredibly precarious position and luckily [in] that part of town – and specifically where David’s house was – there was more solid ground. It’s a miracle it survived the 1989 earthquake,’ says Carlie Wilmans, who purchased the home eight years ago and saved it from certain destruction at the hands of developers by securing its structural integrity and turning it into the 500 Capp Street Foundation.

‘The decision to purchase the house was an impulsive one,’ admits Wilmans, who is a board member of SF MoMA, but did not know much of Ireland’s work aside from a mid-80s residency he did at the Headlands Center for the Arts. But in December of 2007, Ireland’s Broom... sculpture was being presented to the SF MoMA board for acquisition. ‘By that time David and his friends had exhausted all of their efforts to get the house either set up as a foundation or as an annex of a museum, all his efforts had failed.’

Having moved out of the home in 2005 due to his deteriorating health, Ireland was under the gun to get it sold to the right buyer before tax codes forced him to sell it on the open market. As luck would have it, just one week before it went up for sale in early 2008, Wilmans happened to be discussing the space with Ann Hatch, the chairman of the California College of the Arts, and agreed to buy the place and figure out a plan to save it.

‘I had never met David before I purchased the house but we met [there] half a dozen times before he died,’ says Wilmans, who would follow the artist as he ambled around the space, and told stories about the various installations, projects and dinner parties that transpired there. ‘He didn’t give me any instructions for what to do with the house. All the suggestions I received came from his friends.’

After eight years of delicate negotiations with the city and the building itself, Ireland’s newly refurbished wunderkammer jewel box is open for visitors, who will be received in groups of eight by local artist docents — each of whom made their own mason jar portrait as an exercise to familiarise themselves with Ireland’s practice.

Once inside 500 Capp Street, visitors will find a delicate curation of Ireland’s sculptures (including the brooms, which will travel back to SF MoMA for the institution’s grand re-opening in May), his beloved South China wicker chairs, placards marking the spots where a safe crashed down the stairwell (demonstrating the artist’s Duchampian embrace of the accidental in his practice), as well as a new garden and subterranean flat file archive featuring 2000 objects (many works on paper) that is accessed via elevator. While Wilmans hopes to one day digitise Ireland’s papers, currently in the collection of the Smithsonian, and have them in-house, for now she just wants people to experience the space the way the artist did when he was still in residence.

‘David would invite people over for tea and whiskey all the time and have these legendary dinner parties, but very often when it was a one-on-one visit. He would let people in the front door then immediately lead them upstairs where the two parlours were and disappear into the kitchen for 45 minutes or so – way longer than it takes to make a cup of tea,’ she explains. ‘But it was intentional. David left them in these rooms that were curated by him so they could come up with their own interpretation of what they were seeing. David was not the type of artist to lord over a visitor and explain what everything meant. It was very immersive, very experiential – very personal to every individual.’

The former home of David Ireland photographed from the outside. The facade is covered in light gray boards with a protruding alcove window with detailed work on the wood that's framing it. The front door is recessed. There is a black iron fence in front of the house. — Ireland purchased 500 Capp in 1975 for $50,000 and then began a 30-month renovation project to transform the non-descript space into a home and studio, as well as a living Gestamtkunstwerk filled with art crafted from the objects left behind by the former tenant

The photo on the left shows a detail of the walls. They're painted strong orange, and we see a crack from the earthquake. The photo to the right shows us the mezzanine. We see a dark wood railing, orange walls, and a ceiling with a min green paneling at the bottom. — ‘Structurally, it was in an incredibly precarious position and luckily that part of town and specifically where David’s house was there was more solid ground, and it’s a miracle it survived the 1989 earthquake,’ says Carlie Wilmans, the home’s current owner of eight years

The photo on the left shows a hallway. The walls are painted strong orange with mint green doorframes. The photo to the right shows us the mezzanine, with a red cabinet standing against the wall. — Over the course of his four decades in the home, Ireland varnished the walls to the point of amberising them

A view of the guestroom. Light-colored wooden floors, with a dark wooden cabinet with glass doors standing against a wall. The walls are worn out, light cream color. — A view of the upstairs guestroom, filled with everything from old wooden dining chairs fitted with issues of the *San Francisco Chronicle* for cushions to mason jar portraits made with all sorts of bric-a-brac

A view of the front parlor. The walls and the ceiling is painted orange, with two gray armchairs set one against the other. — The house’s upstairs front parlour

A view of the study. The photo to the left shows us a closer look at the antique work desk. The photo to the right is a wider shot, with the desk to the left, and the open study door with a gray doorframe next to it. — A view of the upstairs study, which includes a wire sculpture made by Ireland

A view of the guestroom. Tall ceilings, with the walls painted white. The color is worn out. A wooden chair with a lightbulb that is turned on sits in a corner. There is a dresser with a framed photo on it to the right. — ’David [would leave guests] in these rooms that were curated by him so they could come up with their own interpretation of what they were seeing. David was not the type of artist to lord over a visitor and explain what everything meant. It was very immersive, very experiential – very personal to every individual,’ says Wilmans

A view of the dining room. A long wooden dining table, with different wooden chairs, takes up most of the space. The room is painted orange and is very dark. Various decorations are on the walls and the dining table. — The newly refurbished wunderkammer jewel box is open for visitors, who will be received in groups of eight by local artist docents. Pictured: the house’s dining room

A closet look at some of the decorations. Animals' skulls sit on the table and are hung on orange walls. — In addition to Ireland’s sculptures, his beloved South China wicker chairs and placards marking the spots where a safe crashed down the stairwell, there is also a new garden and subterranean flat file archive featuring 2000 objects (many works on paper) that is accessed via elevator

INFORMATION

500 Capp Street Foundation is now open. For more details, visit the website (opens in new tab)

Photography: Henrik Kamm

ADDRESS

500 Capp Street Foundation
500 Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

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TOPICS

San Francisco USA