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Blog Category: Collections

Outlasting Eternity: A Reflection on the Figures of Stephen De Staebler

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on May 4, 2012

Guest-blogger Tim Svenonius is the interpretive media producer at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and an artist in his own right. Here he shares his insights and reflections after seeing Matter + Spirit: The Sculpture of Stephen De Staebler on view at the de Young through May 13.

Three Figures

From left to right: Man with Broad Chest, 2010. Bronze with patina. Courtesy of Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco; Winged Woman Walking I, 1987. Bronze with patina. Courtesy of Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco; Winged Figure with Three Legs, 2003. Collection of Peter and Beverly Lipman, Portola Valley, California.

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FRAME|WORK: The Grand Canal, Venice by Claude Monet

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on May 2, 2012

FRAME|WORK is a weekly blog series highlighting an artwork in the Museums’ permanent collection. This week we take a closer look at Claude Monet’s impressionist depictiion of the Grand Canal in Venice, from 1908.

The Grand Canal, Venice

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FRAME|WORK: Untitled XX by Willem de Kooning

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on April 25, 2012

Yesterday was the birthday of renowned Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning. Today’s FRAME|WORK—a weekly blog series highlighting an artwork in the permanent collection—features de Kooning’s 1977 painting, Untitled XX, which is currently on view in Gallery 15 at the de Young Museum.

Untitled XX

Willem de Kooning (American, 1904–1997). Untitled XX, 1977. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase, gift of Nan Tucker McEvoy. 2002.1

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Love and the Maiden: A Harmony of Hues

Posted by Melissa Buron on April 19, 2012

In this installment of our continuing blog series examining key elements of the Aesthetic Movement through the lens of John Stanhope’s masterwork Love and the Maiden (typically on view in gallery 18 at the Legion of Honor and currently on view in The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900), curatorial assistant of European art Melissa Buron takes a closer look at color.

Love and the Maiden

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (English, 1829–1908). Love and the Maiden, 1877. Tempera, gold paint and gold leaf on canvas. Museum purchase, European Art Trust Fund, Grover A. Magnin Bequest Fund and Dorothy Spreckels Munn Bequest Fund. 2002.176

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FRAME|WORK: Untitled (Portals of the Past) by Arnold Genthe

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on April 18, 2012

FRAME|WORK is a weekly blog series that highlights an artwork in the Museums permanent collections. Today we commemorate the 1906 earthquake and ensuing fire that ravaged the majority of San Francisco. Arnold Genthe’s Untitled (Portals of the Past), a jewel of the Museums’ photography collection, provides a look back at that dark day. This photograph is currently not on display, so please enjoy this exclusive virtual viewing.

Portals of the Past

Arnold Genthe (American, b. Prussia, 1869–1942). Untitled (Portals of the Past), 1906 (printed 1956). Gelatin silver print. Museum purchase, James D. Phelan Bequest Fund. 1943.407.130.2

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Discarded to Divine at the de Young!

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on April 13, 2012

From his earliest forays into fashion design, Jean Paul Gaultier utilized surprising and sometimes recycled materials. As a child, inspired by his grandmother’s corset, Gaultier repurposed crumpled newspaper to create the conical-shaped falsies that he attached to his beloved teddy bear, Nana. Entering its seventh year, Discarded to Divine—an event that auctions off designer duds made from donated clothing to benefit the homeless—exemplifies Gaultier’s earliest instincts to recycle with style and purpose.

Nana

Jean Paul Gaultier’s teddy bear, Nana, wearing the first cone bra. © Rainer Torrado/Jean Paul Gaultier

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