November 14, 2011 – Kids at the Museum

I can’t tell you the first time I was taken to a museum. It was just something we always did growing up. Art, science, history — all kinds of museums. It has made me a lifelong museumgoer. I have carried on the tradition with the kids in my life. Start them as babies and never stop. And yes, my favorites are usually art museums.

I love some of the comments and reactions you get from kids. I was in the Portland Art Museum with my cousin Jack when he was about five. We walk into a room with silver tea services in glass cases. I can’t imagine anything more boring. Then Jack exclaims with delight, “Treasure!” A kid entrenched in pirate culture appreciating stuff that I only thought was for the ladies-who-do-lunch. It was a reminder of how we all can take different things away from different shows.

There are even times I learn things from the kids I take to museums. Adam is now 13, his dad and I have been dragging him to museums since he was a baby. He was about 10 when he taught me to appreciate the Gerhard Richter wall installation at the de Young. But he can be a terrible snob at times. On a wet winter day when he was four, we dragged him around the Albany Bulb to see the found art and recycled sculptures only to have him imperiously announce, “This is a junkyard.” Clearly we had taken him to the Legion of Honor too many times.

One of the many projects I want to do is a photo book of kids at museums. I have been taking pictures for year and I don’t mind hams posing to match the art.

August 30, 2011 – Watching You

There is always something haunting about old portraits. Especially when you focus in on the eyes. And when the eyes are in portraits at the Legion of Honor they are usually more intense. It’s a museum that sits on top of an old cemetery. Oh sure, they “moved” the graves before they built the museum. One wonders what those eyes see, especially after hours at the museum.

August 23, 2011 – From Black & White to Blue

It usually happens a little earlier in August but at least the summer is over and the summer has begun. The fog summer is easing up and the hot summer can start. Today there were even blue skies at the Legion of Honor. It’s always nice to head out there for a little inspiration. The current “big” show of 17^th Century Dutch painting was all about the sky as well. In a land of a featureless flat landscape, Dutch artists are always forced to play up the sky – and they did a good job of it 400 years ago. Adding drama where there might not have been all that much.

July 16, 2011 – Le Lustre

One might assume that chandelier has the same meaning in French. Yet chandelier is actually the word fro candlestick. Lustre is what the French call a chandelier and appropriately from where we also get the English word luster.

There is a chandelier at the Legion of Honor that is probably the most beautiful one in San Francisco — words like luster, brilliant and radiant can all be applied. The chandelier compels many visitors to get the camera out. The artist Timothy Horn even did a magnificent recreation of the chandelier — in sugar! The chandelier hangs in one of the period rooms, a salon from the Hôtel de la Trémoille in Paris circa 1781. I always make a point to linger in that room on every visit to the Legion.

I have been told that ghosts live in glass doorknobs. If that is true, I can just imagine what sort of spirits watch over the room from the crystals in the chandelier. The room itself always feels a bit haunted, but the spirits seem to tolerate those of us who appreciate the allure of pre-revolutionary France. The Legion of Honor may be one of the most haunted places in San Francisco. The building sits on top of a cemetery where the gravestones were removed but many of the graves were left behind. I can just imagine what the building is like after hours. Do the ghosts of old Paris and Gold Rush Era San Francisco get along together? It could make for a good story.

June 24, 2011 - Moore, Moor, More

About 10 years ago there was a large retrospective of Henry Moore’s work at the Legion of Honor. I dutifully went to have a look, yet have to confess that I rarely appreciate sculpture in a museum setting. I like to see sculpture outside and particular like to see large pieces in a more natural environment. Imagine if they could have closed the Lincoln Park golf course and filled it with Moore’s sculptures for the show. Yes, the security might have been a hassle and the golfers would have complained, but oh what a show. Ironically, what I liked best was on the walls, seeing Moore’s sketches for his work was nearly as interesting as the work itself.

In Northern California the best place to experience sculpture is probably the di Rosa Preserve up in Napa. The sculpture collection includes many pieces of public art that were rejected by communities. Communities like my own City, where the loudest nimby or hackneyed newspaper columnist feels entitled to act as art critic. San Francisco is a city bereft of public sculpture.

We do have a Henry Moore but it has to fight for attention on busy Van Ness Avenue in front of Symphony Hall. It’s a tough corner to work. But I always give it a look when I stroll by. On a recent trip I went past the sculpture and headed to the Main Library. At the weekly book sale out front I founded a tattered catalog of Moore’s work. Priced at only one dollar I felt no guilt in cutting up and creating today’s landscape.

May 23, 2011 – Thinking about Museums

Yesterday’s visit to the Legion of Honor got me thinking. Clearly, I was inspired by Rodin’s The Thinker in the courtyard entrance. I love the Legion of Honor for a number of reasons. The setting alone always makes it a worth the visit. I also like the building inside and out. When it comes to art museums, I admit to being somewhat old fashioned. I don’t mind modern architecture for a museum. My issue is with museum buildings that don’t have that special presence.

When you walk up to the Legion of Honor, enter the Courtyard, say hello to The Thinker and make your way inside, you know you have arrived at a museum. I like the feeling of a temple of culture. The newly renovated and modern Oakland Museum also gives you that feeling as you make your way up the stairs off of Oak Street. It does not have to be all about columns and marble. The Asian Art Museum, in the converted old Main Library, retained the grand feel of the Beaux Arts style building. While it’s a very un-Asian building from the street, it clearly has the presence of an important museum. Many newer museums are beautiful once you make your way inside and get into the galleries, but the initial experience is not very museum-like. Every time I walk into the new de Young I feel I should be looking for my gate and signs that say things like Jet Blue and Southwest.

San Francisco has a lot of newer buildings that do not look like what one might expect. The de Young feels like an airport terminal. The International Terminal at SFO looks more like a Costco. The massive Costco South of Market looks like a jail. Down the street the jail looks more like a modern art museum. Turn up Third Street and you might mistake the SFMoMA for a bank. You step into the lobby and expect to even see a row of tellers. The newer main library next to the Asian Art Museum feels more like a shopping mall when you enter into the large atrium. It is very similar to the San Francisco Centre down the street, but without the Nordstrom’s upstairs.

One could respond that museums are more about their collections and how they are curated. Which, yes, is the most important thing. But I prefer the whole experience and like my museum entrances grand as well.

January 2, 2011 - Two Blue

Day Two and the color is blue. Not in terms of mood – it’s just a color I love using. The piece was done this morning. It’s all about two. I looked at the stamps on a package from Australia and there were more lush, tropical shades of blue staring pack at me. Images of sunny Australian beaches on a cold winter day.

In the afternoon I went to see the Japanesque show at the Legion of Honor. Blue, blue, beautiful blue wherever looked. I could lie and say I was inspired by Hiroshige woodcuts. But no, it was just a happy coincidence.