Early on a Wednesday morning, just after rush hour, we drove to San Francisco so we could take in the 883 local artworks presented through January 2024 at the deYoung Museum. The "new" building was controversial at the time it was built in 2005 (history of the museum and architecture is here), and is sometimes referred to as the "Klingon warship" due to its shape and now patinated color.
Here is the entrance. I'm not sure you can see it in the photo (but you can see it in the link, below), but if you look at the walkway, it has a long crack running as a path through the stone, "Drawn Stone," a 2005 creation by artist Andy Goldsworthy, referencing San Francisco's faultlines, and perhaps predilection for earthquakes, although the stone itself was imported from England.
But here is the welcoming banner: Your Artwork, Our Walls: The deYoung Open.
The exhibition is downstairs, in the large special exhibit galleries. This welcome is a sign in rainbow blocks that contain the artists's names in alphabetical order by first name and the number of the artwork. That number proved to be the location of the gallery as well.
(All the art is posted online at the deYoung Open Gallery
here.)
Here is my name in white on pumpkin orange, number 826, which was the last room of the exhibit.
First room, walking in. On the width of the walls are the names and numbers of the artists in that area.
One soon realizes that the works are grouped loosely by theme: urban decay, architecture, portraits, nature, textile-related, abstract, surreal, and so forth.
Here is the back wall of the first gallery, heading into the next section. These were all mostly portraits.
The next gallery had nature-related art, it seems.
In the nature section, a few of interest.
(I don't have the names and titles of these at the moment.)
In the textile-adjacent section, #649: "Drawing for Anna Albers" by Gloria Matuszewski.
686: "Oval Medium #5 Jug, Hand & Foot" by Kim Smith
Some surrealist works in the next gallery.
The last room of the exhibit. If I were to guess, I would say it was based around the theme of "culture." But it was not clear to me.
A fun piece by David Fullarton, who often exhibits at the Compound Gallery and graciously allowed me to print some works in
Star 82 Review, issue 2.3. On the left, a list of cheese names. On the right it says, "A gallery full of nothing but cheese; that's my idea of art."
My quilt is way up there, #826, as advertised.
Exquisite work. Really nice show, excellent curation. Some of the pieces next to one another really seemed related. I'm sure I missed something. I will have to go back to take it all in again.
deYoung OPEN 2023
Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
Hours: T-Su, 9:30am - 5:15pm
Can't get there? All the art is posted
here.
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