San Francisco vies with Chicago for Lucas's cultural museum

 Of course, there are city politics involved - copious amounts of politics and egos. But let's get real - what large building, much less an museum, was built by saints. I hope we get the museum because it's not only a collection of art and costumes from Lucas' own collection but a collection of exquisiite art from the Golden Age of Illustration - Maxfield Parrish, Arthur Rackham and more

http://www.examiner.com/article/san-francisco-view-with-chicago-for-george-lucas-s-new-museum

'Sorolla in American' opens at the San Diego Museum of Art

This artist is one of my favorites and I am so glad that this massive exhibit has come to the west coast. First Anders Zorn and now Sorolla - if they show the work of John Singer Sargent, I will be one very happy woman:

http://www.examiner.com/article/sorolla-and-america-opens-san-diego

Walking Distance Dance Festival, Gutter Petter at Andrea Schwartz and more

Walking Distance Dance Festival, Gutter Petter's powerful and enigmatic works at Andrea Schwartz and more for the weekend:

http://www.examiner.com/article/odc-theater-s-walking-distance-dance-festival-loakal-gallery-andrea-schwartz

'Beauty Fierce as Stars*, Groundbreaking Women Painters' at Mythos Gallery

From the sidewalk, Mythos Gallery looks like just another non-descript storefront off busy Shadduck Avenue in Berkeley. But if the viewer takes a second look, he (or she) will see one of the most powerful – if smallest – exhibitions of women artists from the 1950’s through today. The exhibition at Mythos Gallery is the first of two to showcase women painters who arose out of the Abstract Expressionist and Figurative artistic movements of the 1950's.

http://www.examiner.com/article/beauty-fierce-as-stars-groundbreaking-women-painters-at-mythos-gallery

The Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archives 44th Annual MFA show

Student work but it's all very intriguing..http://www.examiner.com/article/the-berkeley-art-museum-and-film-archives-44th-annual-mfa-show

'Iconoclasm' at the McLoughlin Gallery

The title of the current show at the McLouglin Gallery, "Iconoclasm" is apt for the work presented by Italian artist Max Papeschi and Dutch artist Arnix is a deliberately provocative challenge to our common  assumptions about icons of popular culture and organized religion.

Sinclair Lewis is purported to have said, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." Italian artist Max Papeschi updates that idea to the 21st century with his images of capitalist destruction masked by cute icons of consumer culture. Mickey Mouse wears a Nazi uniform, Kermit and Miss Piggy are posed in front of a burning house - coded symbols for the Fascism, the attack on democracy, financial crisis, and false advertising promoted by Fox News and financed by the Koch Brothers. Papeschi's background as a writer and director for theater, TV and film shows in his theatrical imagery, which doesn't make it any the less accurate.

His work is subversive, crude, genuinely populist and while made by an Italian, reflects the way that many Europeans and Americans view the current political and social scene. Eighteen altered photo collages display the heads of political figures photo shopped on the bodies of cartoon figures. Black against a white background, they only fail in two instances; Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln don't belong in this gallery of the dictators and sadists. In his 12'x12 images, Papeschi portrays dictators such as Hitler as Charlie Chaplain, Lenin and Stalin as Laurel and Hardy and Marx as a cheerleader. The effect is shocking and slightly nauseating.

One can't call the Disney characters and the Muppets images limited to America; American advertising and ubiquitous advertising have popularized these images - and the ideas they represent - over the globe. To look at his work carefully is to see the hypocrisy behind the slick facade of fake prosperity to hollow ideas and genuine looming disaster.

The “American Dream” so glossily presented at the McLoughlin Gallery is becoming a fantasy with upward mobility almost nonexistent for the poor living within a stratified society and placated by the fantasies of mass advertising so cleverly and crassly shown by Pappeschi’s digital images.

Dutch Artist Arnix (a pseudonym) confronts the power of largely Catholic iconography through a subversive engagement with religious symbolism. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Arnix also has a sharp eye for manipulation and hypocrisy. In a statement on his website, Arnix wrote, "Faith and power. I get their reason for being. Although I have no faith myself, I understand that religion helps and supports people. Great, let’s keep it that way. I also understand that we need to guard our territory. What I really don’t get is that institutions dealing with power turn away from justice."

"The Seven Deadly Sins" are portrayed in pastel images with stick on shapes fixed on linear plastic plates.  Each plate is topped by a silicone (and realistic looking) pig's head. The pig represents filth, dissolute living, an image that rightly or wrongly disgusts us. Each panel represents another one of the deadly sins - anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Given the saturation of our culture with pornographic and quasi-pornographic images, Arnix’s use of pig’s heads was necessary to get the viewer’s attention. Otherwise the delicate and pastel colored figures on his plates would be admired for their beauty while the deeper message is ignored.

Elegant votives containing candles and male genitalia, sculptures combining creepily realistic silicone body parts placed inside antique copper and brass buckets and adorned with strategically placed crucifixes are set out in orderly fashion on the floor and along the walls of the gallery. Masks of the human face with a cross in their mouths mimic the graveyards to the “honored dead” which are scattered all over Europe. This particular instillation misses the mark as many of those buried died to free Europe from Nazism but, then, there is no mandate for a conceptual artist to be completely historically accurate. Nevertheless, the mark of a Catholic upbringing has left its mark on Arnix as well as many others.

Through May 2014

49 Geary Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94108. 415.986.4799 . info@mgart.com. 
 Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

http://www.examiner.com/review/iconoclasm-at-the-mcloughlin-gallery

The weekend ahead. Somarts 'Eating Cultures,' Marin Open Studios and more

SOMArts Asian American Women Artist Association (AAWAA) and Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) join forces to present the multidisciplinary art exhibition "Eating Cultures." Featuring over thirty emerging and established Asian Pacific American artists from around the country, "Eating Cultures" is a provocative multi-disciplinary arts exhibition of artworks inspired by Asian American food and foodways.

Cup of Noodle by Jessica Tang

Using food as a lens, artist share stories of global migration, adaptation, entrepreneurship, and the central importance of food in Asian communities around the world. In addition to over fifty art, film, and literary works, "Eating Cultures" will feature Asian American oral histories provided by Southern Foodways Alliance via Guide by Cell, dynamic programming co-presented by Asia Society and the Culinary Historians of Northern California, a pop-up shop, and a recipe wall for audiences to share their favorite family recipes.

Photo by Bob Hsiang

"Eating Cultures" is curated by lead curator Michelle A. Lee and co-curators Linda Inson Choy and Cynthia Tom, featuring APA artists of all genders selected by University of Connecticut Art History & Asian American Studies Professor Margo L. Machida. Invited artists include Chinese-American San Francisco-based painter and sculptor Cathy Lu, Vietnamese-Irish American Los Angeles-based artist Genevieve Erin O’Brien, and Korean-American Berlin-based artist Kate Hers Rhee.

SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco. Opening on May 1, 2014 through May 30, 2014

MARIN OPEN STUDIOS
May 3rd and 4th and May 10th and 11th...11am to 5 pm
ICB Building. 480 Gate Five Road Sausalito Ca.....Over 40 Artists!

 

Art work by Sherry Miller

http://sherryart.typepad.com/

http://www.examiner.com/article/somarts-creativity-explored-marin-open-studios

A celebration of the life and works of John James Audubon

Audubon, Golden Eagle, 1833–4

John James Audubon (Jean-Jacques Audubon) (April 26, 1785 - January 27, 1851) was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats.

 Audubon, White Gyrfalcons

His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827-1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species.

 In this image: John James Audubon (1785?1851), Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), Study for Havell pl. no. 76, ca. 1825. Watercolor, pastel, graphite, black ink, oil, gouache, black chalk, collage, and outlining with a stylus on paper, with selective glazing on paper, laid on card; 25 13/16 x 39 3/8 in. (65.6 x 100 cm).

http://www.examiner.com/article/a-celebration-of-the-works-of-john-james-audubon

Happy Birthday Richard Diebenkorn

http://www.examiner.com/article/happy-birthday-richard-diebenkorn

The week ahead: Leonora Carrington at Gallery Wendi Norris and more

I have to confess that this is not one of my better written columns; it is pretty straightforward but that does not mean you shouldn't see the shows. I mean - Leonora Carrington, Romare Bearden, Creativity Explored and Gallery 16 all in one small city. How cool is that? Surrealism, African-American Art, the unique artists at CE AND Rex Ray whose powerful graphic design has gathered him international recognition. Carrington deserves - and has - volumes writen about her work. The twenty works on exhibit at Wendi Norris is just a small selection of her oeuvre. Carrington’s exhibition will include roughly ten rarely exhibited oil paintings in addition to a seven-piece gouache series that was on view at the Guggenheim’s seminal exhibition, "Surrealism: Two Private Eyes,"  the Nesushi Etegun and Daniel Filipacchi Collections in 1999.

• 

   The "Celtic Surrealist" in the title of the show is a bit of a stretch but as the work was first shown in Dublin, it makes sense to tie it to a specific location. One tapestry - that of the hunter, dogs and horned deer could pass for Celtic but those figures are also part of ancient Indo-European mythology. 

   

  The rest of the work is not Irish at all but still, what differences does a title make. If the Irish want to claim her as a Celt (and her mother was Irish), why not?

   

  "The Celtic Surrealist" at Gallery Wendi Norris. Through May 31.  11 A.M to 6 P.M. Tuesday through Saturday. 161 Jessie Street. San Francisco, (415) 346-7812.

   

  If Duchamp can call a urinal a work of art, the Irish can claim that Carrington - English born, the lover of German Max Ernst and who lived most of her long life in Mexico - is using Irish symbolism. and mythology in her art. 

   

  It is exciting to see that Romare Bearden, the master of collage, is also the master of watercolors, that most difficult of mediums. Bearden’s collages in "Storyteller" — including mural maquettes, an Olympic poster, and a book jacket for a collection of poems by African writers — highlight the artist’s mastery.

   

  

   Baptism

   

  His watercolors were originally commissioned for the opening titles of the 1980 film Gloria with the vibrant colors reflecting his Caribbean heritage. 

   

  Prints based on his collages are showcased in his Odyssey series, which illustrates Homer’s epic poem; the series seemingly departs from his best-known work of edgy urban and jazz scenes or his depictions of African American life in the rural South. Yet, because Bearden depicts these Greek mythological figures as black, he invites a comparison between classical myth and African American culture. Viewers may liken the Greek king Odysseus’ arduous and heroic ten-year search for home after the Trojan War to African American struggles. 

   

  

  At the dock.

   Replacing white characters with black figures, Bearden attempts to defeat the rigidness of racial roles and stereotypes and open up the possibilities and potentials of blacks. Bearden says about this series and his work in general, "What I tried to do is take the elements of African American life….and place it in a universal framework."

  
  Romare Bearden: Storyteller: Through June 21. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, until 5 p.m. Saturday. Jenkins Johnson Gallery, 464 Sutter St., S.F. (415) 677-0770.www.jenkinsjohnsongallery.com.

  
  

  http://www.examiner.com/article/the-week-ahead-leonora-carrington-at-wendi-norris-and-more

Getty Villa Moves ‘Heaven and Earth’ for Byzantine Art Exhibition

Byzantium - or it's artistic heritage - is now on display at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles. The show is drawn from 34 national collections in Greece and spans more than 1,300 years from the very pagan beginnings of Byzantium, through the synthesis of pagan and Christian art portraying both the decades of glory and the grief of decline.

http://www.examiner.com/article/at-the-getty-heaven-and-earth-art-of-byzantium-from-greek-collections?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Matisse's illustrated books on view at the Legion of Honor

 

Henri Matisse was 60 years old when he began to create original illustrations for livres d’artiste (artists’ books). By the time of his death, 25 years later, he had produced designs for 14 fully illustrated books, several of which are considered 20th-century masterpieces of the genre. View seven of these rare books, including Poésies (1932) and Pasiphaé (1944), in conjunction with the special exhibition "Matisse from SFMOMA" at the Legion of Honor.

More at:  http://www.examiner.com/article/matisse-s-illustrated-books-at-the-legion-and-happy-birthday-to-van-gogh

Weekend Picks for March 28 - 30

The cosmic Buddha Ratnasambhva, approx 1275 - 1350

Asian Art Museum: "Enter the Mandala" - a small but powerful exhibit of 14th-century Buddhist paintings which are aligned in a 2nd floor gallery with the cardinal directions.

 The cosmic Buddha Vairochana, Tibet, Approx 1100- 1250

The space is transformed into an architectural mandala. Those who walk the patterned floor have a chance to experience the images in three dimensions and to dwell in the midst of the cosmic symbols and be transported to another world.

 Impressionists and more at: http://www.examiner.com/article/weekend-picks-for-march-28-30

Meridian, Roots Division and ArtZone 461 art galleries at risk of closing

"Emanus" by William Wolff - currently showing at ArtZone 461.

Calling all art angels...http://www.examiner.com/article/meridian-gallery-roots-division-artzone-461-at-risk

The Salon Doré to reopen in April

Of of all the museums in the Bay Area, the Legion of Honor gives the strongest sense of being both French and 18th century. Of course it is not; the Legion's beautiful Beaux arts building was build to commemorate Californian soldiers who died in World War I.

But so much in the collection is French and is reminiscent of the arts of living in 18th century France (if you were an aristocrat or/ had lots of money).

There is Francois Boucher's delicious painting of Marie-Louise O’Murphy, one of the many young mistresses of Louis XV.

Their collection of 18th century English and French porcelain

Prints such at Jean-Guillame Moiette's "Sacrafice to Diana." Pen and brown ink with white heightening on blue paper (later 18th century). Below

Or this anonymous drawing of a graceful beauty, red ink on cream laid paper.

Denis-Jean de La Villgueray may have been one of the urbane elite that visited the salon; we will never know.

 

Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721). The Foursome (La Partie Quarrée), ca. 1713. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase, Mildred Anna Williams Collection. 1977.8 

Ranked among the greatest artists of France, Jean-Antoine Watteau’s enigmatic themes were popular, influential, and widely collected during his lifetime. Born in Valenciennes, then part of Flanders, his intensely personal style was informed by the Venetian masters, whom he studied in Paris, and by a deep affinity for music and theater.

In this painting, known as a fête galantes, the artist evokes an arcadian dreamland of music, conversation and amorous dalliance. Although the work’s title can be defined simply as a party with two couples, the risqué implications of The Foursome remains unchanged from the eighteenth century. This union of observation and fantasy, plus ambiguity of intent and erotic connotations is characteristic of Watteau’s best work.

Dalliance in the salon? Mais bien sûr! As well as politics, witty repartee and all the arts that made this era so delicious for the privileged.

But, lacking Dr. Who's telephone box or a time travel machine,  being at the Legion and walking through the elegant rooms is one of the only ways we have to mentally reconstruct that world at it's most gilded and sumptuous.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-salon-dor-reopens-at-the-legion-of-honor-april

Rudolf Bauer at Weinstein Gallery and more

I see that the works of Rudolf Bauer will be opening at Weinstein on March 15 - looks like a fascinating exhibit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Bauer_%28artist%29

Realm of the Spirit runs March 15 to April 20 at Weinstein Gallery (383 Geary Street). Bauer runs March 18 to April 19 at the San Francisco Playhouse (450 Post Street).
Read more at http://www.7x7.com/arts-culture/hunt-slonem-s-iconic-rabbit-paintings-and-more-intriguing-art-openings#OF0fV4J23HUyZLMM.99

Bunnies at Sorokko Gallery, nightlife at the museums and Pi day:

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-rediscovery-of-rudolph-bauer-nightlife-at-the-museums-and-pi-day

Realm of the Spirit runs March 15 to April 20 at Weinstein Gallery (383 Geary Street). Bauer runs March 18 to April 19 at the San Francisco Playhouse (450 Post Street).
Read more at http://www.7x7.com/arts-culture/hunt-slonem-s-iconic-rabbit-paintings-and-more-intriguing-art-openings#OF0fV4J23HUyZLMM.99

Bay Area art picks for the week of March 10

 Zachary Adams. Tiger Dance Party. Creativity Explored.

It's lions and tigers and bears (Oh my) at Creativity Explored, elephants at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), paintings inspired by ancient Greece and Rome at the Italian Cultural Institute and an ongoing series of lectures and art demonstrations in honor of International Women's Week at the San Francisco Public Library.  The only thing the art viewer will need is good walking shoes and an extra dose of energy.
http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area-art-picks-for-the-week-of-march-10

Gallery Openings This Week: Karthryn Arnold, William Wolff, Christopher Martin and more

Kathryn Arnold

 William Wolff

http://www.examiner.com/article/gallery-openings-kathryn-arnold-william-wolff-and-art-hazlewood-and-more

'Yoga. The Art of Transformation' at the Asian

For most of us, the word “yoga” conjures up images of impossible body contortions, limited to the young, the limber and those fascinated by a certain image of India. Others, of a more spiritual bent, know yoga through the writings of Yogendra.

The current show, “Yoga and the Art of Transformation” shows how little we knew.

Gathered from 25 museums and private collections across the globe, the 135 artworks date from the 2nd to the 20th centuries. The exhibit debuted in October in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.  But it had to come to California  - possibly the first place where yoga was taken seriously in the West.

http://www.examiner.com/article/yoga-the-art-of-transformation-at-the-asian-art-museum

The week ahead in Bay Area art

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-week-ahead-bay-area-art