de Young Museum

Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937

Pablo Picasso
Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937
Oil on canvas
Musée National Picasso, Paris
Photo: Jean-Gilles Berizzi/Réunion des Musée Nationaux/Art Resource, New York
© 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks

October 8, 2011 - February 26, 2012

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (American, 1925–1972) is not one of the most familiar names in photographic history, but his impact on the field, belatedly recognized, is significant. An optician in Lexington, Kentucky, Meatyard sustained a lifelong interest in visual perception. Well read and deeply connected to a circle of poets and philosophers, he made photographs rich in literary allusion. In his last decade, Meatyard kept returning to the tropes of dolls and masks, often photographing his children posed in abandoned houses and landscapes in the environs of his home.

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The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Herbst Exhibition Galleries

March 24, 2012 - August 19, 2012

Dubbed fashion’s enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier launched his first prêt-à-porter collection in 1976 and founded his own couture house in 1997. Emerging as a designer in the 1970s, he developed his own dress codes that reflected the changing world around him. The openly gay Gaultier uses his designs to tackle gender and transgender issues through androgynous, gender-bending styles, meanwhile delving even further into some of the darker areas of the sexual revolution. Always provocative, he addresses issues of multiculturalism by bringing ethnic diversity to the Paris runway. Despite the gritty and sometimes controversial context of his collections, the clothes remain beautiful, superbly crafted with the finest dressmaking and detailing skills.

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Surface Tension: Contemporary Prints from the Anderson Collection

July 30, 2011 - January 22, 2012

In an era of modern and postmodern art that is often concerned with expressing its essential qualities of flatness and depthlessness, some artists engaged in making prints at fine arts presses have headed in a different direction. Rather than embrace the smooth, flat finish that can be achieved through print processes like screenprinting and lithography, these artists have manipulated the dimensionality of their works on paper, literally pushing their paper surfaces to new heights. Though their approaches vary, all of the artists included in this exhibition challenge the traditional belief that editions on paper are merely made up of layers of ink impressed upon paper.

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The Art of the Anatolian Kilim: Highlights from the McCoy Jones Collection

September 10, 2011 - July 29, 2012

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Votive Axe

Mexico, Oaxaca, 1000–400 BC
Jadeite
American Museum of Natural History, New York (30/7552)

First published in 1890, this axe has features that were thought to combine those of a human infant and a jaguar, or a “were-jaguar” being. These traits include almond-shaped eyes, small nostrils, prominent canine teeth, a large, flaring upper lip, and sometimes a central forehead cleft and a feature called “flame eyebrows.” The were-jaguar concept dominated Olmec studies during much of the twentieth century. The creature is now recognized as a composite supernatural being whose physical features are drawn from multiple sources in the natural world. In ancient times, portions of jade were removed from the back of the axe.

Photo courtesy of the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History

Zoomorphic Figure (Monument 52)

Mexico, Veracruz, Municipality of Texistepec, San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán, 1000–400 BC
Andesite
Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (10-81268)

This crouching figure, associated with water flow, attests to the importance of managing water at San Lorenzo. It has the cleft head, almond-shaped eyes, and snarling mouth typical of many composite creatures in Olmec art. The pleated ear ornaments are references to the water deity. The headdress is marked with a pair of scalloped designs, and the figure wears a pendant with the X motif. The sculpture was buried north of the main drain line at the western edge of the San Lorenzo plateau. Archaeologists discovered that the drain line reached more than 550 feet from east to west, with three branches extending south to north.

Photo: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes — Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia — México — Javier Hinojosa

Axe Fragment and Votive Axe

Left:

Axe Fragment
Mexico, Veracruz, El Manatí, 1500–1200 BC
Stone
Centro INAH Veracruz
Photo: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes — Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia — México — Javier Hinojosa

Right:

Votive Axe
Mexico, Tabasco, La Venta, Mound A-2,
Tomb E, 900–400 BC
Jadeite with pigment
Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (10-9668)
Photo: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes — Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia — México — Javier Hinojosa

Colossal Head 5

Mexico, Veracruz, Municipality of Texistepec, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, 1200–900 BC

Basalt

Museo de Antropología de Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana (Reg. 49 P.J. 4026)

The furrowed brow, almond-shaped eyes, flaccid cheeks, flat nose, and thick mouth on this head convey great realism and suggest an individual of mature age in a
leadership role. His helmet displays elements typical of other San Lorenzo portrait heads, such as the horizontal band topped by a woven motif with circular elements. Unique to this portrait are two bird feet or feline claws with three toes, each with a talon, which may signify the subject’s name or lineage. The back is flat, implying that
the sculpture may have been recarved from an earlier monument.

Photo: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes—Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia—México—Javier Hinojosa

Marco Breuer: Line of Sight

April 2, 2011 - October 2, 2011

Marco Breuer is one of the most innovative contemporary artists working in photography today. He is well known for using an extensive range of processes to extract abstract and visually compelling images from photographic materials. Line of Sight comprises a selection of photographs made by Breuer and placed in dialogue with objects from the de Young’s permanent collection.

Selected and installed by the artist in a compressed time period of 48 hours, Breuer sets up a dynamic exchange between the works of art, the collecting practices of the institution, and the viewing habits of museum visitors. The single-gallery exhibition is part of the Collection Connections program of Cultural Encounters.