With files from Carol Eugene Park and Thor Diakow. It covered a steam grate, which is part of the city's huge steam heating system. The clock was built and installed in 1977 by Raymond Saunders, a local clockmaker, costing around $58,000, which was paid for by the city and donors. In a tweet, the City of Vancouver noted it is aware of the damage.
![raymond saunders clockmaker raymond saunders clockmaker](https://riversdaleclocks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Gastown-steam-clock.jpg)
Someone has placed yellow caution tape around it. Tourists are still gathering to take photos of and with the iconic clock. Forensic evidence is being collected along with security camera footage. The Vancouver Police Department says it's investigating the damage, which was first reported to them Saturday, April 30, in the evening. While the glass is clearly broken, it appears none of it has fallen out of place. Many cracks have spider-webbed across the glass, though there's no clear impact point. The Gastown steam clock has had the glass smashed on one side of its middle section which protects the pendulum.
![raymond saunders clockmaker raymond saunders clockmaker](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/1f/b5/39/1fb53986932271814bca755a23b29e2e--downtown-vancouver-canada-vancouver-british-columbia.jpg)
de Young Memorial Museum (San Francisco, California), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, California), the Museum of Modern Art (New York, New York), the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, California), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, California), the Berkeley Art Museum (Berkeley, California), the Walker Art Center, (Minneapolis, Minnesota), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, New York).One of Vancouver's most recognizable landmarks was damaged this weekend. The Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, California), Hunter College (New York, New York), Howard University (Washington, D.C.), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, New York), the M. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and is in many important collections of art including the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor (San Francisco, California), Bank of America (San Francisco, California), the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), He is a Professor of painting at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California who has donated his time to help “spread the Visual process of art” to many communities throughout the world. He often incorporates collage, chalked words and other elements in his works that add additional texture to his art. Raymond Saunders currently works in a variety of media but is primarily renowned for his work encompassing painting and transversal media juxtaposition. In 1977 he was commissioned to build a steam clock for the Gastown district of Vancouver, Canada.1 The Gastown clock may be the first steam clock ever built, although there is evidence that 19th century British engineer John Inshaw made. Texture is balanced with an erudite palette that solidifies these fleeting impressions with a narrative voice that grounds us in a purely visual experience and speaks to viewers of all cultures. Raymond Saunders is a Canadian clockmaker who has designed and built more than 150 customized clocks that mainly serve as tourist-attracting public artworks. Beautiful and ghostlike in their transparent washes of color, they embody the essence of art in its purest form.
![raymond saunders clockmaker raymond saunders clockmaker](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/archivesE/art/upload/206/7742/asp_25091_untitled11_s.jpg)
The delicate floral images found in four out of the five works drift across white space accompanied by the splatters of the artist’s brush. The fluid compositional structures he invents float across the surface of the paper and provide immediate satisfaction for the viewer by engaging the senses and elevating our intellect. The heightened sensitivity that Saunders achieves provides an intriguing optical illusion in the modernist tradition. The spontaneous, expressive compositions of the San Francisco, California artist Raymond Saunders remind us of the power of the abstracted image in art.