The San Francisco Citizen

If you’re looking for this year’s flavor-of-the-month holiday gift item, then consider yourself referred to Tickle Me Elmo, a “quantum leap forward, another breakthrough in the preschool plush category.”

But if you’re still here, you must be jonesing for unique gifts for your loved ones. Well, then head on over to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for the 2008 Holiday Artisan Fair this Friday and Saturday, the 21st and 22nd of November, 2008.

See you there!

Clay(!) basket, Shuji Ikeda:

Square(!) ring, Satomi Studio:

Indigo a gogo, Tsurukichi/Matt Dick:

Simple stone, Aiko Designs:

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              Friday, November 21, Noon – 8:30 PM

                         Saturday, November 22, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM 

San Francisco, August 22, 2008 – The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will present its second annual Holiday Artisan Fair November 21 and 22. This festive seasonal event offers distinctive pieces from tabletop to textiles that make for artful gifting. The Fair will feature the work of seventeen of the Bay Area’s finest artisans, as well as an expanded selection of unique gifts, books, objects and jewelry from noted designers and publishers featured in the Museum Store. The Fair will be held in the de Young’s Piazzoni Murals Room. Admission is free, and FAMSF members will receive a 10% discount on all purchases. 

Highlights will include: 

• Jewelryby Marna Clark (Berkeley, CA), Pam Wiston (Pacifica, CA), Denise Peacock (Santa Cruz, CA), Satomi Studios/Kristina Kada (Santa Cruz, CA) and Aiko Design/Christine Aiko Beck (San Francisco, CA).
• Decorative Arts, including pottery and tabletop accessories, by Grant Irish (Oakland, CA), Still Life (Corte Madera, CA), Mediums to Masses (Oakland, CA), Modern Twist (San Francisco, CA), Nu Approach/Tribal Home (San Francisco, CA), Joanna Mendicino (San Francisco, CA), Jane Woodside Pottery (Fairfax, CA) and Shuji Ikeda Pottery (Berkeley, CA).
• Textilesby Hiroko Kurihara (Oakland, CA) and Tsurukichi/Matt Dick (San Francisco, CA).  
• Books and Stationery from Chronicle Books and Pomegranate Communications.

Every purchase helps to support the collections and exhibitions of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Cue music.

No really, it doesn’t work unless you cue some music by opening a new window and then coming back here. 

Now, click to expand:

See?

The whole exhibit is all set up and ready to go this weekend. Take a sneak peek here, courtesy of Damion Mathews of SFLuxe.

This thing is going to be huge.

Comes now the famous Maya Lin, who asks the question:

“What would happen if you took a hill inside?”

It might look something like what she’s standing on, which is called 2 x 4 Landscape. You can check out this installation and the rest of Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park until January 18th, 2009. 

Official photos are here.

This wire grid depicts an underwater “landscape” we can’t otherwise see:

The affable Ms. Lin with Presenting Curator Karin Breuer and Fiona Chan:

Maya gave a short talk under the shimmering perforated copper walls of the new de Young: 

This is yet another big show from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Director John Buchanan and Board President Diane B. “Dede” Wilsey. Brace yourselves, more blockbusters are on the way:

Travis Kiyota, PG&E’s government and public affairs director for the Bay Area, said a few words about his employer being the presenting sponsor for this exhibit:

And wouldn’t you like a limited edition Maya Lin to put up your wall as a talking piece? There’s special pricing until December 1, 2008 - $12,500 for non-museum members:

“This new limited-edition sculpture by Maya Lin, created on the occasion of her exhibition at the de Young continues the artist’s exploration of the contours of natural forms. Its thin, sinuous shape traces the path of the Tuolumne River through the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Cast from the reclaimed silver of photo etchings, the work is mounted with pins that fix to the wall. The edition is presented in an elegant, hot-stamped portfolio box.”

Now according to 7×7 Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle, this representation is meant to show the Tuolomne River before the Hetch Hetchy dam, but it sure looks like you can see both the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and the New San Pedro Reservoir in there. It’s certainly possible to think that Maya meant to depict the dammed river as it appears these days. 

More details after the jump. See you there!

(more…)

The Mother of All Museum Exhibitions is coming to Golden Gate Park’s de Young Museum in June 2009. It’s Tutankhamun! It’s on! That’s right, the King of Bling is coming back to San Francisco for the first time in 30 years.

Well, maybe not King Tut himself:

“Tutankhamun’s mummy and the inner sarcophagus are still located in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The outer sarcophagi and shrines are at the Cairo Museum. Neither the mummy nor any of the sarcophagi have ever traveled.”

But this show, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, is going to be way better than The Treasures of Tutankhamun, which is what what people were able to see the last go around three decades ago.

Check out this gorgeous gorget. Wouldn’t you like to hang it on your chest?  Bling bling, baby. Click to expand:

Pectoral with Solar/Lunar Emblem and Scarab. Dynasty 18, reign of Tutankhamun (1332-1322 BC). Gold, silver, electrum, semiprecious stones. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Carter 267d. Photo: Kenneth Garrett © 2008/National Geographic.

O.K., people, now brace yourselves. Tut is going to cost you some coin. Yes, even if you’re already a member. But this show might be what it takes for you to join the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (800 777-9996) As they say, membership has its privileges and you might appreciate that when all the madding crowds surround you.  

Here’s what you need to know now. The exhibition opens on June 27, 2009 and runs through March 28, 2010. And the ‘zeum will be open until 9:00 PM every day for months just to accomodate all the expected people. So, you’re going to need to get your tickets early for best results. They’ll be available sometime near the begining of 2009.  

If you want to know the moment tickets go on sale, then sign up for the e-newsletter why don’t you?

More details here at the mainstream media’s SFGate, where they (remarkably) cite Wikipedia as a source of information.

See you there in 2009!

Full details after the jump.

(more…)

This is Wednesday, so that means they’re already preparing for another Friday Night at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. This week’s effort will include Rolando Morales and AudioBus. Per Rolando:

Friday nights at the De Young are a happening place: the whole museum is open to 8:45 and they feature music, film, dance, poetry, tours, etc. Tonight will feature the Rolando Morales Group with the amazing bassist for Airto, Gary Brown; from Nicaragua, the great Latin percussionist/vocalist Danilo Paíz; the wonderful keyboardist from Spearhead, Bob Crawford; from Brazil, the great drummer from Steve Winwood and Airto, Celso Alberti; and Rolando Morales leading the journey on guitar, guitar synthesizer and vocals.

And AudioBus? Well, they’ve got two “trips” scheduled for the night but they appear to be sold out now. You can always show up early and try to become a  stand-by fare. ”Human Street Textures” is the theme for this bus.

This whole Night at the Museum thing is quite lively, attracting folks who aren’t heavy museum goers. Here’s what it looked like last week:

Refreshments!

Dancing!

Chihuly! An evening docent tour, check the schedule to when they offer this.   

Kid-friendly activities:

And they had packed house to hear a lecture about Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and a few other topics from William Maynez, mural historian at City College of San Francisco:

See you there!

Oh mercy! San Francisco Chronicle Art Critic Kenneth Baker’s “empty virtuosity” review of “Chihuly at the de Young” sparked a bit of a controversy. So much so, that Ken is back for another go with “Unfavorable ‘Chihuly’ review sparks emotions.”

1.Ken makes it abundantly clear he feels “Chihuly’s baubles” do not merit a major museum show, but of course that didn’t stop him from checking out the exhibit. Here’s what he says about a reader who feels exactly the same way:

“One sensible reader found a middle path: He agreed with me that Chihuly’s baubles do not merit a major museum show, but found it useful to figure out for himself why, through firsthand experience.”

So, if you agree with Baker 100%, he’ll label you a “sensible” reader. O.K., fine. Does Mr. Baker really not want you to see this show? Not even for free on Target Weekend back when we had the chance? We should take our 15 bones and go see Saw IV instead? Really?

2. Comes now another Reader:

“Yet another, though she deplored my effort to discourage people from seeing the show, described how she came to see the emptiness of Chihuly’s work on her own - after three visits.”

People people people, now who told you to see this show three times? Everybody should see it once - how’s that for unsolicited advice? (Thankfully, Kenny Boy didn’t write, “You see, you philistine, I was right and you were wrong!”)

3. Remember KB’s ”effort to discourage people from seeing the show” - forget all that: 

“As a practical matter, nothing I or any other critic can say will slow the juggernaut of Chihuly’s success. In all likelihood, as experience suggests, such a damning review will bring more people, not fewer, to the exhibition.”

Please don’t try to reconcile the quotes from above - it will just give you a headache.

4.But wait! Here, straight out of WTF-land, an attack on teh Internet bloggers. Apropos of nothing in particular, we get this: 

“Does the art public need critics, specialists, to help it sort these struggles out? Yes. It truly is a full-time job. Bloggers cannot - at any rate, do not - get it done.”

Daily delivery of the Chronicle’s dead tree editions (which isn’t going to last forever) is really the only thing keeping Ken from becoming a blogger. Would Ken make a good blogger? Sure, why not? Said Sally Field: “You like me, you really like me!”  Says Ken Baker: “You need me, you really need me!”

Could there be some people with views more nuanced than Ken’s? Like this one? At least one blogger cries foul. Another says Ken is “wrong about bloggers.” Uh oh.

You should check out the Chihuly show to see what all the fuss is about, right? To make that easier on you:

Extended Hours for Chihuly at the de Young. Beginning Saturday, August 2, Chihuly at the de Young will extend its weekend hours to accommodate the large crowds that have come to see the exhibition. An extra hour will be added on Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of the run of the exhibition, with the last ticket sold for 5:15 pm entry and the galleries open until 6:15.

Well, let’s end this strife. For your consideration:

Click to expand.

See you there!

Per the de Young Museum:

“The Fauna and Flora of the Pacific, one of a six-part series of fanciful, larger than life-size maps created by noted Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, has been restored and put on display in the Art of the Americas galleries at the de Young.”

You might like the work of Covarrubias, as seen on popular Boing Boing, like here and here. If so, be sure to mark your calendar for this lecture at the de Young on Friday August 1, 2008 at 7:00 PM: “Diego Rivera, Covarrubias, and the San Francisco Murals Tradition,” by William Maynez, a mural historian at City College of San Francisco.

12 panels make up the mural. Click to expand:

Actually, you could make an evening of it at the de Young - it’s another Friday Night at the Museum:

6:30–8:30 p.m.
John Santos Quintet. Four-time Grammy nominee John Santos and his stellar quintet perform classic Latin jazz from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Orestes Vilató, timbales, bongos; Saul Sierra, bass; Marco Diaz, piano; John Calloway, flute, percussion; John Santos, congas, percussion. Visit www.johnsantos.com .

6:00–8:30 p.m.
Art-making for the Entire Family. Create an animal amulet necklace inspired by the Covarrubias mural in the Art of the Americas gallery.
Koret Auditorium

Friday Night Programs are free. Admission is always free to members; regular admission fees apply for non-members to visit the galleries. A $5 surcharge applies for non-members to visit the special exhibition Chihuly at the de Young.

Detail of South America: 

See you there! 

The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international textile arts and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.
Address: Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
Hours: Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: 9:30 am–5:15 pm
Friday: 9:30 am–8:45 pm
Closed on Monday
Admission: $10 adults
$7 seniors
$6 youths 13–17 and students with a college I.D.
Members and children 12 and under are free
$5 surcharge may apply to special exhibitions
The first Tuesday of every month is free 

The first two days of ChihulyPalooza in Golden Gate Park were well attended, despite the admonishment of New Republic Art Critic Jed Perl:

Everybody rushes to the Museum of Modern Art and the De Young, two overblown buildings with sporadically important collections, while the most beautiful museum in the city–the Legion of Honor, in which masterpieces by Watteau, Le Nain, and Seurat have been given a thrillingly elegant installation- -is hardly ever mentioned.

Well, consider the Legion mentioned, Mr. Perl. Now on with the show:

Director John Buchanan speaking with Dale Chihuly earlier at the preview. Click to expand:

Let’s head outside to see the spectacle in front of the museum. A man controlling his metallic fire animals obscured by propane gas:

The Crucible’s Educational Response Vehicle. Have anvil, will travel:

The thrill of sending a plume of fire skyward the first time:

A bed of nails with a fretful ballerina on top:

And inside the museum, cherubs everywhere:

See you there!

John Buchanan, Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, calls it “Chihulypalooza.” Dale himself says that he and Team Chihuly “went all out” to put on Chihuly at the de Young. This thing is huge. It’s the Largest Show He’s Ever Done.

Strike a pose. Dale Chihuly in front of Neodymium Reeds

It all starts Saturday. This weekend is called Chihuly Opening Weekend Sponsored by Target. So admission will be free. But things will get start getting hectic on Saturday so be sure to check out the rules.

You might even be tempted to sign up for a Participating or Family Membership just for the perks. (It’s cheaper than you’d expect and about half the cost of similar memberships at the soon to be completed California Academy of Sciences.)

Download the MP3 (or even a picture enabled M4A) to hear all about it, or wait and then pay a small fee for the Antenna Audio Tour.

The Schedule of Events. On both Saturday and Sunday, you’ll be able to see: 

The Crucible’s Educational Response Vehicle (stations will be set up near and around the vehicle showcasing demonstrations of blacksmithing, arc welding, glass flame working and oxy-acetylene torch cutting - plus they will be pouring bronze!), the Von Stilt Family stilt walkers, and the Chihuly at the Hot Shop documentary.

For Saturday only, you’ll be able to see:

Sideshow Spectacular by $teve Ra$pa Productions (DJ Neon Bunny, extreme jugglers, contortionists, acrobatics, hula hoops, and musical saws and accordions), Japonize Elephants (ten-piece musical ensemble includes glockenspiel, junk percussion, and accordion, along with guitar, bass, flute, saxophone, trumpet, fiddle, banjo, and vocals), and they’ll be hands-on art activities for the entire family, including Texture Tower, Color Collage, and Undersea World Creatures.

And on Sunday, you’ll be able to see:

Blue Monk Combo (jazz ensemble of recent graduates from San Rafael High School), Space Heater Blast Furnace (a combination of woodwind melodies and harmonies with noisy, machine funk), Bellow and Pluck: Rich Kuhns and Seward McCain (an eclectic combo of jazz, tango, Latin styles, and the occasional Beatles selection), Fishtank Ensemble (a unique blend of Gypsy, Balkan, Flamenco, Klezmer, and original tunes), Loop!Station: Robin Coomer and Sam Bass (live sampling and looping), Gregangelo and Velocity Circus, Les Aerials: Trapeze Arts, Foo Foo Ha! (mini circus vignettes and dance routines), Musical Chanteusse Nicolette (performance, side show artist Herbie Hatman entertains with body deyfying feats), Dale Chihuly presenting a one-hour talk about his life’s work with an introduction by Timothy Anglin Burgard, Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of the American Art Department (tickets no longer available, sorry), and the day will end with book signing with Dale himself).

See you there!

The eleven rooms, in order. Almost all the things here are much taller than you are - they’re huge.  

Click to expand: 

Room 1: Glass Forest 3, milk-glass and neon: 

Room 2:

Room 3, Persian Wall:

Room 4, Tabac baskets plus Pendletons:

Room 5:

Room 6, Neodymium Reeds: 

Room 7, Float Boats:

Room 8, Five Chandeliers: Ruby Red, Turquoise Icicle, Orange Hornet and Eelgrass, Chiostro di Sant’ Apollonia, and Palazzo de Loredana Balboni:

Room 9:

The view of Room 11 from Room 10 (the installation you can see through the doorway is 18 yards long):

Room 10, ceiling, looking up:

Room 11, Mille Fiori:

Dale Chihuly is sending some art our way. This is going to be a huge show. Get ready