The San Francisco Citizen

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!

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Well, it was quite a spectacle last week at the opening of Cinema Supper Club, From the Golden Gate to the Silver Screen, in the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. Thursday night’s kickoff of 50-year-old Vertigo featured the living relatives of Alfred Hitchcock, a live recreation of the Carlotta portrait featured in the movie, a pre-show talk from the authors of Footsteps in the Fog, and people walking around in period dress from 50 years ago.

The whole idea is that you can start noshing at 6:00 P.M. and also have time to be able to check out Women Impressionists and the huge Chihulys before the film starts at 8:00 P.M. See the schedule below and get your tickets here.

Authors Jeff Kroft and Aaron Levanthal talk about Hitchcock movies filmed in Northern California. Click to expand:

Carlotta recreated. The painting actually used in Vertigo has been lost to the ages.

Gallery Six, where Carlotta’s portrait was hung.

A vintage Jaguar, just like the movie’s.

July 17, 2008, 8:00 PM,
Cinema Supper Club: The Conversation

July 24, 2008, 8:00 PM,
Cinema Supper Club: What’s Up, Doc?

July 31, 2008, 8:00 PM,
Cinema Supper Club: So I Married an Axe Murderer

August 7, 2008, 8:00 PM,
Cinema Supper Club: Harold and Maude

August 14, 2008, 8:00 PM,
Cinema Supper Club: The Game

August 21, 2008, 8:00 PM,
Cinema Supper Club: Bullitt

See you there!

Brace yourself for the latest museum blockbuster in San Francisco: Women Impressionists: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond over at the Legion of Honor Museum. It’s going to be huge.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco helpfully note that although this foursome ”did not form a cohesive sisterhood” (ala Le Sexe Dans La Ville, 2008), at least they “associated with each other and shared a desire to be taken seriously in the male-dominated art world of late-ninteenth-century France.” Cliquez sur pour augmenter:

You’ll also need to brace yourself for the retort major patron Diane B. Wilsey had for those critiques d’art who feel there have been too many “costume shows“ around town over the past several years. Here’s what Dede had to say yesterday:

“Get over it!”

Well, O.K. then.

On a related note, can you guess what’s coming to town soon? YSL! Yes, we’ll be getting an exhibition featuring about 145 of Yves Saint Laurent’s best ensembles, in a collaboration with Fondation Pierre Berge Yves Saint Laurent in Paris and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It will look a little something like this when it gets here.

And speaking of upcoming events, the latest iteration of the Cinema Supper Club, From the Golden Gate to the Silver Screen, starts up next month.

But let’s leave that for the future. Women Impressionists starts June 21, 2008.

Get your tickets here, unless the whole affair is too bourgy for you (as it might be for Kenneth Baker, but it’s hard tell what he thinks).

Visitor in Hat and Coat Holding Maltese Dog:

No matter, grab your hat and your Maltese and see you there!

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: