What’s seven years old, sits under a bridge and is missed by most San Francisco visitors? Pier 24 Photography. On a pier off San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Pier 24 Photography “provides a quiet, contemplative environment for viewing photographic works.” Entry is free (though only by appointment), Monday through Friday. The current exhibit, The Grain of the […]
Rodin is famous for The Thinker, but also for The Kiss and a number of other sculptures. Warhol is known for his soup cans, but also for Marilyn and a number of other prints. Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse — they may have a best-known piece, but they all have deep benches. Who’s the exception? Edvard […]
Among the smaller museums in San Francisco is the GLBT History Museum in the heart of the Castro, our internationally famous gay district. The museum is basically two rooms, with static and kinetic exhibits lining almost every inch of every wall. There’s also a by-appointment-only archive of gay/lesbian/queer artefacts — though micro in size, this […]
IF YOU GO-OH TO SAN FRANCISCO … Surprise(s) So many surprises come with Urs Fischer: The Public & the Private, the newest exhibit at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, maybe it’s best to list them. Here goes … 1. The exhibit (which runs through July 2) starts outside the museum, in the courtyard. From there, […]
IF YOU GO TO SAN FRANCISCO … When you visit the Legion of Honor’s “Monet: The Early Years” don’t expect to see water lilies, Rouen cathedrals, poplars, or haystacks. They were painted much later. This exhibit focuses on Monet’s earliest paintings, from 1858 to 1872. He was just 17 in 1858, the year he started showing his work […]
On the way to the Frank Stella retrospective at the de Young Museum, we wondered why this exhibition is so important. Is Stella that influential in the art world beyond abstract expressionism? The short answer is yes. Over the past six decades, the very-much-alive Stella has done more to innovate, disrupt and re-invent art […]
Band of Brothers Somewhere around 1600, in a remote French town, three brothers were born. They grew up strange; not only did they live together all their lives (none of them married), they worked together every day. And they were staggeringly gifted artists whose paintings often depicted poor peasants in a sympathetic way. Meet the […]
Fresh Eyes It’s rare when works of art — books, movies, photos — can change your perspective. But Anthony Hernandez, whose photo retrospective is the first special exhibition of San Francisco’s recently re-opened SFMOMA, did just that for me. Like Ed Ruscha, whose retrospective is featured a few miles away at the de Young, many […]
The B-Side Two sister museums, the de Young and the Legion of Honor, are hosting western-themed exhibits. The star attraction, Ed Ruscha and the Great American West, is at the de Young in Golden Gate Park. The B-side, Wild West: Plains to the Pacific, is at the more remote Legion. But like “I Will Survive” […]
Bill Graham (1931–1991). Most people know Bill Graham as one of the greatest rock concert promoters ever. He opened Fillmore West and Fillmore East as public stages for rock music legends such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones. He partied with the likes of Janis Joplin, […]
