The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopened in May of this year after a major three-year-long expansion project. And so when I miraculously found a two-hour break in my workday meeting schedule on Monday, I walked down to 3rd Avenue and Mission, and took a quick romp through the museum. 1 ½ hrs of time is not nearly enough for seven floors of art – but there is only so much one can take in at any one time, then one has to call it a visit and come back later (which does not apply only to museums, right?).
Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle. The new Museum inside and out, was designed by architecture firm Snøhetta from Oslo, Norway. The main entrance lobby is a tall open space with stairs up to the ticket counter ($25 for a visit) and a restaurant and coffee shop. This quintessential older ‘California dude’ was in the middle of one of the exhibition rooms and I could not find a plaque for it with the artist’s name.Here’s Henri Matisse’s Femme au Chapeau (Woman with a Hat), 1905. It caused quite a stir, a scandal some would say, in the art world back then. To the question ‘What color dress was she wearing?’ the artist reportedly replied ‘black, of course’.I did not make a note of this holographic work of art – it was kind of hard to see what was depicted, so I shamelessly exploited the mirror-like surface of the artwork for a selfie.This is a shocking and I would say, controversial photo collage (I could not get rid of my reflection in it) from Japanese artist Tsunehisa Kimera, called Americanism (1982). It suggests the couple/ Americans enjoying their Coca-Cola are at least somewhat oblivious to the cost of nuclear war.American artist Martin Puryear’s 1990 work of art is called ‘Untitled’ (of course), and made from wire mesh, tar and Douglas fir.So here we are, the inevitable display in a museum with modern art that makes you scratch your head and say ‘and this is ART?’. Or maybe the observer has to figure out what blue – then green, then black, then red, means.This is American artist Roy Lichtenstein’s Figures with Sunset (1978). It borrows Surrealist imagery from artists such as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.One of several ‘mobiles’ (sometimes called ‘kinetic art’) constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. I was tempted to reach over and touch it. No touchie!This is a view out of the museum’s 3rd floor towards the 181 Fremont tower that is under construction.Some outdoor art on the 4th floor, I think.This is ‘Apple Core’ by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
