Weekend Picks; Theophilus Brown, Chinese Historical Society

Theophilus Brown at Thomas Reynolds Gallery. Three Horses
acrylic on paper. 4 x 6 inches. 1977

http://www.examiner.com/article/weekend-picks-theophilus-brown-andrea-schwartz-chinese-historical-society?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Friday night boogie at the de Young

It's Friday night and you just got paid? Well, if not, no matter because many of the Friday night events at the De Young are free! You can see a fashion show, watch a film or boogie to music by the Fashion Slaves who perform originals, including "Suffer for Fashion" and "Loud-Mouth Girl" along with their version of "Going Down."

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-friday-night-at-the-de-young-botanical-gardens-oakland-museum?CID=examiner_alerts_article

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Experience the fun and lively atmosphere of the DeYoung’s gargantuan Jean Paul Gaultier fashion exhibit. This King Tut Haute Tutu show is in the Herbst Special Exhibition Galleries downstairs, instead of the upper gallery sometimes remade into the world’s darkest dress shop for past fashion exhibits.

There is so much to take in, the DeYoung might need a golf cart to take absorption overload zombies back to their cars.


Gaultier creates wild and outlandish designs with incredible artistry and intricate detail, and somehow makes them look comfortable and sensible at the same time. Why put a bow there when whiskers are available?

The exhibit includes quite real animated mannequins, a large number of video screens, sketches, photos, and a moving runway of mannequins. Many collections are represented, including Mermaids, Hussars, Chic Rabbis, and Russian. Get up close and see the fabric is really 1000 hours of beadwork.

Mermaids photos above from Pinterest and Fashionising

Night of the Iguana photo below from nearfardarklight

posted by Phil Gravitt

SFMOMA purchases Edward Hopper's "Intermission"

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sfmoma-purchases-edward-hopper-s-intermission

Parallel Visions at Creativity Explored

 You Are Unemptiable by Louis DeMarco © 2010 Project Onward

Parallel Visions, the latest exhibition at Creativity Explored Gallery, shows work by artists from five different arts and disability organizations in conversation with work made by selected artists at Creativity Explored. The resonance felt between these artists, working in disparate studios across the globe, is uncanny and inspiring.

This show assembles a group of artists who emphasize drawing processes and repetitive mark making to create their work. A range of artwork is on view, though three distinct themes emerge: abstract works; figurative ink drawings; and, work comprised of poetic text and number systems.

More at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/parallel-visions-at-creativity-explored?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Weekend Picks: Chinese Historical Society, Mail Art, Intersection for the Arts

One of Jake Lee's watercolors of "Old Chinatown" now showing at the Chinese Historical Society (image courtesy Chinese Historical Society).

In the early 1960s, restaurateur Johnny Kan commissioned a series of water color paintings by artist Jake Lee. For many years, these stunning paintings hung in the private Gum Shan (“Gold Mountain”) dining room of the landmark Kan’s Restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The fascinating back story at the NY TImes: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11bcculture.html
http://www.chsa.org/

More weekend picks at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-chinese-historical-society-mail-art-intersection-for-the-arts

Dale Erickson, Pam Heyda, Sandy Yagi

It's not often that three of my artists friends are showing their work at the same time.

Dale Erickson. Lemons and Reflections. ArtZone 461, SF

Pam Heyda, Gum Drop Boat, Studio Gallery, SF

Sandy Yagi,  Hummingshrew, Watercolor on paper,  2012, 16 x 11-5/8 

The Bone Yard, Berkeley.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-artzone-461-studio-gallery-the-bone-yard-and-more?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Weekend Picks; Letterpress in Oakland, Nieto Fine Arts, SF History Expo

 John A. Nieto, photographs now at Nieto Fine Arts

From John A. Nieto's statement: "There’s an energetic match that’s unique to every photographer and their “work”. Because most of my images are fleeting moments of my life, they are a certain testament, or reflection of my attitude on life. A pathway to my beliefs. "

"I’ve often wished to photograph dancers and as I watched and participated in a night swim recently, I became mesmerized by the drama the underwater pool light cast and how it adds so much mystery to the beauty of witnessing a human body in full motion. These moments became the dancers I’ve hoped to photograph contained in the “Aquatic Ballet Series” shot in Palm Springs, California."

More at:
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/weekend-picks-letterpress-oakland-nieto-fine-arts-sf-history-expo

Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought

April Gornick.  Light in the Woods, 2011

The inspiration for the “Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought” exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, is a commandment from the Old Testament: “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, but thou shalt not cut them down.”

More at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/do-not-destroy-trees-art-and-jewish-thought-at-the-contemporary-jewish-museum-review?CID=examiner_alerts_article

The Cult of Beauty at the Legion of Honor

Frederic Leighton, Pavonia, 1858–9, oil on canvas. Private collection

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/the-cult-of-beauty-the-victorian-avant-garde-1860-1900-at-the-legion-of-honor-review

Katherine Westerhout at Electric Works Gallery

I just wanted to write a little note about how fascinated I was with Katherine Westerhout's photos of an abandoned indoor swimming pool, and her photo of calcification of lime mortar around the windows of an abandoned building, now on display at Electric Works Gallery in San Francisco.

Then I checked out Westerhout’s web site, which led me to search on “Calcification of mortar” and “Grossinger’s Pool,” which led me to more photos of abandoned buildings and blogs by Jonathan Haeber aka TunnelBug, which led me to read his senior thesis for a Landscape Architecture course on the history of miniature golf, but since it took up all my allotted writing time,

The End

posted by Phil Gravitt

Tables of Content: Ray Johnson and Robert Warner Bob Box Archive

"The most well-known unknown American artist" died in a suicide drowning 13 January 1995, after lifetime as unique and perplexing as his art.

Ray Johnson:Untitled valise from Bob Box Archive, 1988–95; mixed media; dimensions variable. Photo: Tod Lippy, from Esopus 16 (Spring 2011).


http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/tables-of-content-ray-johnson-and-robert-warner-bob-box-archive-at-the-bam?CID=examiner_alerts_article

More ways to avoid the Super Bowl (if you wish)

Free admission for the lunar year celebrations at the Asian and the SJMA plus Pacific Arts of Asia at Ft. Mason

Chair for the Palace, Pacific Arts of Asia

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/the-year-of-the-water-dragon-celebrations-at-the-asian-and-sjma

How to avoid Super Bowl Sunday

Blue Face with White Stripe" (1971), pigmented stoneware and porcelain, by Stephen De Staebler. (Photo: Philip Ringler)

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/how-to-avoid-super-bowl-sunday

Celebrate the Year of the Dragon

 Bowl with a pair of dragons. Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722). Porcelain with incised decoration, yellow glaze, polychrome enamels. China | Jiangxi province. The Avery Brundage Collection

As the Bay Area's Asian-American population approaches 2 million, its cultural diversity has grown. The Bay Area is now home to Mongolian, Tibetan, Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese populations, each with their own distinctive traditions and celebrations. Many of the celebrations are rooted in Buddhist beliefs, a spirit of sharing, a hope for abundance and prayers of peace. The Year of the Dragon's celebrations were kicked off with the first rain of the year - a good sign because it means abundance.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/year-of-the-water-dragon-celebrations-the-bay-area

Honoring MLK in 2012. SF events and activities

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/honoring-martin-luther-king?CID=examiner_alerts_article

YBCA choses a new director

Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Photo: Bethanie Hines Photography.

After a nationwide search, Yerba Buena Center for the arts (YBCA)  has chosen a new director, Marc Bamuthi Joseph ...

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/yerba-buena-center-for-the-arts-choses-a-new-director-marc-bamuthi-joseph

UC Davis receives $10 million dollars for new museum

 Maria Manetti Farrow, Jan Shrem, Chancellor Linda P. B. Katehi, Dean Jessie Ann Owens . Photo: Robert Durell.   

Jan Shem, proprietor of Clos Pegase winery in Napa Valley has just donated $10 dollars to UC Davis to help build a new museum.

The museum will serve as a teaching and cultural resource for the region and provide opportunities to share the university’s artistic legacy, enhance its fine arts collection, and create new partnerships and collaborations.

Slated for completion in 2015, the museum will be named for donor Jan Shrem and his friend and arts patron Maria Manetti Farrow.

Born in Colombia of Jewish-Lebanese heritage, Shrem grew up in Jerusalem and moved to the U.S. as a teenager. After studying at UCLA, he built a successful publishing business in Japan, studied enology at the University of Bordeaux and later created the 450-acre wine estate, Clos Pegase. Shrem is now a member of the Director’s Circle for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and serves on the board of the Family Winemakers of California.

“After our dear friend, Margrit Mondavi, introduced the idea of the new museum, we decided it would be an honor to join her in supporting this extraordinary university and in sharing its vision for the future,” Shrem said. “Our philosophy of giving rests on simple concepts: We believe that education and the arts should be accessible to all people. And we believe that a curious and open mind should be nurtured and supported. Fortunately, the project at UC Davis has introduced us to people who profoundly share this philosophy. It is with deepest pleasure that we are able to help bring this new museum to life.”

Shrem’s gift will be counted as part of The Campaign for UC Davis, a university wide initiative launched in 2006 to inspire 100,000 donors to contribute $1 billion in support of the university’s mission and vision.

To date, $749 million has been raised from 85,000 donors. The gift is one of the largest ever received for the arts at UC Davis, and is the largest gift received to date by the College of Letters and Science. It is the fourth largest cumulative gift from an individual donor to The Campaign for UC Davis, and the sixth largest gift from any donor to the campaign. 

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/university-of-california-davis-receives-a-10-million-gift-for-a-new-art-museum

SFMOMA Artists Gallery Portrait Show & Andy Warhol at the Berkeley Art Museum

 Winni Wintermeyer, Thao Nguyen, 2011

The focus this month is on the portrait at SFMOMA Artists Gallery Portrait Show as artists Kim Frohsin, Claire Pasquier, Winni Wintermeyer explore the portrait. The Berkeley Art Museum will be showing 40 of Andy Warhol's polaroid portraits of the famous and not-so-famous.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sfmoma-artists-gallery-portrait-show-andy-warhol-at-the-berkeley-art-museum

Bay Area artists to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge

My arms are flung across the deep,
Into the clouds my towers soar,
And where the waters never sleep,
I guard the California shore.
Chief Engineer, Joseph Strauss (upon completion of the Golden Gate Bridge, 1937)

Celebrated by poets and painters, known as the “gateway to the Pacific,” the Golden Gate Bridge has been considered the the iconic symbol of San Francisco since it was finished in 1937. 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of this remarkable landmark.

To celebrate the bridge's 75th anniversary,  fifteen artists from the Bay Area and around the world will create on-site installations responding to the bridge as an icon, historic structure, and conceptual inspiration. Adopting the title "International Orange" from the bridge's color and organized by the nonprofit FOR-SITE Foundation,  the exhibits and installations will occupy selected areas of all three floors and the spacious courtyard of the historic Fort Point building.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/nancy-ewart