The Yak

Staring at the grass of Pleasanton’s Centennial Park, the curve horn and long hair high-altitude bovine cousin of a cow seems impossibly far from the grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau. Vulnerable to extinction due to poaching, habitat loss, and interbreeding, the massive Yak seems impervious to the weather having subsisted for thousands of years on a meager diet of grasses and sedges.  How did this massive symbol of determination and survival find its place to Pleasanton?

First commissioned by Taubman Company for the Sun Valley Mall in 1970, the Yak was declined for installation. Taubman Company owned the Stoneridge Mall and the sculpture was sent there. Stoneridge decided not to use it and it was offered to the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council. PCAC President Charlotte Severin persuaded a family to store the sculpture in their front yard on Happy Valley Road for later installation in Centennial Park.  Ten years later the park was completed. In 1981, PCAC donated the Yak to the City of Pleasanton, and it found its final showcase place behind the Senior Center at 5353 Sunol Blvd, Pleasanton.

The artist who created Yak also had a journeyed background. Joseph McDonnell received his B.A. and MA from the University of Notre Dame and worked under the renowned sculptor Ivan Mestrovic. McDonnell studied at the Harvard School of Design and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. It was in the 1967 foundry at Pietrasanta, Italy where the Yak’s straight horns became massive curves inspiring the artist to declare he should have named it, “The Ram”. 

Joseph McDonnell claims “My works are personal statements of my faith in man’s profound determination to survive”.  The scratched bronze hair and massive weathered sculpture tell a tale of survival no matter what the obstacles are in finding a home. With more than 150 major McDonnell commissions for institutions, corporations, and individuals, Pleasanton is indeed fortunate for the “Yak” journey.  

Jan Coleman-Knight