December 28, 2011 – Far From the Museum Crowd

When you know a museum and go often, you learn about the “secret” quiet spots where no one ever seems to go. Even when the museum is crowded, the quiet spots tend to stay that way. Sometimes you even recognize them on a first visit to a particular museum. Perhaps the masks and sculptures from Africa and Oceana scare people away at the de Young. A few were probably made with that intention. The Rongowhakaata, Maori ancestor panel is one of my favorite treasures. Today, like on most every visit, I had it to myself. It was the same at the old de Young as well. I always like to stop by for a quiet moment and feel myself transported back to New Zealand. It’s been far too long.

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.

November 6, 2011 – Venezia

I have never been to Venice. Even after all the time I spent in Europe, and I’ve never managed to get there (and I’ve always wanted to go). Well, today I visited Venice, well sort of….

The morning started with a walk to Golden Gate Park and then I popped into the de Young to check out the new exhbition titled Masters of Venice. Room after room of 500 year old Venetian art. The work is on loan from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It’s one of those fabulous European Plunder Palaces where much of the collection is essentially, shhhh, stolen. The Titians and the Giorgiones are the real stars and overshadow the rest of the work. It was another example of why I try to see art in person, no book or photo on a website can really capture the glow of a Titian seen close up. One day, hopefully soon, I must get to Venice….

October 20, 2011 – Masks

It’s that time of the year to start thinking about the Halloween Costume or at least a good mask. Today’s piece for the 2011 Project is inspired by my visit to the de Young Museum last Sunday. I went to see an exhibit of photos by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Many of Meatyard’s eerie photos were of his children in odd masks. I recommend seeing the exhibit if you can and wrote more about it on my art blog.

I had Meatyard’s work in mind as I did this piece but I look at the results and realized that John Baldessari seems to have also have worked his way in there too. There are times as an artist, when the work of other artists you’ve been looking at slips into your work.

October 16, 2011 – Magic Carpet

Today’s inspiration for the 2011 Project is the result of a morning walk to the de Young Museum. I took in a new exhibit from their large collection of Anatolian kilim carpets. I love the show for the color palette alone, and I always like the meeting of art and pattern. Kilims are rooted in traditional weaving and textile art that goes back thousands of years. The source and origin of the patterns is uncertain. One of the things I notice as I see various pattern-based art from around the world (baskets, ceramics, textiles, weaving, egg decoration, etc.) is that the same patterns reappear over and over. One begins to suspect that we humans have some built-in, universal patterns that given the opportunity, we utilize in various forms of art.

September 7, 2011 – Pieces of Picasso

Today I finally got to the de Young to see the Picasso mega-show. Even as a museum member, seeing these hyped up shows is a challenge due to the crowds. I’ve learned that mornings, mid week are the key, if you have the time. Anyone who has been to enough art museums over the years has probably seen their share of Picassos. He had a long and prolific career. With such a huge body of work, even some of the smaller and flung art museums around the world often have a Picasso.

We always benefit when museums are under renovation and the collection takes a road trip around the planet. The show at the de Young is a treasure trove of work from the Musée National Picasso in Paris. Having seen Picasso’s work in many museums, including the SFMoMA and the Legion of Honor did not prepare me for this show. The ability to see a large amount work spanning a lifetime is a very different museum experience. It’s not the same as looking in an art book or seeing a handful of pieces in one museum.

The five things I took away from seeing it all at once were:

1. A real insight into Picasso’s artistic development and earlier work. So many pieces did not “look” like a Picasso. Who knew he even painted a lighthouse.
2. A much better understanding of artists who influenced his work and the subsequent artists he continues to influence.
3. It never fails to surprise how much vivid paintings can be in person. Even familiar works like his 1937 Portrait of Dora Maar are surprising. Colors that border on day-glo at times.
4. In case you hadn’t figured it out yet — Picasso was a boob man. He loved ‘em, really, really, loved them.
5. And, a few postcards for today’s piece for the 2011 Project were purchased as we exited through the gift shop.

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.

March 2, 2011 - Olmec

Today we went to see the big giant heads at the de Young. When you think of the Olmec, it’s the first thing that comes to mind. And yes, a big giant head greets you as you enter the special exhibit. It’s grand, it’s imposing, and you could leave after that and feel quite satisfied with your museum outing. But there is so much more to the show. I may have painted a big Olmec face when I got home, but what I really wanted to do is learn to carve jadeite and make some ceremonial axe heads. The treasure trove of jadeite and serpentine carvings is amazing. All safely behind glass, but I’d love to be able to handle them. They just beg to be touched.

The exhibit is another example of why you need to see art in person when you have the opportunity. The books and photos just can’t convey the feeling you get when you see the work in person. I avoid the overused word exquisite. The work in this show well deserves to be called exquisite. If it were a new body of contemporary work, it would be fantastic in itself. At 3,000 years old, it’s rather amazing. When it comes to antiquities, an Olmec show is not going to draw the crowds that Roman, Greek or Egyptian work would, and it’s shame. From a pure artistic point of view, the Olmec accomplished things that wouldn’t be matched for thousands of years.

At the risk of sounding like a cheesy “History” Channel program, one really wonders what was going on down in Mexico 3,000 years ago. Where did the Olmec go or who came to them? There are so many different faces in the carving that you can’t help but see Asians, Polynesians, Africans and Europeans. Small figures that look at times like a fusion of the world’s cultures. There’s a pendant that looks Maori, ceramics that look Phoenician and I might have seen a small Buddha. Many of the pieces could be taken out of the context of the exhibit and then people could be asked to guess where they were from. The answers would literally be all over the map.