HAMMERING MAN AT 2,903,440
Jonathan Borofsky, 2005
acrylic on wood, aluminum, steel, and motor

On loan to UCSF courtesy of
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Purchased through gifts of Elaine, Lee and David Freund,
and the Mark Freund Memorial Fund

Jonathan Borofsky

(American, b. 1942)

Jonathan Borofsky uses memories and especially dreams as the source material for all his work. He numbers everything he creates sequentially - regardless of whether it is a scrap of paper or a monumental sculpture.

His 1984 work, titled Hammering Man at 2,903,440,is on loan to UCSF from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and was installed in July 2005 in the main entry to Byers Hall, housing the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical research (QB3). One of Borofsky's best-known images, Hammering Man expresses his respect for work and repetition. The repetitive motion of this kinetic sculpture and its prominent identifying number echo the fusion of math and biology being explored by QB3.