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Follow that Art! Balcomb Greene's Six-Sided Planes in Context

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on July 18, 2011

Last week, we followed Six-Sided Planes into the photgraphy studio where it was shot for record identification. Today we learn about the history and significance of this painting from the curatorial perspective.

My name is Emma Acker, and I’m a curatorial assistant in the American Art department at the Fine Arts Museums. In May of this year, I presented Balcomb Greene’s Six-Sided Planes as a potential purchase to the Acquisitions Committee of our Board of Trustees.

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The World-famous "David" Violin is on View at the Legion of Honor!

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on July 15, 2011

For a limited one-month engagement, the famed violin “The David” made by Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri (del Gesú) is on display at the Legion of Honor through August 10!

Bequeathed to the Museums in 1989 by Jascha Heifetz, who was one of the world’s greatest violinists, this instrument currently spends most of its time at the San Francisco Symphony in the skilled hands of Concertmaster Alexander “Sascha” Barantschik.

Guiseppe Antonio Guarneri del Gesu (Italian, 1687–1745). Violin, ca. 1740. Spruce and maple. Bequest of Jascha Heifetz. 1989.6.1

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Follow that Art! Six-Sided Planes Gets a Makeover by Paintings Conservation

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on June 28, 2011

Last week Balcomb Greene’s Six-Sided Planes made its first entry into the Museums and the acquisitions process via the registration department. This week, the painting heads upstairs to the paintings conservation lab for a little makeover.

My name is Elise Effmann and I’m an associate paintings conservator at the Fine Arts Museums. Conservators are entrusted with the care, treatment and technical study of artworks in the collection. When a painting comes to the Museums as a proposed acquisition, our department must examine it to provide the curators with information about how it was made, and to determine if there are any potential problems with the acquisition due to its condition.

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The Lod Mosaic as Muse for Berkeley High School Seniors!

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on June 23, 2011

Last week, the Legion of Honor received a special visit from Berkeley High School’s Latin class. This group of thirty-seven seniors took time out of the final, hectic days of high school to see Marvelous Menagerie: A Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel, which has served as their muse for the past several weeks.

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Follow that Art! Balcomb Greene's Six-Sided Planes comes to the de Young

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on June 20, 2011

Every piece of art in the Museums has a history. Whether an artwork has a long and storied past or was recently created by a living artist, its journey doesn’t end when it arrives on our doorstep. 

This is the first in a series of posts that will follow a single work of art, Balcomb Greene’s painting Six-Sided Planes, as it moves through the Museums on its way to exhibition. Greene was an artist and intellectual, a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, and a leading writer and proponent of abstraction.

We will follow the painting’s progress from its first entrance into the Museums via the registration department, through the conservation and curatorial review, onto the process of approval by the Board of Trustees, and finally the public display of the painting in the galleries.

Our first stop is the registration department, where the painting is first received and stored:


Balcomb Greene (American, 1904–1990). Six-Sided Planes, 1937. Oil on canvas. Potential Museum Purchase. L11.16

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RTI Photography of the Red-Figure Pelike

Posted by Sue Grinols on May 18, 2011

In my last post, I introduced you to the cutting edge photography Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a technique invented by Tom Malzbender at Hewlett Packard Labs. Here at the Museums, we have been using RTI to gain better understanding of objects in our permanent collection. We have just completed another round of RTI photography of this 5th-century Greek pelike.


Manner of the Kadmos Painter, Greek
Red-figure pelike, late 5th century BC
Greece, Athens. Terracotta
Gift of the Queen of Greece through Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, 1925.365

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FRAME|WORK: Ponds and Streams by Wayne Thiebaud

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on May 11, 2011

FRAME|WORK is a new weekly blog series that highlights an artwork in the Museums' permanent collections. This week we feature a landscape painted by one of our marquee artists, Wayne Thiebaud.

Wayne Thiebaud, American, b. 1920
Ponds and Streams, 2001
Oil on canvas. 182.9 x 152.4 cm (72 x 60 in.)
Museum purchase, gift of Richard N. and Rhoda Goldman
2001.168

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Cutting Edge Photography Technique Comes to the de Young!

Posted by Sue Grinols on May 2, 2011

My name is Sue Grinols and as the director of photo services and imaging, I witness the intersection of art and technology on a daily basis. This is an exciting time to be working in photography. Just seeing how technology is changing the field can be breathtaking, not to mention challenging.

Photographing artwork is a sub-specialty of studio photography. Here at the Museums, we use the same equipment and techniques as photographers who produce beautiful images of cars, perfume bottles, leather couches, and the perfectly grilled steak. But instead of trying to capture the steak’s sizzle or the couch’s inviting warmth, we attempt to bring out the essential character of the artwork while emphasizing its sublime beauty whenever possible. When we’re not doing that, we can make images that show the hard, cold details of an object in order to help conservators as they work through treating the artwork, or to help curators in their scholarly study of an object. It is this second type of photography that I want to blog about today.

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Art in the Summer for Kids at the de Young

Posted by Andrew Fox on April 25, 2011

Kids at Art in the Summer camp at the de YoungThis summer, make your kid an artist—join us for art camp at the de Young Museum!

The de Young presents the second edition of Art in the Summer, June 20–August 12 for children entering kindergarten to fifth grade. This year, the program offers a broader selection of activities. Children are invited to participate in a full day of art classes running Monday–Friday from 9 am–3 pm with an optional open studio from 3–5:30 pm. Children are divided into three groups according to grade level.

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When the earth shakes, come to the de Young!

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on April 18, 2011

In 2009, senior registrar Stephen Lockwood came across a series of ledger books while examining the de Young’s offsite storage facility. These antique books contained detailed records of the weather and daily attendance at the de Young since its opening day in 1895. One entry was particularly interesting:

"5:15 AM, Wednesday, April 18/06. Terrific Earthquake which demolished the building and destroyed many of the exhibits.  --John W. Rogers, Curator"

Below this entry, Rogers adds the note, "Museum closed indefinitely." The next entry wasn’t made until November 10, 1907.

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