Chez Namaste Nancy

Happy Birthday Mozart

2012-01-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mozart' - Homage to Mozart for Orff Orchestra composed by Giovanni Andreani and first performed on June the 3rd 2006 by pupils of the Amadeus Music School - Scuola di Musica Amadeus in Albano Sant'Alessandro BG Italy

Celebrate the lunar year

2012-01-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Bowl with a pair of dragons. Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722). Porcelain with incised decoration, yellow glaze, polychrome enamels. China | Jiangxi province. The Avery Brundage Collection

As the Bay Area's Asian-American population approaches 2 million, its cultural diversity has grown. The Bay Area is now home to Mongolian, Tibetan, Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese populations, each with their own distinctive traditions and celebrations. Many of the celebrations are rooted in Buddhist beliefs, a spirit of sharing, a hope for abundance and prayers of peace. The Year of the Dragon's celebrations were kicked off with the first rain of the year - a good sign because it means abundance.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/year-of-the-water-dragon-celebrations-the-bay-area

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. In the 12 year cycle, this year (4710 on the Chinese calendar) begins on January 23rd, and is the Year of the Dragon.

The dragon is one of 12 animal signs in the Chinese zodiac, but it outranks all others as the ultimate emblem of the Chinese nation and race. Paradoxically, it represents power on the one hand but benevolence and blessings on the other.

The Asian Art Museum blog wanted us readers to comment on our favorite dragons. Well, I couldn't decide on just one. How can there be just one with faced with such beauty? Let Europe have it's St. George slaying the dragon; I'll take ones of China...or Japan... or Thailand...or Cambodia...or Laos..or.. Thailand. I'm not picky about place, only about beauty.

I have always loved Ming Dynasty porcelain and this is a beautiful piece, both for the exquisite blue glaze and the way that the dragon motif compliments the shape of the plate. Ming dynasty, reign of the Jiajing Emperor (1522-1566). Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration and partially blue glaze. In the center of this plate is depicted a dragon in a floral scroll (instead of the usual clouds that accompany depictions of this mythical animal), complemented by a design of two dragons striding through flowers around the edge. This design is repeated on the back.

Facing dragons (Nephrite).1840-1950. I could have sworn that this piece was older but I may have mixed up my labels (corrections welcomed). This is part of the magnificent Brundage collection which forms the core of the collection.

The design for this textile is rich with symbols. Along the border are bats among clouds, puns for “ May you have good fortune or luck.” Two blue dragons face each other representing a happy reunion, each with a tail that ends in geometric meanders symbolizing longevity. Of the various flowers surrounding the dragons, the day lily stands out as a motif for honoring one’ s mother and wishing her long life.

Images from the Asian Art Museum.

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

Designation: Deity trees (shenmu) in Taiwan. Artist: Zhang Daqian. Chinese, 1899-1983
Date: 1970. Medium: Ink and colors on paper . Place of Origin: Taiwan | United States
Credit Line: Gift of the artist. Label: Zhang Daqian painted this work during a 1970 visit to Taiwan, where many of his friends lived.

I am more than a bit groggy, having been kept awake until 4:30 AM by my heedless upstairs neighbors (who says that Neanderthals are dead?.) But while sleep is short, blogging is eternal so here is the Saturday post .

Chinese New Year is here (or almost here). This is the year of the Dragon which is supposed to be tempestuous and eventful. As last year was the Year of the Rabbit which was supposed to be calm and peaceful - and wasn't! - I shudder to think about what we have in store.

The Asian Art Museum blog has a post on the dragon images in their collection and another on Chinese New Year's Food which I am also researching for a future post. They encouraged us to post about our favorite dragons in the collection. There are so many that I love that I don't know where to start.

Unfortunately for me, my collector's eye is not matched by my bare bones budget. But looking is free for the cost of admission and the membership is a great deal. Although I am a Capricorn and love old things best, this painting caught my eye with its vivid colors and flowing movement. I appreciated the more modern ambiance and the inscription is exquisite.

The inscription by the artist reads:
The clouds of four mountains are endless,
Trees like twisting dragons stretch upward.
They sturdily stand at hundreds of meters high,
It’ s even hard to see the top when I look up together with
young folks.

Trees have been through enough wind and rain, To fill a history of a thousand ages.

Deity trees on Hengguan Road, Taiwan. Painted on Mr. Meng’ s request, in Taipei, the sixth month of the Republic 59th year (1970). Yuan weng [artist’ s signature].

Deity trees, or shenmu, are culturally important natural resources in Taiwan. According to governmental classification, deity trees are at least 1,000 years old and stand over 26 feet tall. Due to their sheer size and age, the trees came to be
respected as sacred natural phenomena and sites of worship to various deities.

http://www.asianart.org/blog/
(image from the Asian Art Museum website)

Ready for my close up!

2012-01-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

Bryon Spicer. Joy at Market St. Gallery. Opening Saturday, January 21st.

Up now at the Examiner.com: Dana Zed, January De Young Artist in Residence, Claire Pasquier's "Portraits," current at SFMOMA Artist's gallery at Fr. Mason and Byron Spicer at Market Street Gallery, a colorful, happy collection of smiles of all shapes and sizes, which inspires joy from those who observe the works.
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/we-all-have-faces-dana-zed-claire-pasquier-byron-spicer

Stop SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-18T01:02:00.000-08:00

Lines and Colors says it better than I can. This bill could shut any site down that they want to. The implications are horiffying. Go and read:
http://www.linesandcolors.com/

Big money has been trying to shut down the Internet for ages. If they can't make money off it, they want to destroy it. This bill just might do that.
(A lot of sites are going black in protest. I don't know how to do that to mine so consider this a symbolic shut down).

Amédée Joullin, forgotten SF Painter

2012-01-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

Amédée Joullin. Untitled, (Dunes, 1910, oil on canvas, approx 12 x 17". Bequest of Max Hochhauser, image courtesy of FAMSF, photo @ Andrew Fox, used with permission.

When I saw the current show at the Legion on "Artistic San Francisco," I read a checklist of familiar names - Diebenkorn. Thiebaud, Obata, Park and Bechtle, But one name was totally unfamiliar to me - Amédée Joullin. Yet, even in that illustrious company, his painting stood out.

The piece is fairly small, and, until you look closely, seems a typical 19th century Barbizon landscape. The image is roughly divided into thirds, with the dunes and silhouettes of trees and foliage further dividing the center of the painting. The sky is a solid cerulean blue which merges into an indigo blue sea. A grove of trees is silhouetted against the skyline on the left side and a wedge of lower trees and bushes breaks the space on the right. Grey-green grass and moss are scattered around the light ocher portion of the dunes. The brushwork is fluid and expressive, with flecks of color worked into all parts of the painting. The surface is lightly glazed and the color glows and and sparkles.

Perhaps the piece doesn't sound very exciting. It's not revolutionary or bizarre. Joullin is not an experimental painter. Although Picasso and the Fauves in Paris were beginning to revolutionize the boundaries of painting, that news hadn't reached San Francisco. Its simplicity is deceiving and although painted in a style which is completely out of fashion, is exquisitely beautiful and visually compelling.

Who was Amedee Joullin? There's not much about him in the art books so it has been difficult to recreate his life, But, born in SF of French parents who were early immigrants to California, (June 13. 1862), he was part of the SF arts scene until his death in 1917.

His father, Etienne Joullin wanted to see him follow the printer's trade. But the young man was stubborn and pursued his own artistic goals. He studied with Julies Tavernier, a native Frenchman who set up a studio here and attained artistic fame. Unlike Tavernier, he seems to have been more serious, more disciplined and so, there are less colorful stories to recount.

Nevertheless, he was a bon vivant and an early member of the Bohemian Club.

In his early twenties, Joullin traveled to Paris, France for two years to gain more academic experience at the Julian Academie where he studied under Jules Lefebvre and Robert Fleury (1882-1884). He exhibited twice in the Paris Salon, winning first and second rank in his classes. He was later honored by the Academy of France in 1901 for his contribution to art education, the only American painter at the time to receive this decoration.

The Mark Hopkins School of Art

He returned to San Francisco in 1887 and promptly opened a studio at 207 Sansome St, in what is now the heart of the financial district. From 1887-1897 he worked as an instructor, proving a demanding teacher. The list of his students is a roll call of early 20th century Northern California artists.

Overland Monthly, California Artists, III. by Arthur Street (UMICH edu on line archives) Photo of his studio, approx 1900.

He was fascinated by the Chinatown of the day, making studies of what he considered the "exotic" and picturesque atmosphere. He wasn't immune from the prejudices of the day.

In an 1901 article in the SF Call, he lamented the changes in Chinatown, the cleaner walls, electricity and modernization. "Of course it was never a pleasant place to work because of the dirt and the way the Chinese had of scrambling over one's shoulders. But an artist would have it so than as it is. Now. that it is being made clean, there will soon be nothing to paint." (SF Call, Nov 1, 1901). Given that his paintings of the Chinatown of the day were very successful - one sold for $1000 to the then Mayor James Phelan - it's no wonder that he didn't like the change.

Using Chinatown and the Chinese for his paintings also brought him into conflict with another local artist, Theodore Wores, who used the same subjects. The SF News letter Op-Ed piece of March 19, 1882 was not very complementary toward either artist, proving that there is nothing new under the sun, either in artistic rivalries or journalistic disdain.

By 1897, he resigned his professorship at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art to travel to Mexico, painting Aztec temples, landscapes and interiors. A few years later he travel to New Mexico to paint the Pueblo Indians, work which was again successful. One piece "The Weaver" was purchased by Phoebe Hearst for $1500.

He was living in SF in 1906 and survived the earthquake and fire. Although his studio burned down on Pine street, he fell in love with the women who became his his wife while both were trying to salvage what they could from the ruins.

Lucille Joullin had studied under him at the Mark Hopkins Institute. She was married briefly at the turn of the century to artist Jules Mersfelder; however, the marriage failed and she married Joullin in 1907. A article from the SF Call Bulletin says that they were going to Algeria for their honeymoon but returned to San Francisco to live.

In 1910, he held his first solo exhibition at the Helgesen Galleries in San Francisco receiving great praise. The works in that exhibit were a collection of paintings with subjects from all of his travels in France, Algeria, Mexico and California. He was known for bringing new cultural elements into already popularized landscapes.

His artistic creed was an honorable one, "I have always adhered strictly and faithfully to nature. It has been the only guide that I have had. I have obtained all my subjects from it, and I could ask nothing more (Overland Monthly, 1899, p 13)

Joullin died in San Francisco in 1917, after a 6-week illness. At the time a memorial exhibition was held at the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco featuring thirty of his canvases of landscapes, still life, and figures, providing a conclusive retrospective of his prolific career.

But all of that has disappeared somewhere, the victim of changing tastes. All we now have is one painting, enough to show what we are missing.

Artistic Landscape at SF Legion, closes Jan 22
catalog of the exhibit:James A. Ganz. Artistic San Francisco, . FAMSF, 2011
Birgitta Hjalmarson. Artful Players in Early San Francisco, Balcony Press, LA, .
SF Call Bulletin, various issues from 1985 - 1917.
Overland Monthly, January 1899
California History, v 79, #4,

Two new exhibits celebrating Martin Luther King's life

2012-01-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

When he accepted the Nobel Peace price, Dr. King ended his speech with the following words,

"I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality......."

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/two-new-exhibits-celebrating-martin-luther-king-s-life

Amedee Joullin, forgotten SF Painter

2012-01-10T19:59:00.000-08:00

This is a page marker to make me get off the ...and write the darn post. I now have tons of information. Andrew Fox, photographer for the Legion and the de Young, was nice enough to take time to send me a photo. So....coming up next...

Sunrise, Jan 2012

2012-01-09T09:38:00.000-08:00

The latest in my "boat" series, titled "Sunrise, Jan 2012" for lack of a better name. 22" x 28" , Oil, oil sticks and oil pastel on canvas.The photo shows the orange/yellow areas a little brighter than they are in reality but when I get it photographed professionally, that will be corrected.Shall I aspire to be SF's very own Turner? Maybe Whistler? Nocturne at Sunrise, SF 2012?

Winter Salads

2012-01-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

courtesy Ramona Soto. Used with permission.

It's close to 70 degrees here with blue skies and balmy breezes. It seems ridiculous to write about winter but I wrote the piece last week and didn't have time to publish it. So, whatever the weather, I'm going to post it, darn it!

I was so groggy this morning that I didn't realize I'd published it under my "other" title of museum examiner, not frugal grocery reviewer. But it published in the right section so I'm going to leave it be.

Nobody's perfect.
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/winter-salads

At the Asian: Closing this Sunday (Jan 8th)

2012-01-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

Drum-shaped bottle with peony decoration. Korean, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910); late 15th - early 16th century. Buncheong with iron-painted design. Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul.

The Buncheong exhibit of Korean ceramics at the Asian will be closing January 8th and as it's a free day at the Asian, try to check the exhibit out before it closes.

Buncheong ceramics emerged as a distinct Korean art form in the 15th and 16th centuries. Colors range from cream to titanium white, some with decorative elements in black. The work is elegantly simple but with a homey, spontaneous quality that adds to its appeal. There are numerous shapes on view - bottles and bowls in all shapes and sizes. Some of the decoration is whimsical and one - of a dog squatting to do his business - slyly funny. Other pieces have carved or incised images of flowers, fish, birds, trees and other natural motifs.

What is ironic is that Buncheong was devalued in by the upper classes and nobility in Korea in favor of more ornate porcelain. Yet, the spare aesthetic was admired by Japanese potters and influenced the development of the bowls and cups used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Kim and Claire and Winni and Andy

2012-01-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

Frau Buch, 12/1980; Polacolor 2; 4-1/4 x 3-3/8 in.; gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

The focus this month is on the portrait at SFMOMA Artists Gallery Portrait Show as artists Kim Frohsin, Claire Pasquier, Winni Wintermeyer explore the Portrait. The Berkeley Art Museum will be showing 40 of Andy Warhol's polaroid portraits of the famous and not-so-famous.
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sfmoma-artists-gallery-portrait-show-andy-warhol-at-the-berkeley-art-museum

Happy 2012!

2011-12-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

Out with the old, in with the new

2011-12-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

I am constantly reminded of Charles Dicken's line from "A tale of two cities, " "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. " We had fantastic shows but we also had a couple of duds.

SFMOMA followed their show on the Stein family collections with a huge, boring exhibit of black on black "drawings" by Richard Serra. The main thing on view in that exhibit was ego.

The SECA show at SFMOMA was disappointing and the show to promote marriage equality was not every effective. The book was a lot better (sounds like a lot of movies that we see!). http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sfmoma-announces-this-year-s-seca-award-winners

While the Asian Arts Museum rose like a phoenix from the ashes of last year's financial doldrums with several amazing exhibits, they also chose to spend a lot of money on a new logo. While I tried to be polite, I just don't get it nor did a lot of Bay Area bloggers. But the important thing is what's inside the building, not the signage on the front doors. http://image3.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sf-s-asian-art-museum-launches-a-new-brand

The SF Arts Commission reeled from stupid decision to scandal as news broke that they had chosen former dog murderer Tom Otterness for a huge project to make sculptures for the Central Subway - which is another scandal but not an artistic one. Eventually, the commission "fired" him but because of legal issues, still had to let him keep a substantial portion of the grant money. Lots of SF artists were asking why the "SF" Arts Commission couldn't chose a local artist! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/31/DD941MG3BJ.DTL

The SF Arts Commission also asked their director, Luis Cancel to resign. Apparently he was spending too much time away from the desk, presumably at his second home in Brazil (maybe dancing the Bossa Nova?) http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/luis-cancel-director-of-the-sf-arts-commission-resigns-from-his-post

$477,000 in grant money for a SF arts group was given to a group....in LA? The audit is ongoing (I assume?).
http://www.baycitizen.org/government/story/san-francisco-arts-commission-audit/

The Commission has appointed a new Director of Cultural Affairs, Tom De Caigny comes to the position with many years of experiences, lastly as executive director of the Performing Arts Workshop, DeCaigny will officially assume his new role leading the $10 million agency responsible for championing the arts in San Francisco on January 9, 2011. I wish him luck because he will need it.

Lastly, I just read that John Buchanan, the Director of the FAMSF (both Legion and De Young) died yesterday of cancer.

"John deserves enormous credit for his vision," said Neal Benezra, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in an e-mail. "He brought a succession of important exhibitions to San Francisco, including opportunities for our community to experience masterworks from the Musée Picasso and renowned examples of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism from the Musée d'Orsay. John was a valued colleague and I will miss him tremendously."

My condolences to his family; he will be missed.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/31/DD941MG3BJ.DTL

http://deyoung.famsf.org/blog/memoriam-john-edward-buchanan-jr-1953-2011

Looking back at the year in art.

2011-12-30T11:28:00.000-08:00

"God created the Maharajas to provide a spectacle to humanity” wrote Rudyard Kipling, and the Asian did justice to his observation in their next big show, "Maharaja, Splendors of Indian's Royal Courts. There wasn’t an object in the show that wasn't embellished, inlaid with gems and gold, looped with sapphires and diamonds or outlined with pearls.The gaudy display was a reminder that today's 1% aren't alone in ignoring the misery outside their mansions.

The FAMSF gave us a feast of European art - from Pissarro to the splendors of the old masters to the subtle skill of 17th century Dutch painting in the Von Otterloo collection.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/masterworks-from-the-dutch-golden-age-at-the-legion-of-honor

Pissarro is probably the least well know of the impressionists and the show displayed his humanistic look at family, friends and the working people of the day as well as his political radicalism.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/pissarro-s-people-at-the-legion

The behemoth blockbuster of the year was the two-museum tribute to the Stein family. Most of us know of Gertrude, the contrary, cantankerous and sometimes charming women who is notorious for saying 'There is no there, there" when referring to Oakland. Using a wealthy of archival material, the show brought to life her and Alice and a multitude of the famous and infamous of the Parisian avant-guard for decades.

Right across the road, at SFMOMA was an eloquent tribute to the family as art collectors. Seldom have so few bought so much art with so little money. It's difficult to say which is more amazing - the low prices paid for now priceless paintings by Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse or the Steins' (particularly Sarah Stein's) courageous support of art that was then new, provocative and revolutionary.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/the-steins-collect-matisse-picasso-the-parisian-avant-garde-review

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/seeing-gertrude-stein-five-stories-at-the-contemporary-jewish-museum-review

Across the bay, the Berkeley Art Museum hosted two unique shows, the first West Coast exhibit of the work of Kurt Schwitters and "Create," a show of art made by artists with disabilities.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/kurt-schwitters-color-and-collage-at-the-berkeley-art-museum-review

"Create" highlighted the extraordinary contributions of three of the foremost centers for artists with disabilities, all located in the Bay Area: Creativity Explored (San Francisco), Creative Growth Art Center (Oakland), and NIAD Art Center (Richmond, CA).

As I said at the time, "It's really a shame to call them "artists with disabilities" because they are artists first, and mentally challenged second. Yet, to ignore their condition is to make light of the difficulties they face.

Thanks to the lack of a safety net, the disabled roam our streets, beg on the sidewalks, mutter to themselves, are messy, dirty, frightening. They challenge us to define what it is to be human. They test the limits of what we can do, can afford to do, have the will to do. Unfortunately, they can't always communicate how extraordinary they can be, with help, with encouragement, with love and a support system."

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/create-at-the-berkeley-art-museum-review

The MoAD brought us a rare look at original works by Romare Bearden, the vibrant quilts of the Siddis, part of the African diaspora in India and "Textural Rhythms," swing, jazz and be-bop in fabric and thread,

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/soulful-stitching-patchwork-quilts-by-africans-siddis-india-at-the-moaf

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/textural-rhythms-at-the-museum-of-the-african-diaspora-review

The CJM brought us the work and tragic life of Charlotte Salomon, considered among the most innovative artists of mid-century Europe whose work defies categorization, and continues to influence artists in unusual ways.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/cjm-presents-charlotte-salomon-life-or-theatre-review

In the galleries: Hosfelt bought up a rare look at works by Jay De Feo. Next year, a major traveling retrospective of Jay DeFeo's work, organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, will be presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the autumn of 2012. http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/jay-defeo-at-hosfelt-gallery

These are a few of my favorite things from the rich offerings from my favorite city by the bay. If I listed everything I liked along with a few things I disliked, the post would be too long to read - and it's long enough already.

But none of this would be possible without the people behind the scenes at the museum.

I especially want to give a shout of thanks to the following: Jill Lynch, Robin Wander, Cheryl McCain (FAMSF) and Peter Cavagnaro at the Berkeley Art Museum, Libby Garrison and Robyn Wise at SFMOMA. As a member of the third tier of the press, I am immeasurably grateful for your help.

The best in 2011

2011-12-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

Coin Deities, Collected in the 1930's

Margaret Mead: Upon the hundreds of stone altars of Bali, there lay not merely a fruit and a flower, placed as visible offering to the many gods, but hundreds of finely wrought and elaborately conceived offerings made of palm leaf and flowers, twisted, folded, stitched, embroidered, brocaded into myriad traditional forms and fancies. There were flowers made of sugar and combined into representations of the rainbow, and swords and spears cut from the snow-white fat of sacrificial pigs. The whole world was patterned, from the hillsides elaborately terraced to give the maximum rice yield, to the air which was shot through with music, the temple gates festooned with temporary palm-leaf arras over their permanent carved façade, to the crowds of people who, as they lounged, watching an opera or clustered around two fighting cocks, composed themselves into a frieze…Their lives were packed in intricate and formal delights...

The witch Rangda. 1800 - 1930 (?).

There were so many fantastic shows this year that I hardly know where to begin - but why not being in the beginning with "Bali, Art, Ritual, Performance," at the Asian. I think it was the first big show of the year, bringing museum goers a multi-dimensional look at an island that has long fascinated Westerners.

Their complex culture, a mixture of native beliefs and Hinduism may now be a performance more for Western tourism but enough remains to give a idea of what once was - and still is to some degree - a living culture. The exhibit didn't go into detail about the Dutch conquest. That would have been so brutal and bloody that it would have overwhelmed the exhibit. But for an honest look at the brutalities of the Dutch conquest in the 16th century, read Michael Kondl's "The Taste of Conquest. The rise and fall of the three great cities of spice."

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/bali-art-ritual-performance-at-the-asian-art-museum-review

Louie, Louie

2011-12-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

According to various sources, including the late, great James Beard (New Fish Cookery, @1976), the dish was invented by one of the fin du siecle chefs at the Palace Hotel. Or maybe the St. Francis Hotel. or maybe the Bohemian Restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Anyway, who cares!
http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/crab-louie-1
image: Wikipedia Creative Commons

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), The Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1607-10, Oil on canvas, 143 x 115cm, National Gallery of Scotland.

I am not a big fan of Dowd but today's column on Dickens and "the Christmas Carol" is a good one. She makes the point that Dicken's story still resonates with many of us because of our own childhood experiences of rejection, abuse and misery.

The official Christmas story is of a child who comes to redeem the world; the reality is that Jewish baby, born of poor parents, would today be one of the world's beaten, scorned, insulted or ignored.

The miracle is that some do remember the real meaning of the Nativity and reach out with compassion, help and tolerance. Try to celebrate that message of Christmas and not the bellow of consumer greed, intolerance or ignorance that screams loudly to block out the cries of the suffering world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/opinion/sunday/dowd-a-victorian-christmas.html?_r=1

Changes at Chez NamasteNancy

2011-12-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

My writing and other projects are keeping me so busy that it's not economically feasible to maintain a separate space for painting. I'm cleaning up, sorting out and moving my art to my home where I can put it up and enjoy it.

As the solstice dawns, I will be closing one chapter in my life and opening another. If the past is prologue, then the new chapter should be full of challenges, joys and some sorrow, new acquaintances and old friends.

So, let us turn the page together.

namaste!

Vaclav Havel

2011-12-18T16:20:00.000-08:00

The playwright who became a protester who became a president, Vaclav Havel, has died today. There is already much on the blogosphere about this Czech great, and there will be more in tomorrow's papers. But if you only read one thing connected with him, then I'd advise you make it the address he delivered to the Czechoslovakian people on 1 January 1990, which I've copied below. It was only a few days after his election as president, yet triumphalism and celebration is there little. Instead, Havel dwells on the horrors his country endured in the Twentieth Century, and — crucially — how they were permitted to come about. It is one of my favorite speeches, and it speaks now, as well as words can, of Havel's achievements and legacy:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7496733/people-your-government-has-returned-to-you.thtml

National Trust On Line

2011-12-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

Brueghel the Younger’s masterpiece 'The Procession to Calvary ' at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire. Completed in 1602, and amongst Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s finest works, it shows Christ carrying the cross on the way to his crucifixion, set in a contemporary Flemish landscape. The painting was saved for the nation earlier this year following a successful fundraising campaign led by the Art Fund and the National Trust.

From great works of art by Gainsborough to the ordinary cotton underpants of a Midlands grocer, details of over 700,000 objects in the care of the National Trust go online for the first time. Now anyone with an interest in historic objects or old curiosities can have virtual access to collections from over 200 historic properties. The website also includes details of collections in storage, items that are too fragile to display, or on loan to other museums, making it one of the largest online resources for historic collections in the world.

The National Trust cares for some of the UK ’s greatest works of art as well as the personal collections of many famous former owners such as Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling, Beatrix Potter and George Bernard Shaw.

There are artistic treasures from stately houses but also thousands of everyday items from modest homes, mills, cottages and workplaces. All the paraphernalia of life – with many quirky, unusual, retro and bizarre objects – come together to form ‘time capsules’ of life across the centuries.

Some of the fascinating objects now viewable online are
• Laudanum bottle at Castle Ward
• Costume decorated with beetle wings for actress Ellen Terry at Smallhythe Place
• Sewing machine used at the tailor’s shop from the 1970s at the Back to Backs
• Brueghel the Younger’s masterpiece 'The Procession to Calvary ' at Nostell Priory
• Early anti-ageing ‘Rejuvenating’ machine at Overbeck’s
• Lavishly furnished Georgian dolls’ house at Uppark
• Photograph from 1912 of the family’s servants at Erddig
• Bible reputed to have been used at the execution of King Charles I at Chastleton House
• Pair of Aertex underpants at Mr Straw’s House
• French 18th century painted sedan chair at Snowshill

The National Trust Collections website is drawn from the Trust’s national inventory - it has taken nearly fifteen years and the work of hundreds of Trust staff, volunteers and contractors to research, catalogue and photograph the collections and develop the database – and work is on-going.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/

Culture Grrl (aka Lee Rosenbaum ) may leave the blogsphere.

2011-12-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

As noted here:

..."One of the parts of my edited Finnish interview that didn't make it onto the program concerned the unremunerative nature of this solo enterprise. I have just totaled my dismal take for 2011. I'll share it with you---slightly less than $1,400 (including donations and ads), for a year out of my finite professional life. What am I thinking?

Blogging has been a labor of love and it's in my blood. I believe (as I told the Finns) that it's important, and I'd like to think that CultureGrrl has been regarded as such by its devoted, sophisticated niche audience.

So here's the Grrl's last gurgle:

If 100 readers are willing to donate $20 each within the next three weeks to express appreciation for last year's edition of CultureGrrl (or if a different combination of readers and benefactions achieves the same monetary goal), I'll continue. Given the size of my audience, that's a relatively modest goal. But it seems unlikely to be realized, in light of the record so far."

She has the connections to get behind the pretty facade of many a museum and opened the doors of public scrutiny to a lot of less-than-stellar behavior. It would be a shame to lose her concerned voice and once my Paypal account recovers from a number of December charitable donations, I will put my money where my mouth is. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of money give but surely somebody out there does? It's the Internet's dirty little secret - all this great information, breaking news, articles, op-ed pieces, good journalism (and bad) -but nobody is paying the writers.

http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/

Dancer - Works by Mark Lightfoot at Market Street Gallery.

2011-12-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

After last week's debacle at SFMOMA, it was a pleasure to see this show. Not many local artists work with three dimensional imagery. Flora Davis at SOMA Arts (689 Bryant St. ) is one but I really don't know any others.

http://youtu.be/I3iMwulI2O0

2011 Eclipse

2011-12-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Don-Oberbeck-Eclipse-Longs_1323526876.jpg

Thoughts after viewing the 2010 SECA Award Show

2011-12-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

I am working on a couple of longer posts but I found this on Sharon Butler's "Two Coats of Paint," and felt that it spoke to what I have been thinking about this year's SECA awards.

"My favorite quote from all the post-Miami anti-artworld posts that have gone online this week is this excerpt from Charles Saatchi's Comment in the Guardian. "If I stop being on good behaviour for a moment, my dark little secret is that I don't actually believe many people in the art world have much feeling for art and simply cannot tell a good artist from a weak one, until the artist has enjoyed the validation of others – a received pronunciation. For professional curators, selecting specific paintings for an exhibition is a daunting prospect, far too revealing a demonstration of their lack of what we in the trade call 'an eye.' They prefer to exhibit videos, and those incomprehensible post-conceptual installations and photo-text panels, for the approval of their equally insecure and myopic peers. This 'conceptualised' work has been regurgitated remorselessly since the 1960s, over and over and over again."

2010 SECA Awards

2011-12-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

Established to recognize Bay Area artists of exceptional talent with an exhibition, accompanying catalog, and modest cash prize, this year's award recipients are Mauricio Ancalmo, Colter Jacobsen, Ruth Laskey, and Kamau Amu Patton. The artists have been preparing for their SECA award exhibition, which will open at the museum on December 9, 2011, and will remain up though April 2012.

Mauricio Ancalmo

The Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award program is based on nominations made by members of the local arts community and SECA members. Next, they review applications from more than 200 artists and make studio visits with approximately 30 finalists led by SFMOMA’s SECA Art Award curators and open to all SECA members. Lastly, one to four artists are selected by the curators.

Colter Jacobsen

After the who, the how and the whatever, the introductory speeches soon veered off into the insider language of art speak, sadly reminiscent of art school hyperbole. The best part of the introduction was sitting next to Mike of Civic Center blog fame and trying not to giggle at his irreverent comments.

I also got distracted by watching the shimmering reflection of Jim Campbell's installation piece on the black bands of the Botta staircase. But the art speak simply turned me off and, as it turns out, didn't remotely describe what we saw later. I know about art speak; I can do it myself. I was well on my way to an MFA when I decided that end of the art business wasn't for me.

Ruth Laskey, Twill Series, Imperial Purple

For me, Ruth Laskey's work showed the most real skill and genuine potential. She employs traditional weaving techniques to expand on the "painterly tradition of geometric abstraction." The pieces reminded me of needlepoint on linen, except that she weaves the background as well as the geometric image in a complex and intricate process. The geometric pieces are exquisite and meditative. Although they are beautifully framed and mounted, their small size and delicate, monochromatic color are not qualities that work well in SFMOMA's huge galleries.

Mauricio Ancalmo combines various found mechanical instruments in film-based installations and kinetic sculptures to form a structural dialogue that is both poetically and philosophically inspired. Do you want to have this translated into English? His Rube Goldberg machine is an old fashioned turntable, hooked up to a projector that projects a loop of found film around the three and a half walls of a small room built within the gallery. There's music of a sort. The piece is mildly amusing although I got a bit of vertigo trying to follow the rapid image as it revolved around the room. The piece is titled "A Lover's Discourse" and if this is the state of loving communication, no wonder the divorce rate is so high.

Colter Jacobson

Colter Jacobsen's "meticulous drawings, watercolors, and installations often incorporate found ephemera to explore reflection and longing." The very young and very sweet curator described his work as "mundane and mysterious." Want a translation? The mundane and mysterious piece was a snail, made of found pieces. Other items were a watercolor on the inside of a book jacket, and other small images, looking rather like postcards - except that real postcards are more interesting. Trust me when I say that the reproduction of his pieces looks better than the originals. Because he uses so much found material, it's difficult to tell what's original from what is his creation.

Ruth Laskey, Black Twill Series

Kamau Amu Patton synthesizes works in a range of media to investigate the "inter-zone of sound, materiality, and perceptual experience." Please don't ask me to explain this because I haven't a clue. The room had black something on the walls and black strips on the floor with an obtrusive wall of noise blanketing the room. The free form, free standing sculptures had a lovely simplicity but I can't speak to their originality.

Kamau Amu Patton. Form 1

I wondered if the guards were going to have to keep people from stepping the patterns on the floor. I did ask the very nice guard if the sound portion work would be difficult to deal with on a daily basis. She very tactfully responded that it was just up so it wasn't a problem...yet. But imagine having to stand all day surrounded by "noise" and ask kids not to walk on the installation piece on the floor.

Barry McGee has covered the last wall of the 5th floor gallery with his patented bright geometric squares. At least they are colorful.

What does this art say to me? Am I thrilled, provoked, enlightened, amazed, intrigued?

One member of the press (Susan Cohn, San Mateo Business Times) was asking the curator about how this art relates to people who are not already art insiders. The curator was tap dancing around the question, throwing up art speak like white caps on a windy day but the long and short of it is --- it doesn't. It doesn't matter that one of the artists uploads his sound installations (think dull roar of traffic heard from a distance) to the Internet.

I thought that maybe the younger generation would "get it" but Susan said that she has two boys and they don't understand this art nor do they care.

But her unanswered question is an important one. The fact that the curator couldn't answer it without resorting to her previously memorized sound bites says volumes about the art and whom it relates to. It's art by insiders, for insiders and made by people who understand very well the language of artistic success and how to manipulate it.

I always fight my own tendency to dislike so much of what passes for contemporary art. especially conceptual art. I am aware of my own prejudices and know that I am not the best judge. But the bulk of this work is simply not interesting enough to force me to struggle with my own bias.

In fact, work like this continues to deepen the divide between the elite who go to museums and the rest of us. This bothers me because I care about art. Maybe educational programs will cross some of that divide. But you have to show those of us who are not art insiders that it's worth crossing that divide.

The show is largely the visual equivalent of art speak where big, pseudo profound cliches cover the page but mean nothing. I'm glad for the artists who have now made a huge career leap but sad that, after such an extensive process, SECA thinks that these are the best we have to offer.

*Images from SFMOMA, lines in quotes from their press release.
Article from the NY Times: SECA Award

Montreal Massacre

2011-12-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Montreal Massacre
Thank you to raincitygirl for reminding me of the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

On 6 Dec 1989, twenty-two years ago today, Marc Lépine murdered 14 women in the name of "fighting feminism". Twelve of these women were engineering students, another was a nursing student, and the last was a school clerk. Lépine also injured 10 more women and four men. The Montreal Massacre, or the École Polytechnique massacre, is what Canadians immediately think of when they think of school shootings, but as raincitygirl pointed out in her post, the case is not well-known outside Canada.

In memory:
Geneviève Bergeron, 21 - civil engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23 - mechanical engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23 - mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22 - mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21 - chemical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29 - materials engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25 - budget clerk in school's finance dept
Maryse Leclair, 23 - materials engineering
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22 - mechanical engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28 - mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21 - materials engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23 - mechanical engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21 - materials engineering
Barbara Maria Klucznik-Widajewicz, 31 - nursing
ETA: Lessons of the Montreal Massacre: Why women must fight to be what they want. A really good article from two years ago, on the 20th anniversary, which interviewed a few of the survivors.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/734817--lessons-of-the-montreal-massacre

"We are not feminists."

A young, incredulous Nathalie Provost said those words to Marc Lépine 20 years ago Sunday. It was a bid to save her and her fellow students' lives – the women Lépine had isolated in a university classroom before opening fire on them with a semi-automatic hunting rifle. [...]

"I realized many years later that in my life and actions, of course I was a feminist. I was a woman studying engineering and I held my head up."

If you've never heard of the Montreal Massacre, I encourage you to read the Wikipedia article--though I'll warn you that some of the "controversy" section might make your blood boil. Here in the US, we don't even have that slender protection.

"Even as we mourn the 14 women killed at l’École Polytechnique, this government is taking the last remaining safeguard off the very weapon that murdered these women," Ms. Turmel said. "The Conservatives are recklessly dismantling the only positive thing to come out of the tragic events of Dec. 6." (Globe and Mail)

Fundraiser for Julie and Lee

2011-12-04T18:27:00.001-08:00

I first met Julie through her blog "Tango Baby" and later, followed her adventures in SF through her blog and later book, "Julie lives here." http://julieliveshere.com/

I met Lee at one of Julie's openings and thoroughly enjoyed his tales of going to college in New England as well as his quirky sense of humor.

Last month, Julie came home to Lee who had suffered a massive stroke. His rehabilitation will be long but he's already shown signs he's a fighter. "Today with help he took a few steps" Julie announced to us on Saturday while we helped her pack up their home.

This road to recovery is more than what insurance will cover. There are medical bills from his initial emergency room/ICU visit, they will need to move into a more Lee friendly home at some point, Julie is trying to run his companies while packing up their life and staying with friends in the meantime. The fact that so many people have come forward to offer help speaks volumes about the impact Lee and Julie have had on so many people.

Please if you can help it would be appreciated.

There will be a fundraiser Sunday December 18 from 3pm - 7pm at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club, 2194 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.

There will be a few fundraisers to help them get through this so check back on a regular basis.

Sunnyvale Pottery Studio Christmas Sale

2011-12-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Barbara Brown, Ikebana vase. @the artist (used with permission).

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sunnyvale-pottery-studio-christmas-sale

Creativity Explored

2011-11-30T16:22:00.000-08:00

Bag by Badia Forbes. @ Creativity Explored

We are a couple of days past Black Friday and Cyber Monday but if you haven't finished your Christmas shopping, haven't why not put organizations like Creativity Explored on your list of places to shop? You won't have to worry about bullets or pepper spray and you'd be helping a wonderful organization as well as buying art works at a very reasonable price.

Creativity Explored was founded in 1982 by Florence and Elias Katz, pioneers in the field of working with people with developmental disabilities. For 30 years, Creativity Explored’s innovative and respected programs, structure, and culture have served as an organizational model worldwide in the field of art and disability. They are committed to supporting people with developmental disabilities in their quest to become working artists, and to promoting their work as an emerging and increasingly important contribution to the contemporary art world.

Wrapping paper and note cards by Evelyn Reyes. @Creativity Explored

Located in SF's Mission District, their gallery sales have have provided an income for the CE artists. For some, art has become a viable career path and for others, increasing recognition for their contributions to the contemporary art world. The Berkeley Art Museum recently added 16 works by Creativity Explored artists to its permanent collection of more than 14,000 objects, Thomas Pringle, a CE artist, is included in the Pro Arts 2012 Juried Annual Exhibition of the best new artists in the Bay Area.

Let Creativity Explored introduce you to Natalie Spring. She joined Creativity Explored just over a year ago. Natalie used to be shy, her group living situation made her feel sheltered, and she wasn’t really doing much with her life.

Now, Natalie creates artwork at Creativity Explored four days a week and lives in her own apartment with her cat, Indigo. She is one of our most articulate artists and speaks openly about herself, her past, and her art.

"I like to draw horses. There’s something elegant about them. I also do clay and wire work, and I’ve gotten into screen printing lately.

When I’m at Creativity Explored I feel like I’m home. There’s such a warm feeling from everybody. I’m making all these friends all of a sudden!

The art. The artists. I like it all. I feel like I’ve become a different person. I’ve become happy."

Selena Perez, @ Creativity Explored

Make them happy, make YOURSELF happy by supporting this amazing organization. The Annual Holiday Art Sale at Creativity Explored is an art lover’s shopping extravaganza, one in which you can buy a multitude of art are very affordable prices. The studio is filled with original prints, paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, and textiles by over 120 artists — including unique pieces set aside for this special occasion. Many artworks have even been marked down. Like all Creativity Explored exhibitions, one-half of the proceeds from the sale of every artwork go directly to the artist.

Creativity Explored, 16th St. between Guerrero and Valencia

You can also shop on-line at their Cyber Store: http://www.creativityexplored.org/shop

Opening Weekend
Friday, December 2, 2011
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Saturday & Sunday, December 3 & 4, 2011
12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. http://www.creativityexplored.org/

Automata: Mechanical Wonders of the Nineteenth Century at SFO

2011-11-27T15:55:00.000-08:00

Pierrot écrivain (Pierrot writing) c. 1875 . Vichy . France. wood, wire, metal, fabric, glass, paper, hair, porcelain. The Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata. Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey

If you are stuck out at SFO this holiday season, this exhibit can help you pass the time. The new exhibition features exquisite mechanical figures and musical machines from the 19th century.

Before the Industrial Revolution, automata were created mainly as one-of-a-kind scientific experiments, political or religious theater, and given as diplomatic gifts. Eventually they became promotional devices to attract sales. French manufacturers later incorporated mass-production technology to produce musical automata, musical dolls, clockwork singing birds, and tableaux méchaniques (mechanically animated scenes) to meet the increasing demand for these new forms of entertainment.

From the mid-1800s to the 1900s, automata served as parlor entertainment. Many skilled artisans were required to manufacture these clockwork machines. They were not considered toys for children, but rather items of social privilege and status - which didn't prevent me from wanting to play with them!
Continue reading Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/automata-mechanical-wonders-of-the-nineteenth-century-at-sfo#ixzz1ex7tq6Yi

Thanksgiving addendum: No turkeys here

2011-11-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

I almost left out this post by Mark Bittman (NY Times) - enough links to blogs to provide a year of thoughtful reading:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/no-turkeys-here/

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

Today, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes any number of dishes: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. But if one were to create a historically accurate feast, consisting of only those foods that historians are certain were served at the so-called “first Thanksgiving,” there would be slimmer pickings. “

Read more:First Thanksgiving

Five feasts in American art from the Smithsonian

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2011/11/the-list-five-feasts-in-american-art/

From Tom Christensen's fascinating blog, Right Reading:

"In honor of Thanksgiving, here’s a painting of an American turkeycock by the great Mughal painter Mansur (from my forthcoming book 1616: The World in Motion). Mansur was the greatest Mughal painter of natural history subjects..." and an ongoing series of posts on his book which will be published in February 2012 (I believe).

http://www.rightreading.com/blog/

Busy times at Chez Nancy's

2011-11-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

I've been busy reviewing art and even posted a new food recipe up at my food column at the Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/nancy-ewart

I want to do a longer piece on Bernini and more on the Venetian painters who are up at the de Young - heck, whole encyclopedias have been written about Bernini and Titian. Do you think I could be contented with just one column?

Vegetarian pot pie

http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/vegetarian-pot-pie-for-thanksgiving

Later in the week, I'll start my promotion pieces for local art fairs and community centers. There are so many local art centers that are desperately trying to survive. Financial support is being cut back in all areas but remember the motto "art saves lives. Feeding the soul is important in desperate times.

Of course, feeding the soul is great but so is feeding the bank account. So if a few more of the 300-500 people who stop by my blog daily would click on one of the above links, this artist, writer and blogger would be very grateful.

Lalla Essaydi at Jenkins Johnson

2011-11-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

Jenkins Johnson is hosting Essaydi's first one-woman show on the West coast. The show includes work from three recent series: Les Femmes du Maroc (2005-2008) Harem (2009) and Les Femmes Du Maroc Revisited (2010).

The first time I saw one of of Lalla Essaydi's photographs was at a show at the Museum of the African Diaspora ( MoAD ). That photograph was of Arab women, dressed in a cream or white gown, veiled, and posed against a light beige background. The piece was fairly small - maybe 11" x 12" - and the whole surface was covered with Arabic script, written in what I later discovered to be ink made with henna. It was stunningly beautiful, elegant, mysterious and very intriguing.

Her recurring theses are Islam, feminism, and female resistance to Islamic customs that demean and oppress women. By shrouding the women in the customary burkas, draping them in cloth or, as in the case of some of the photos in the current show at Jenkins Johnson, posing them in an Moroccan palace where their gowns merge with the elaborate tiles and architectural details, Essaydi purports to criticize Western Oriental fantasies.

As even the most casual viewer of Western painting knows, painters from Delacroix to Ingres to others less famous have used the harem to indulge in paintings of voluptuous women, lolling around in states of undress, just waiting for their lord's command. The forbidden nature of the harem was part of its lure for Western audiences, and part of the erotic appropriation as well.

The Harem series is highly colored and set within the elaborate architecture of the Moroccan palace Dar al Basha. The artist created the fabric that her subjects wear, gowns that are patterned on the elaborate tiles and carvings of the palace. As in her other works, the models merge into the background and each piece is covered with hand written Arabic calligraphy.

This series is, among other things, photographs taken inside a harem with some personal family history. Essaydi was obsessed with the place and didn't understand that obsession with until family members told her that her father had grown up in that harem.

The Pasha had been her grandmother's guardian, divorced her from her husband and kept the mother and son in the harem - the custom of the time then as now. So, she was channeling some psychic memory of her family's past.

Essaydi want to "wanted to present a harem area that's not in the Western or Orientalist tradition. It's something real and painful - it's life for these women, their kids and family. It's not always a beautiful odalisque laying down, ready for consummation."

"I am writing. I am writing on me, I am writing on her. The story began to be written the moment the present began.” Translated from the original Arabic, Essaydi’s personal writing attempts to subvert traditional Muslim gender stereotypes through the presence of the written word.

By using a sacred Islamic script, Essaydi mounts a small act of defiance against the oppression of women in the Middle East, a region where women today account for two thirds of the region's illiterates. (Arab Human Development Report 2002, p.52).

The artist grew up in Morocco, lived in Saudi Arabia for many years and now lives in New York City. “In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses — as artist, as Moroccan, as Saudi, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim. In short, I invite the viewer to resist stereotypes,” she has said.

Les femmes du Maroc. Le Grand Odalesque

The stylistic simplicity in Essaydi's work prevents it from becoming merely decorative but does not support the weight of her political statements. The subjects of her gaze are covered with her indecipherable and personal calligraphy, But while they do not solely present an oriental tinged sexuality to the viewer, they still have no voice of their own. Nor does her calligraphy illuminate what might have been their voices, for it is untranslatable.

Essaydi's large scale photographs are sensual, stunningly beautiful. But I don't buy the theory that she's transformed the work into an act of rebellion - either against the male gaze, outdated theories of Orientalism a la Edward Said or as an act of rebellion against Muslim oppression of women. It's still an Arabian Nights fantasy, women posed in gorgeous settings, passive, beautiful. The occasional saucy glance at the viewer is not an act of defiance, but a sexy and demure "come hither."

Les Femmes du Maroc #16

Their elegantly draped bodies do not challenge male privilege. They are sexual commodities, presented to the voyeuristic eye.

LALLA ESSAYDI: LES FEMMES DU MAROC. Through Dec 3rd.at Jenkins Johnson Gallery, 464 Sutter St, San Francisco
All photographs courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.

Richard Misrach at the Berkeley Art Museum

2011-11-17T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to see the Misrach exhibit of photos taken after the 1991 Berkeley/ East Bay Fire. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fire, BAM/PFA and the Oakland Museum of California are presenting forty photographs from the series, including fourteen large-format images. The shows are the result of Misrach's donation of 33 prints to each museum earlier this year, and mark the first time the series has been publicly exhibited; it was only five years ago that Misrach began to make prints from his nearly 200 negatives of the fire's aftermath.

To be honest, I didn't expect to be moved but I was, almost to tears in some places. The show brought back memories of walking down Post Street on a breathlessly sultry day and wondering where the black flakes were coming from that were covering the side walk.

Later that day, I heard about the catastrophic fire and went with friends to Twin Peaks to see the ominous cloud engulfing the East Bay.

I remember the confusion and the heroic efforts of the fire and police departments - people who were later vilified by the likes of the mega-millionaires that I worked for at the time. I remember the finger pointing and also, the genuine sorrow of those who had lost family members and all, a life time of of memories.

I think that the home of Adele Bischoff, the wife of the late painter Elmer Bischoff, was burned out, losing years of paintings and drawings.

The blame game went on for some time - egged and abetted by our local media that had found a topic that they would spin to their heart's content.

I am glad that Misrach waited 20 years. His rationale for the long delay was also rooted in the philosophy that he said drives all of his work: his images are for the historical record, not reportage. “I don’t want to be part of the media spectacle,” he said. “I want to transcend the news.”

For those who lived through the destruction, the memories can still be painful - powerful images of child's tricycle half melted by the heat, a fire blacked staircase, bowls of pet food left by some optimistic pet owners, a tranquil blue swimming pool reflecting the charred remains of a tree.

The large (some 5' or 6' by 5' or 6') images are visceral, gut wrenching in their portrait of the destruction. The photographs are all the more effective for showing the devastating aftermath. One wall of the exhibit is lined with smaller photographs, which pull you into the frame by their smaller size. His skill proves that you don't have to photograph sturm and drag to convey the extent of the disaster.

The fire was one of the worst in California’s history, killing 25 people, injuring 150 others and destroying about 3,500 homes — one every 11 seconds.

At a gallery talk that Mr. Misrach gave at the Berkeley museum on Oct. 12, Curt Karplus, 80, rose and asked how many survivors were in the room. He and his wife had lived only by leaping from the balcony of their Hiller Highlands home. “We jumped, and within two seconds the house went up like a matchbox behind us,” Mr. Karplus said.

Both exhibitions include handmade elegy books inviting members of the public to leave their memories of the fire, or simply sign their names. The books will become part of each museum's permanent collection. The Oakland Museum even will have a story booth where people can share their fire tales.

The exhibition, “1991: The Oakland-Berkeley Fire Aftermath: Photographs by Richard Misrach,” is being shown at both museums. The Berkeley presentation closes February 5 and OMCA's closes on February 12.

Bernini's "The Medusa" at the Legion

2011-11-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

This piece is so delicately beautiful and the level of craftmanship is so high that it has to be seen to be believed. At the press preview today, John Buchanan, the Director of the Museum, hinted that there will be more exchanges between the Capitolini Museum in Rome and the Legion. No details yet but keep tuned to this space ...

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/bernini-s-the-medusa-at-the-legion

Sandy Yagi at Modern Eden, SF's mistress of the macabre

2011-11-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Sandy Yagi at her opening at Modern Eden.
Elegy 24 x 20 oil on panel 2011 @ Anna Conti

Contemporary culture, human folly and an obsessive curiosity for the macabre provide the fuel for Sandra Yagi’s new oil paintings for Primal Renderings. Her work is inspired by the natural sciences as well as by the classical drawing techniques of the old masters. Think medical anatomy meets Bosch meets Salvador Dali, presided over by such masters as late Gothic painters such as Van Eyck.

Sandy Yagi. Trepanation 24 x 18 oil on panel 2011

Driven by the need to explore the human psychological condition, Yagi uses images such as cutaway skulls to portray our basic human drives.

Yagi was raised in suburban Denver Colorado, the oldest of a typical suburban middle class family. From an early age, she loved science, especially biology, and drawing. But her Japanese-American parents were more traditional and insisted that she get a "useful" education in business. For them, the liberal arts did not provide enough security.

Like a dutiful daughter, Yagi put art aside and obtained obtained a Masters in Business Administration. For 27 years, she worked at major financial institutions.

Sandy Yagi. Lizardbrain #2 Oil on panel, 19.75 x 19.75, 2011

But she never forgot her early dreams of becoming an artist and never ceased to make art. As she rose in the corporate ladder, Yagi moved to LA and then, to SF which became her artistic home.

Leaving the corporate world in 2008, Yagi became a full time artist. She now works out of her studio in San Francisco's South Beach area.

http://www.moderneden.com/about.html

Children's Creativity Museum

2011-11-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes kids *do* have all the fun...more at:

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/children-s-creativity-museum

Anonymous Was A Woman 2011 awards

2011-11-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Anonymous Was A Woman announced the ten artists selected to receive the Foundation’s annual award. The “no strings” grant of $25,000 enables women, over 45 years of age and at a critical juncture in their lives or careers, to continue to grow and pursue their work.

Lauren Katzowitz Shenfield, director of the program, explained, “Anonymous Was A Woman Awards are synonymous with important recognition in artists’ personal and artistic development. The financial gift helps artists buy time, space, materials, and equipment, often at early stages of a new project, and, sometimes, recover from traumatic life events. In itself, the Award helps artists feel recognized and honored by other distinguished women who seek no credit for the role they play.”

Linda Besemer - Slabs and Sines - Galerie Jean Luc and Takako Richard - Paris - 5 September - 17 October 2009

Besemer produces abstract paintings without any kind of support for the paint. The largest of her current works are solid skins of acrylic paint up to two metres long by one metre wide and a centimetre thick. She hangs them in such a way that they drape and sag under their own weight. A series of smaller pieces she call ‘Slabs’, each about the size of a sheet of notebook paper, hang like more conventional pictures, but only because the body of paint, at about 25 cm, is all the more unconventionally thick. Their rubbery quality is particularly seductive, resembling the plastics used to shape the ergonomic grips of appliances. This association with touch is one of the ways Besemer makes her Formalism sensual. Academic arguments about the ‘object quality’ of painting get turned into a sneaky impulse to reach up and test the weight of one of these chunks of colour with your own hands. Of course, having that impulse forbidden only makes it all the more delicious

More at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/anonymous-was-a-woman-2011-awards

November is gender issues month in San Francisco?

2011-11-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

San Francisco must have declared November the month to deal with gender issues - Woodman and the "Air I breathe" at SFMOMA looking at gender, feminism and marriage equality. Jenkins' Johnson is showing Lalla Essaydi's photos of women covered with Arabic calligraphy, Sandy Yagi just opened at Moden Eden Gallery. SOMarts just opened "Man as object" - apparently it's full of NSFW videos.

I can hardly wait to write about each one. Forget about turkey. This is a lot more interesting

But first, off to vote.

Appeal for Ogatsu Inkstone Craftsmen

2011-11-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

I have bought supplies from John Neal for over 20 years so can vouch for his honesty; there are a lot of scams out there but this is not one of them.

From John Neal: The massive earthquake and tsunami which hit North East Japan on March 11th of this year devastated many coastal fishing towns. Ogatsu was one of them. Famous for its 600 year old history of handcrafted inkstones, the town was directly hit by the tsunami and suffered extensive damage. In addition to their homes, the craftspeople lost their livelihoods as their workshops, tools and equipment were also swept away. Two craftsmen of a total of 20 lost their lives; one was a master craftsman. There are 20 additional skilled artisans connected to the industry.

Craftsmen, local people and volunteers managed to rescue some of the Ogatsu stone and inkstones which were swept away. The inkstones are being restored and, as they become available, are being sold in one or two galleries in Kyoto and Tokyo. This month, the craftsmen are moving into a temporary communal workshop, but without the infrastructure for their craft, the way forward will not be easy. Before the tsunami Ogatsu produced 90% of Japanese inkstones, which were renowned for their quality and beauty. The industry will not be able to rebuild itself to such a level again without support from the general public, calligraphers and artists. (If you have purchased the Shakyo-Ken Inkstone with its small deep well, you have an Ogatsu inkstone:

http://www.johnnealbooks.com/prod_detail_list/s?keyword=IS19

At present the craftsmen are living in temporary accommodation. The local government is giving what aid it can to all those who have lost their homes and livelihoods, but resources are stretched thin.

John Neal is helping Christine Flint Sato collect donations. Ms Flint-Sato, who has contributed several articles to Letter Arts Review on Japanese ink sticks and brushes as well as calligraphy in Japan, will forward the donations to the head of the ink stone craftsmen's union. All amounts are welcome.

Please include your email address so the receipt of your donation can be acknowledged and a subsequent report on the effort can be sent. Please note that these donations are not tax deductible.

Those in the USA, Canada, and the UK should send checks in their own currency to John Neal, 1833 Spring Garden Street, First Floor, Greensboro, NC 27403. Make checks payable to JOHN NEAL and write "Inkstone Relief" elsewhere on the check. The "payable to" must have only JOHN NEAL.

Those in Japan please contact Christine Flint Sato on ogatsuinkstones@hotmail.com , and she will send you bank details for transferring money directly in Yen.

Volunteer work in Ogatsu: http://peaceboat.jp/relief/reports/ogatsu-stone/
Crafting Inkstone: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6pGdhQSPoYg

Woodman at SFMOMA

2011-11-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

I am not a huge photography fan but the show blew me away - very intense, very surrealistic, photos of secrets, an elusive dialogue with self.

Francesca Woodman was born in Denver, Colarado in1958 but lived most of her brief life in New York. Having taken her first photograph at thirteen, she committed suicide in 1981 at the age of twenty-two. However, in the few years before this she had created a powerful body of photographic work that continues to influence artists today.

Woodman’s small silver gelatin prints explore gender and self but are not portraits in the traditional sense. She photographed herself in empty, decaying interiors as a ghostly presence, half-revealed, half-concealed. There is the sense of danger lurking in these debris strewn rooms, family secrets that she will somehow channel, as a spiritualist medium claiming to channel the voices of the dead. She merges into the photo, using the body as both object and subject, both the focus of the voyeur's gaze and hiding from that gaze.

She is the voyeur, she is the disembodied viewer and yet, at the same time, the one who creates the object viewed. Self, not-self, objective, subjective, woman and artist, fetish props of clothing, exotic, erotic.

at SFMOMA..(image courtesy of SFMOMA)

http://www.sfmoma.org/

Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts at the Asian Art Museum

2011-11-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately we didn't get the Rolls Royce but we got a silver covered carriage.

While wandering through room after room full of over-the-top conspicuous consumption, I wondered about the mind set that allowed these men (mostly men) to spend so lavishly on themselves while millions outside the palace lived in misery. Suppose some of this money spent on jewelry and objects had been spent on schools, hospitals, scientific research - even roads, irrigation and agriculture? Their selfishness and greed condemned the majority of Indians to starvation and poverty and the parallels with our masters of the universe are sad and sobering.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/maharaja-the-splendor-of-india-s-royal-courts-at-the-asian-art-museum-review?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts at the Asian Art Museum

2011-10-31T20:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/maharaja-the-splendor-of-india-s-royal-courts-at-the-asian-art-museum-review

Titian’s sumptuous Danáe (1560s), painted for Philip II

2011-10-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/masters-of-venice-renaissance-painters-of-passion-and-power-at-the-deyoung

Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power at the de Young.

2011-10-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Giorgio da Castelfranco, called Giorgione. The Three Philosophers. ca. 1508-1509. Oil on canvas. Gemäldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

I still haven't finished the review for the show on the splendors of the royal courts of India but in the meantime, I got to preview this show which is stunning.

Frankly, while the Indian art dazzles, I didn't feel an emotional connection to all that flashy, ostentatious consumption. Their self-indulgent life style, financed on the backs of the oppressed Indian peasant, looks too much like today's Wall Street Masters of the Universe. Plus ca change, plus ca le meme chose.

I realize that Renaissance art was the conspicuous consumption of its day but somehow it doesn't annoy me the way all that bling at the Asian did. Nevertheless, the show at the Asian is superb and there is a lot to say about it but not right now.

The de Young Museum is hosting another not-to-be-missed show - a worldwide exclusive presentation of 50 paintings by sixteenth-century Venetian painters Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, Mantegna.

All on loan from the Gemäldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, this exhibit features outstanding examples of the work of these artists, the most celebrated holdings in the collections of the Gemäldegalerie.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/masters-of-venice-renaissance-painters-of-passion-and-power-at-the-deyoung

Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts.

2011-10-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

Baubles, bangles,
Hear how they jing, jing-a-ling-a,
Baubles, bangles,
Bright, shiny beads.
Sparkles, spangles,

The Asian Art Museum opened its doors to the dazzling world of India's legendary maharajas (Sanskrit word for "great kings") with the U.S. premiere of Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts.

The exhibition, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, presents nearly 200 important artworks from the glittering world of India's rulers over three centuries.

Maharaja is the first exhibition to comprehensively explore the world of the maharajas and their unique culture of artistic patronage. Maharaja is accompanied by an extensive schedule of public programming, including a film series featuring a guest appearance by esteemed producer James Ivory, live music and dance performances, artist demonstrations, multimedia and docent led tours, and more.

The show at the Asian is a dazzling display of conspicuous consumption. It should leave the thoughtful viewer with some serious questions - what is the role of religion in maintaining social order, how can a ruler justify living in such extreme luxury while the majority of his or her subjects live in abject poverty, what parallels are there between the conspicuous consumption of Indian royalty and our own society?
Full Review to come at the Examiner.com

What's next ?

2011-10-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

There have been so many fantastic shows in the last week that I can't decide which to write about - Maharaja, the arts of India or Pissarro's paintings. Then, next week, a show of Titian, Giorgione and other Venetian artists from their golden age will be opening. I'm looking at this banquet of art and just can't decide where to start.

Anybody have a preference?

Friday Night TV (aka, guilty pleasures). Ursula and Martine.

2011-10-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

TCM's line up tonight plays to all my guilty pleasures - cheesy movies about imaginary worlds, actors wearing few clothes and women slathered with copious amounts of blue eye shadow. In the 60's, I think that Hammer Horror cornered the market on blue eye shadow and pop-up bras.

I read "She" as an impressionable pre-teen and probably never recovered from it. From then on, I judged science fiction by the number of femme fatales with décolletage and draped gowns, handsome (but often clueless) male heroes and the occasional dinosaur thrown in for good measure. Although they conflicted with my increasing political consciousness, natives in loin cloths blandishing spears were a nice extra touch.

Tonight's TCM is a whole line of of kitschy goodness. First, there's She with the gorgeous, statuesque Ursula Andress in her prime playing the priestess/goddess of an ancient Roman kingdom, hidden somewhere in Africa (natch). Ursula wears gold lamé, the hero is blond and dumb and Christopher Lee plays the high priest, who pontificates lines like "Dare you disobey the orders of She who must be obeyed." (shades of Rumpole of the Bailey!)

Then, another rare jewel - Prehistoric Woman staring the unforgettable Martine Beswick, as Kari, a slave girl who has risen through absolute mercilessness to the strata of tribal leader ("Cruelty has made me cruel"). Meow...

Whether lounging on a day bed of cheetah skins or coiled to commit grievous bodily harm for the privilege of coupling with the only available male, Beswick stomps the terra, not so much stealing the film from her fellow actors as tearing it away to swallow whole. The script by Carreras (tendered under the pseudonym Henry Younger) posits an adolescent boy's dream getaway in a world ruled by women who gad about in low cut pelts and dance seductively when not trying to claw out one another's eyes.

The dialogue runs to purple but the narrative is offered with an undeniable sense of humor and fun, putting Prehistoric Women in the same camp as Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) and Queen of Outer Space (1958).

The Zap TV website is even more terse: Brunettes and their queen of the white rhinoceros capture a hunter and boss around blondes. As a former brunette (now graying) I can go for that.

In the sixties, after spectacular efforts such as The Brides of Dracula (1960) and The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) as well as other reworkings of classics like The Phantom of the Opera (1962) and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), Hammer actively pursued stories with women in the lead, a departure from practically the entire Hammer catalogue, going back even before Hammer horror to the earliest days of the studio's existence. The success of The Gorgon (1964), She (1965) and One Million Years B.C. (1966) proved that they were on the right track in expanding beyond gothic-inspired horror and, in 1967, they made the decision to go headfirst into a full-blown historical epic, The Viking Queen (1967).

It wasn't about Vikings, wasn't very historical and, sadly, wasn't very good. A Druid high priestess (do they ever have a peasant in these movies?) and a Roman centurion fall in love. Oh love, oh mores, oh really predictable. Well, maybe comparing her to cardboard is more accurate.

She says her lines dutifully and doesn't completely fudge every inflection (although she comes close) but, in the end, she's just not there.

The movie might have worked had the leading lady had any effect other than blah. Still, the location shooting in Ireland gave the film a beautiful look and the final scene is so bad that you have to watch it to believe it. '

If you want to stay up past midnight, the next deathless film is "The Wild Wild Planet" in which a space cowboy saves planetary leaders from an alien shrinker's army of inflatable females. OK. Er.. inflatable females sounds like something from the back (way back) pages of the National Enquirer or it's less-than-stellar imitations. I haven't seen it but I see that Franco Nero is listed in the cast. He played Lancelot in the 1960's Camelot along with Vanessa Redgrave who added him to her stable of lovers.

Add popcorn and/or some beer and it's a Friday night line up just made for fun.

information from the TCM and Hammer glamor website. website.

So NOW the world is supposed to end tomorrow?

2011-10-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

It seems Harold Camping is at it again. The world is supposed to end tomorrow... But I'm not ready! I have nothing to wear! Plus, I have two great art shows to view - Pissarro at the Legion and next week's treasures from the Hapsburg's at the de Young.

Pissarro's People at the Legion

2011-10-20T12:28:00.000-07:00


Self Portrait

“Pissarro’s People,” opening this weekend at the Legion of Honor, brings together more than 100 paintings, showing his humanistic viewpoint through portraits of his family and paintings of working class people and peasants of late 19th century France. Pissarro was the most modest, the most committed and the most politically radical of the impressionists and for us, the least known.

Apple Pickers

Those who believe impressionism viewed the world through misty idealistic glasses should ponder Pissarro's commitment to "our modern philosophy, which is absolutely social, antiauthoritarian and antimystical ... a robust art based on sensation,"- a philososphy he expressed in paint. He was a committed anarchist and believed that Impressionism was the natural way to present social progress, science and ethical behavior. He believed that natural vision was a primary value in art, achieved through a direct encounter with the "thing seen."

His paintings of the working class and peasantry of 19th century France were far from the usual contemporary genre scenes but portraits of those who he saw as active and individual forces in contemporary life. Ordinary people, rather than gods, goddess and mythological beings, were important subjects. His working men and women, albeit somewhat idealized, were were seen as harmonious with nature, productive, working, leading a fulfilling life, neither brutalized or sentimentalized.

Maid making cafe au lait.

As Robert Hughes wrote, "There has long been a tendency to repeat, without checking it against the pictures, Gauguin's irritable verdict that Pissarro was a good second-rater, "always wanting to be on top of the latest trend ... he's lost any kind of personality, and his work lacks unity." So although there has been no lack of Degas shows, Monet retrospectives, homages to Cézanne and museum tributes to Bazille or Caillebotte, Pissarro has remained less known—an irony, since, with his peculiar steadfastness and probity, he was the linchpin of the impressionist group."

More at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/pissarro-s-people-at-the-legion

all images courtesy of the FAMSF.

Maharaja, opening October 21st at the Asian.

2011-10-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

A little taste of "Maharaja," opening later this week at the Asian. Bill Wilson, a photographer for the Sentinel, was able to see the silver coach and has posted pictures and a video of the coach being installed.

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=164570

Richard Serra at SFMOMA

2011-10-17T00:08:00.000-07:00

After the 20th black on black painting the show became, dare I say it, boring? Would I be considered a philistine for saying so? Probably. One thing is for certain; if it weren't for Serra's international reputation, no museum would be showing all of these without some serious editing.

Naturally Kenneth Baker thinks the work is fabulous and those who don't "get it" are "dull." Naturally, I disagree and think the adulation is completely misplaced. Black is the only color in the show and you won't have to worry about processing the imagery because there is none.

LOVE this comment, Mike Strickland's reaction to the Baker article at SF Gate. I know Mike and he doesn't pull any punches: "How does one write a sentence like: "Serra found his feet as an artist at the post-minimalist moment when he and several other contemporaries were trying to make process as manifest as possible in the final form of a work." with a straight face?

The drawings are actually black "paintstick" on paper and linen and feel more like paintings than drawings. The sculptures are gargantuan, manly schtick and I'm still praising the twist of fate that kept one of his huge rusted metal sculptures from defacing the front of the Palace of the Legion of Honor where the natural views are beyond sublime."

Click on the link, earn the writer a penny: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/richard-serra-drawings-at-sfmoma

Upcoming - Houdini, Marahaja at the Asian, Richard Serra at SFMOMA

2011-10-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

As soon as I recover from Open Studios, I'll be back in action. Unfortunately, every Open Studio offers its challenges - mostly from one's fellow artists. As if the studio wasn't hot enough already, the potter decided (as always) to fire up the pottery kiln the day before the opening, thereby raising the already hot temperature another 10 degrees. Then, we had the "filmmaker" who cranked up his speakers and blasted the hallway with thudding noise. When we asked him to turn the sound down, we were told that he's already done a "sound check" and it's not a problem. We tell him that we, the artists next door, think it is a problem but nothing gets done. This is when I lament our lack of responsible leadership which emphasized consideration for our fellow studio members and regret, yet again, the loss of Elaine, the former studio manager.

Anybody know of a nice, quiet, well ventilated studio space for rent?

Opening Tonight!

2011-10-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

Nancy Ewart, Blue Landscape. Oil, 2011

689 Bryant St, #27, SF

Open Studios, 3rd Weekend

2011-10-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

Yellow Sea, Nancy Ewart, Oil on canvas. 2011

October 15 & 16, 689 Bryant St, #27
The studio is cooler inside so don't let the 87 degrees and rising weather put you off.

SF Open Studios, Weekend 3

2011-10-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

"Mermaids at the fountain." Nancy Ewart. Ink and watercolor on paper, 2011

I'm showing this weekend so I hope to see some of you there (Nancy Ewart, 689 Bryant St, #27). I'm having a half off price on lots of items so there will be bargains galore.

More images at my Flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49938734@N06/

689 Bryant St: The studios are easy to get to by walking, bicycling or by public transportation. All featured studios are close to the CalTrain station and only a few blocks from Market St. BART stations. Several MUNI bus routes run to the neighborhood including the 9, 10, 12, 15, 27, 30, 45, 47 and metro lines N and T.
Nearby street parking is available and on Saturday, you can ride the Art Bus:
October 15th, 12-5pm: Download the bus map here: http://www.somac-sf.org/free-open-studios-bus.html

Click at the link and earn me an extra penny:
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sf-open-studios-weekend-3

ART BUS for next weekend's SOMA arts event

2011-10-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

download the map here: http://www.somac-sf.org/free-open-studios-bus.html

Let us break bread together

2011-10-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

Bessie Smith could sing about how nobody could bake a jellyroll like her and the Newbeats liked their peanut butter, but for this sometimes Southern woman, there's nothing like cornbread (with or without the sexual innuendo).

Dancing with the devil 'round a fire
(mess your) mama bed for a little more magic
make you wanna run around naked
cause you know it looks good on you
but you ain't never had my corn bread
a little bit heaven and a little bit of uh huh
cut it down the middle open wide and jump right in (Dave Matthews Band).

Cornbread baked in my 100 year old cast iron skillet. The first cut...

Last Friday, I was a bit a loose ends because the traffic in the city was one huge mess due to Fleet Week and dozens of street closures. I didn't want to paint and I didn't want to write and I'm already exhausted by the work involved by my upcoming Open Studios(Oct 15-16th). More about that later....

I knew that I was going over to my dear friends Anna and Dave's on Saturday for a pot luck brunch where we would all sit around, discuss the issues of the day, share art and ideas. Plato has nothing on us for dissin' about the soul and the good life.

So, what better way to spend the day than in the kitchen? I had a marathon cooking day, making food for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Turkey in cream sauce and Buffalo chili for the carnivores and green beans with tomatoes, Lima bean casserole and carrot soup for the vegetarians. (Recipes on request).

Wedgewood Stove, circa 1947 or so.

But the hit of the day was my cornbread. I don't think that my recipe is anything special. You can find variations of it all over the internet. But I added a can of corn and I think that brought a touch of tenderness and sweetness to the bread. I also credit my old cast iron skillet with giving the bread the right kind of crust while baking the inside to the right consistency of tender crumby goodness.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and I'm glad to say that I didn't have any leftovers to take home.

I have had that skillet for almost 40 years. It belonged to my grandmother and I brought it down to San Francisco after her death. I remember her making cornbread in that skillet and spoon bread and hush puppies. She had a couple of other pans that I wish I'd taken from the old house, a special pan for corn pone and her old Dutch oven. But I have this and the cast iron stove top grill where she used to grill the salmon that my grandfather caught off the Oregon Coast or the Geoduck that we'd find, digging like crazy on the beach. I remember the clean tang of the salt air, the wind in the pines behind their house. I remember the smells of food, of love, of comfort and safety. My parental units were not the nicest in the world so I am glad that I have these wonderful memories.

Whenever I get out my old skillet, I remember my days of standing at my grandmother's elbow, taking in cooking wisdom and old Southern adages. Sunday dinner after church was best but she would tell me to get out of my "go-to-meetin' clothes" (good clothes) before I stepped foot in the kitchen. She could fuss at my grandfather, telling him that he was "slower than molasses." She could be cranky, opinionated and she was far from politically liberal, especially on issues of race. She said that I was as stubborn as a mule but I opined that it was something that I learned from her.

What act cements a relationship more, even now, even in our secular society, than sharing a good meal? It is how we understand that we are in this together: the sharing of food, of life. And so our religious traditions include that shared meal: whether in the form of the formalized Eucharist of Christianity, the offering to the Goddess at the turn of each season, the candy for Ganesha or other Hindu gods or the offerings of food, shared with friends.

We're seeking relationship, with the world, with our spiritual selves, with the circles of community widening out from ourselves. Let us break bread together and give thanks.

Cornbread
1/4 cup oil
2 cups ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups corn kernels, fresh, thawed, or drained

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 450°. Pour the vegetable oil into a seasoned skillet and place in the oven. Heat until the oil is very hot; remove the pan from the oven and pour off any excess oil. In a mixing bowl, sift together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the buttermilk, eggs, and butter, stirring until just mixed. Stir in corn kernels. Pour the batter into the hot skillet and return to the oven. Reduce the temperature to 400°. Bake until golden brown; a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean. Cool cornbread on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Invert cornbread onto a large plate and cut into wedges. Skillet cornbread recipe makes about 8 wedges.

Butter is not optional.

Saturday Grab Bag

2011-10-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

Christie's estimates that this Degas dancer will bring between 25 - 35 million at auction.

The Toledo Museum just purchased a new Frans Hals painting. Family Portrait in a Landscape (early 1620s) is a large work (60 x 64 ¾ inches/151 x 163.6 cm) that will take its place in the Great Gallery near Rubens’s The Crowning of St. Catherine and Guercino’s Lot and His Daughters, the Museum’s most recent Old Master acquisition, which came into the collection in 2009.

“This painting is a tremendous addition to our collection of European paintings,” said TMA Director Brian Kennedy. “It is one of only four known family portraits by Hals to have survived and is the earliest of the four. Its strong composition and the way Hals captures the personalities and personal interactions of the family members will delight our visitors.”

The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore) announces the launch of its redesigned works of art website with the removal of copyright restrictions on more than 10,000 online artwork images through a Creative Commons license. In addition to being able to download these images for free, the site introduces a new look and feel, and enhanced searching, tagging and community collections features. This kind of website revamp is something I wish our local museums would do The problems range from small images to very user-unfriendly search options.

http://thewalters.org/

Mesrop of Khizan Isfahan Armenian, Isfahan, Iran, Asia, 1615
Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf on glazed paper MS. LUDWIG II 7, fol. 193v

In the Beginning Was the Word: Medieval Gospel Illumination at the Getty

The word Gospel comes from the Old English word god-spell, meaning "good news." This was in turn a translation of the Greek word for this collection of texts: evangelion. With examples from Western Europe, Ethiopia, Byzantium, and Armenia, this exhibition traces the tradition of Gospel illumination in Christian art and worship.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/gospel_illuminations/

Steve Jobs.1955-2011. RIP.

2011-10-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

This evening, Apple announced that Steve Jobs, its legendary leader, has died. Watch his powerful talk “How to live before you die” — in which Jobs urges us to pursue our dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks, including death itself.

http://blog.ted.com/2011/10/05/remembering-steve-jobs/

I remember the first time I used a Mac after years of working on PC's. It was like going from a donkey cart to a Cadillac. Everything worked the way it was supposed to. All the programs interfaced together, cleanly and elegantly. I realized that Mac was a superior product when I moved from a Mac user environment to a department that used PC's.

The department that used Mac's had two tech guys to take care of over 500 doctors and personnel. They were busy but not overwhelmed. The department that used PC's had an IT staff of 10 for 150 doctors and their staff and they could not keep up with the computer breakdowns, the virii and the hackers. Any change in operating system was traumatic and forget about installing your own software.

The flow of innovative products has been amazing - computers that really were plug and play, all the versions of OS which did not crash and did what you bought them to do, the iPhone, the iPad, software that worked as soon as you installed it. Sometimes Apple was a bit behind the game, as in voice recognition software, but they were in front in so many other ways.

My biggest complaint is that they never imported my favorite city building games onto a Mac platform. As for the rest of the games - not interested, not my thing. I leave the big bangs and the imaginary violence to people like my immature upstairs neighbors.

RIP Steve - you made my life and that of millions of other computer geeks in hundreds of ways, how we work, how we play, how we communicate. Let's hope that Apple stays on the path you forged for it.

ps: Boing Boing has changed their web page to honor Jobs. Anybody who remembers their first Mac will remember that screen. I got a lump in my throat when I saw it; I remember naming my first Mac after a Goddess, a practice that I still follow. She was called Clio, followed by Artemis, Sophia, Minerva and Athena.

http://boingboing.net/

Jay DeFeo at Hosfelt Gallery

2011-10-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

In the first West Coast exhibition of Jay DeFeo's art in fifteen years, Hosfelt Gallery presents a focused investigation of some of the formal and metaphoric themes that run through various bodies of work made in the two decades between the completion of her legendary painting The Rose and her death in 1989. The exhibition includes approximately 40 works, including paintings, drawings and unique photographic-based works, many of which have never previously been exhibited.

Review at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/jay-defeo-at-hosfelt-gallery

From Dana Miller, Catalogue for the exhibition Jay DeFeo: No End : Works on Paper from the 1980s, Botanicals: Photographs from the 1970s, August-September 2006

"Jay DeFeo's first toy was a pencil, or so her mother was fond of telling people. As a young girl, DeFeo drew constantly, and the arrival of each new coloring book was a monumental event. While she was in elementary school, a neighbor gave her a "how-to-draw" book, and she spent hours practicing her favorite exercise, how to draw the perfect circle. As a mature artist, the circle, along with the triangle, the cross, the square, the spiral, and the oval, became the basis of her formal iconography."

Jay DeFeo” @ Hosfelt Gallery through October 22, 2011.
Learn more about Jay DeFeo.
All images: ©2011 The Jay DeFeo Trust/Artists Rights Society/ARS, New

Listeria, e-Coli contaminated meat and now Velveta? - oh joy!

2011-10-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

@ AP Wire Services

Fall has officially started and those of us who aren't vegetarians should be thinking about beef stew and other hearty cool weather dishes. But the bad news about contaminated foods just keeps on coming.

Those of us in the Bay Area should not be smug; if you shop at the big chain supermarkets, you are at risk of buying e-coli contaminated beef, pork containing foreign materials or cantaloupe infected with listeria. Californians love their salad. Well, read on down about the 2500 cartons of listeria contaminated lettuce from a California farm.

Even Velveeta cheese isn't safe!
http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/listeria-e-coli-and-food-contaminated-meats-oh-joy

Joan Brown at the San Jose Museum of Art

2011-10-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

The San Jose Museum of Art will explore the work of the pivotal Bay Area artist Joan Brown (1938-1990) in the exhibition This Kind of Bird Flies Backward: Paintings by Joan Brown, on view October 14, 2011-March 11, 2012. The exhibition, the first major survey of Brown's art in a decade, is the first to examine and stake a claim for her work in the context of the women's movement.

Girls in the surf, moon casting a shadow, 1962

The exhibition includes approximately 40 paintings (plus a select group of drawings and mixed-media works) on loan from public and private collections as well as from the artist's estate, including some never before seen by the public. The exhibition spans Brown's career from 1959 to 1984. Brown emerged as a successful artist just before the advent of 1960s feminism. Her pioneering use of domestic subjects, decorative motifs, and autobiographical imagery prefigures the new artistic territory championed by the women's art movement in the 1970s.

Self portrait with scarf, enamel on canvas, 1972

Brown experimented freely with a range of styles, and her art has been discussed in relationship to abstract expressionism, Bay Area figuration, and new image painting. Yet she consistently took everyday moments from her personal life as her artistic subject: her son, Noel, in front of the Christmas tree; her birthday celebrations; her routine swims in the San Francisco Bay; evenings at the opera with her husband.

Dancers in a city, #2, enamel and fabric on canvas, 1972

Born in San Francisco, Brown began her studies at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). She was influenced by her fellow artists Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, Frank Lobdell, and Nathan Olivera. Her success came early: she had her first New York show at Staempfli Gallery at the age of 22. That same year (1960), she was the youngest artist included in the pivotal exhibition Young America 1960 (Thirty American Painters Under Thirty-Six) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Brown's early work was characterized by thick paint and expressive texture, and was clearly influenced by abstract expressionism. By the 1970s, Brown's canvases were thinly painted, yet full of bold color and vibrant pattern.

The Journey #1, 1976

She moved away from her interest in traditional still-life elements toward an unrelenting examination of her own image and life. In 1976, following a divorce, Brown traveled to Europe: this trip inspired her "Journey" series, a deep personal reflection on relationships. (Brown's Journey #1, 1976, is in the collection of the San Jose Museum of Art and included in the exhibition). Brown's interest in spirituality and the new age movement grew throughout the 1980s. She died in 1990 in an accident while helping to install an obelisk for Sathya Sai Baba's Eternal Heritage Museum in Puttaparthi, India.

Opening October 14th through March 11, 2012

images courtesy San Jose Museum of Art

http://www.sjmusart.org/

The Asian responds to comments. The logo is dead. Long live the logo.

2011-09-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

New logo on the Asian Art Museum's web page.

Tim Hallman, Director of Communications & Business Development at the Asian Art Museum wrote to me and fellow blogger Mike of Civic Center blog fame regarding our critical posts about the Asian's new logo.

Hi Michael/Nancy,

....I need to clarify some misconceptions.

The project was a staff-led initiative. The board agreed that it was necessary, and helped fund the project. We weren’t “conned into it,” as an uninformed colleague may have suggested.

We invited more than 20 firms to respond to our RFP. Three of the top five who made the initial cut were from SF, including some big famous shops. We chose Wolff Olins because they had a wealth of experience in shepherding highly regarded art museums—including The Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the New Museum, and the Fine Arts Museums of SF, among others—through similar transformations. The project was comprehensive in scope—not just a logo--and included audience research, strategic analysis of our current offerings, and a review of the competitive landscape— plus some great creative thinking and design that we will use for years to come. Btw, we used their NY office, not London.

Also, sometimes good to go out of your comfort zone, and try working with folks with a different perspective than the neighbors. We hired WO because we knew they would challenge us--and vice versa.

But I can understand how you feel about the logo. I, frankly, disliked our previous logo. I found it to be a bit of a tired cliche with an overly East Asia feel to it. A stylish (though now dated) re-imagining of a scholar's seal (read 'elite') stamped at the bottom of a hanging scroll, completely ignoring the power and significance of other regions, cultures, and art forms that are represented in our collection. And I'm not the only one who felt that way.

Though the new logo itself may not appeal to everyone (it is just a logo, after all), it reflects a bold new perspective. You recognize the symbol, but you're looking at in a new way—this is what our curators try to do when presenting the collection. “You may think you know this, but look at it this way.” That's why Holland Cotter of the NY Times started his 2003 review of our new home with this line:

''ASIA'' doesn't exist; it never did. It's a fantasy, a fiction, one of those words the ancient Greeks put on their maps to indicate everything ''out there'' to the East. Nor is there such a thing as ''Asian art,'' though San Francisco has just opened a $160.5 million museum devoted to it.

I especially like the neutral nature of the new logo--it doesn't play favorites--no stereotypical leanings toward Buddhas, bamboo, dragons or geishas. I like the 3-D aspect to it--the left side faded into the back, the right side jutting forward--a bit like past and present converging. Must of all, we LOVE the fact that an upside down A is the mathematical symbol signifying "for all." We want to be for everyone. For all.

Choosing that logo was definitely not the safe choice. But that's the point. Time for us to a bit bolder.

What's more important than a logo, and most exciting, is our new vision and brand promise -- to spark connections across cultures and through time, igniting curiosity, conversation, and creativity. Engaging everyone is what it's all about, whether you're already an art lover, or new to the museum. We want to awaken and inspire. This is not a slogan or tag line--it's a guiding principle for our work.

The fact that the museum's staff, board, volunteers, supporters, and friends participated (as a member, you were invited to provide input through online surveys) in the very rigorous process in developing our promise convinces me that it was hardly a waste of time or energy. It was actually quite thrilling, and has given the institution a sharper focus--just what we needed to navigate these challenging times.

...
Tim Hallman
Director of Communications & Business Development

The SF Asian Museum unveils its new logo

2011-09-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

SF's Asian Art Museum launches a new logo to announce their "new" philosophy. Let's hope that it works better than the new signs. To this artist's eye, it's clumsy and ugly. Here's a case where the old adage, "if it aint' broke, don't fix it,' applies.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/sf-s-asian-art-museum-launches-a-new-brand

SF Mike has an even better review with pictures up at his blog. As he accurately points out, with all the incredible design talent in the Bay Area, why use a British firm - that's already made a hash of the logo for the upcoming Olympics.

Do read the comments; they are even more critical than mine.

http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/

MOCHA, Muddle, Machiavelli and Middle Eastern Politics

2011-09-26T17:40:00.001-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/mocha-muddle-machiavelli-and-middle-eastern-politics

The week to come

2011-09-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's going to be quite a week! Libra is supposed to be about balance, about beauty and sweetness but this new moon is going to be bombarded with hits from Uranus and Pluto. The sun is also going to be stressed by the square from Pluto, the god of the underworld, power struggles, manipulation and fear.

Oh joy.

I am struggling with a piece on the controversy over the "children's" art from Gaza, looking forward to an explanation as to why the Asian is changing its logo and previewing the show on Houdini. That's the week's symbols in a nutshell - power, manipulation, lies, changes and escape from the underworld. If anybody's reading, well, we are in for a rocky ride.

Autumn Day by Rilke (Trans Stephen Mitchell)

2011-09-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander along the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.

The Life and Times of Philip Dick

2011-09-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Ever since I first started reading science fiction, I've been fascinated by Philip Dick. At a time when a lot of science fiction has degenerated into mediocre swords-and sorcery or Tolkein wanna be's, Dick's writing still captured the zeitgeist of the 20th, now 21 century.

You won't find beautiful heroines in his books or space travel either. His "robots" in Blade Runner seem as human as the conflicted main protagonist. His main characters are ordinary people, caught up in a web they only dimly understand, where they are relentlessly lied too and manipulated.

"People cannot put their finger anymore on what is real and what is not real," observes Paul Verhoeven, the one-time Dutch mathematician who directed Total Recall. "What we find in Dick is an absence of truth and an ambiguous interpretation of reality. Dreams that turn out to be reality, reality that turns out to be a dream. This can only sell when people recognize it, and they can only recognize it when they see it in their own lives."

In a 1978 essay he wrote: "We live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups. I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudorealities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives. I distrust their power. It is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing."

Filmed in 1994 by the BBC, A Day in the Afterlife looks back at Dick’s short and often troubled life and his sprawling body of literary work – 44 novels and 121 short stories in total. The film runs 57 minutes and, if you’re interested, you can download three of his works from Open Culture's collection of Free Audio Books.

http://www.openculture.com/2011/03/the_life_times_of_philip_k_dick.html

At the De Young: Glenda Joyce Hape: Connections Through Fiber

2011-09-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

The de Young’s Artist-In-Residence Program returns after a short hiatus with Glenda Joyce Hape: Connections Through Fiber, October 5–30, 2011, in the Kimball Education Gallery. Hape, a Maori artist living and working in New Zealand, has had an interest in weaving for as long as she can remember. In recent years, she has enjoyed challenging technical boundaries and combining multimedia in her form making.

Hape’s strong passion draws attention to traditional and contemporary weaving techniques in the context of Maori costume, especially as it relates to kakahu (cloaks). Hape acknowledges her family, kinship group and community as strong informants in her thinking and inspiration for creating artwork. “My artwork speaks of and acknowledges the exquisite taonga (treasures) created by our tipuna (ancestors),” explains Hape. Read more at:

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/nancy-ewart

Ten mermaids and a raven

2011-09-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

I scanned in all the work that I created from that one day of sketching at Ghiradelli Square. Ten mermaids and one raven! Not a bad total for a day in the fresh air then, a couple of weeks working off those sketches.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49938734@N06/

Smithsonian Museum Day, Sat 9/24/2011

2011-09-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

Ji-Young Lee. Be Tinged, 2010 . Naturally dyed silk and silk yarn, traditional surrender technique, handstitching. Museum of Craft and Folk Art, SF
In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket...for free.

Check out the link for a list of Bay Area Museums offering free admission. The beauty of this offer is that it's nation wide so where ever you live, there's probably a museum participating in the program.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/smithsonian-museum-day-sat-9-24-2011?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Sunday at the Asian

2011-09-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to find the Asian almost empty yesterday but I was glad to have the museum almost all to myself. I ran into a charming couple from Canada with two delightful children who were awed by all the remaining decorations, dating from the time when the museum was a public library. I had a lot of fun showing them around and giving them my admittedly potted view of the history of the building. Lunch was a nice salad combined with some so-so samosas (the crust wasn't crisp enough for me.) The staff in the cafe were relaxed because there were only two customers, a gentleman who was engrossed in his book and me.

Then upstairs to see the new exhibits of Korean art. When I go to write my review, I'm giving this five stars - sensitive drawings on mulberry paper, 500 year old ceramics that look contemporary in their freshness and bold design, vases by a young Korean artist that seem to be made of ethereal glass but are make of soap! The whole exhibit is enchanting and I wandered from room to room, delighted by all that I saw.

Tom Otterness, who shot a dog for an art film in the 1970s, given a $750,000 grant by the SFAC

2011-09-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

When the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) sent out the press release for the artists chosen to decorate the Central Subway project, I filed it in my "ticker" file with a note to keep checking back.

I didn't give it much further thought except to note, with irritation, that some of the larger grants had not gone to local artists.

Like many San Franciscans, I was dubious about the value of the subway project. The price tag of $8 million and rising was high to begin with and a few extra million to various artists didn't seem more than a drop in the bucket of political patronage.

The name "Tom Otterness" didn't ring a bell.

Read more:
http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/dog-murdering-artist-gets-750-000-grant-from-sfac

Mermaid

2011-09-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

Off to see another opening - this one of Korean ceramics which I love. Last week I saw some "new" ceramics at SFMOMA which I thought were grotesque lumps of nothing. I could not think of anything positive to say about them --- so I didn't. But the Asian is reopening the Korean wing with new ceramics and new art by Korean artists which I know I will enjoy, having had a sneak peak at it earlier this week.

I am struggling with the second of the "Blue Serenity" paintings but it's not exciting me. I think the piece is too boring and blah and I don't know what to do. Maybe I will give up on the idea of having it as a duo and just start over with something else.

But in the meantime I took out one of my sketches from the Ruth Asawa Fountain in Ghiradelli Square and dashed off a quick piece with Walnut ink highlighted by Sumi ink. I really like the freshness and looseness of it. I didn't even clean up the edges because that's part of the charm for me.

Brighten up your day - think tomatoes.

2011-09-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

Bet you thought I was going to say "think about sex" but this blog is PC 13. You say tOmAto, I say toMAto. but however you say it, it is September bounty season for the Bay Area

Two new articles up about tomatoes - one on the Heirloom Fair in San Mateo and today's is on my Middle Eastern inspired tomato salad with pita chips

http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/tomato-salad
and
http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/national-heirloom-expo-at-the-sonoma-country-fairgrounds

Art walkabout...

2011-09-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

Do you know the way to San Jose? And Ft. Mason? And downtown San Francisco? The fall arts season has opened with a grand slam so get your art walking shoes on.

Untitled. Ed Handelman at Nieto Fine Arts (Downtown San Francisco).

More art events at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/bill-owens-at-sjma-wilcoxon-and-crippens-at-ft-mason-ed-handelman-at-nieto

9.11.11

2011-09-11T14:23:00.001-07:00

There are numerous discussions on face book today about the events of 9.11. One of the commentators was struck by Bernie's powerful work and put this quote up by Lao Tsu.
"To rejoice over a victory is to rejoice over the slaughter of men... even a victory is a funeral."

Remembering 9.11

2011-09-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

9/11/2011. The Day. Bern Rauch. acrylic on canvas, 9x8'. At Driftwood salon.

I was sound asleep when one of my friends called me with the news. She was an early riser and told me to turn on the TV. I could not believe what I was seeing and it took quite a long time for what was happening to really sink in.

I was so touched by the world wide outpouring of support and grief. For once in my life, I felt unabashedly patriotic. I watched the ceremony in Washington DC to honor the fallen and cried Kathleen Battle sang so powerfully.

Then came the rest - restrictions on our civil liberties, a bombastic jingoism, a hijacked election, a right wing Supreme Court, endless war, endless death. How many have died since 9.11? I can't even begin to count.

I hate the meaningless rhetoric wrapped around the American flag. I refuse to accept that it's been the "worse catastrophe" since ever and I know too much to believe the fraudulent claim that nobody has suffered like we have. We didn't even attack the right country when we invaded Iraq for the majority of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia!

But if Bin Laiden and his followers wanted to destroy America, I think they have succeeded in ways that they may have never predicted. We have a debt that will probably destroy the country, unless we can reverse the tax breaks given to the most wealthy. The right wing and the mega-rich have a death grip on our economy, seeming not to care if the majority of people fall into an abyss little better than medieval serfdom.

We have lost thousands of our young and killed more than thousands of people in countries that we knew little about before 9.11 and probably still know little about. Our political discourse has become toxic. The middle class that supported our democracy is under attack - not from outside terrorists but from an equally ruthless right wing plutocracy.

I love my country. I want her back.

There are a few artists and a few events that approach this anniversary with sensitivity and political acumen - locally Driftwood Gallery is featuring the work of Bern Rauch (my friend Bernie from Project Artaud) whose paintings are a powerful look at 9.11. Ben Wood will be showing a new video at an interfaith service, the Cartoon Museum is sponsoring an on line exhibit and SFMOMA is offering free admission to active duty police, firefighters and first responders (and their families) this Sunday, September 11.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/commemorating-sept-11th-driftwood-gallery-ben-wood-cartoon-museum

The Getty acquires the Abby Bible, a 13th century Italian masterpiece

2011-09-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

The Getty Museum has just added to their already superb collection by the acquisition of the Abbey Bible, an Italian illuminated manuscript that exemplifies the highest achievements of the Gothic era. The Bible is named for a previous owner, who was a celebrated collector of Italian manuscripts.

Produced for the use of a Dominican monastery, the Abbey Bible is one of the earliest and finest in a distinguished group of north Italian Bibles from the second half of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, most of which have come to be associated with Bologna, one of the major centers for the production of Gothic illuminated Bibles.

More at (plus more images); http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/the-getty-acquires-the-abby-bible-a-13th-century-masterpiece

Bay Area Fall Arts Preview

2011-09-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

Maharajah: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts: A panorama from London's Victoria and Albert Museum of artifacts representing three centuries of royal and colonial rule in India. Oct. 21-April 8. Asian Art Museum,

Mark your calendars for we are in for a glorious fall. You will be able to travel the world without leaving the Bay Area - Dada, Houdini, Maharajahs and masterworks collected by the Hapsburg Dynasty - including Titian, Mantegna and Giorgione.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/fall-arts-preview

Labor Day, Part II: 1860 fight for a 10-hour day

2011-09-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

An important reminder of who Labor Day is supposed to be for and about - from the City of San Francisco museum, a look at an 1860 labor fight for a 10 hour day. It makes me angrier than I can say that we seem to be going backwards and in danger of losing what generations of workers fought for.

"The first concerted drive by labor in San Francisco was for a shorter work day. In 1860 the work day was usually 12 hours. Laborers struck for a 10-hour day. They were working from 6 a. m. to 6 p. m. spreading sand dumped at the foot of California street by the cars from David Hewes’ steam paddy.

According to The Bulletin the laborers “argued that 10 hours a day is enough for any man to sweat.” The men who left the job were paid off." more at...

San Francisco Sentinel

Labor Day

2011-09-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Around the World Quilt" Oil on canvas. 20" x 24" Artist: Sherry Miller

If you can make it to the East Bay, my friend Sherry Miller and other Sausalito artists are showing their art at: SAUSALITO ARTISTS @ WORK

Twenty-five artists actually working in their studios making and displaying paintings.
Family, senior and handicap friendly. Special lectures on collecting and encaustics.
Gallery show.

Industrial Center Building. 480 Gate Five Road at Harbor Drive, Sausalito, CA 94965Labor Day Weekend. September 3, 4 and 5
11-6 all three days. http://sausalitoartists.com

The de Young will be open on Labor Day even though it’s normally closed on Mondays. The Picasso exhibit will be closing soon. If you don't care for Picasso, there are two superb exhibits to catch - kilms (rugs) from Turkey and an exhibit of works on paper/

SFMOMA is also open today and even if you can't get in to see "The Steins Collect," there's plenty of art on view on the other floors. Local artists Andrew Schoultz does an artistic riff in response to Klee.The design wing of the museum features the work of Dieter Rams, whose design philosophy of "less is more" has been enormously influential

For more than 40 years, Rams was the lead designer for the German household appliance company Braun. He has also been the active designer for German furniture company Vitsœ since his start there in 1959. This exhibition includes more than 200 models and objects by Rams and his team, as well as contemporary designs inﬂuenced by his Ten Principles of Good Design, such as Apple computers.
Ten principles of good design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams

http://www.sfmoma.org

Copyright infringement and a death in the family

2011-09-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Now, how is that for combining disparate items in a headline?

I thought I was too far under the radar for this to happen but apparently not.

I was shocked to find this website where the owner has posted parts - or all - of my Examiner.com articles but with no links back to the Examiner or any of my websites. The links in the articles go back to Asian Arts so I'm being cheated out of even more of my small earnings.

They even have an RSS feed but no way, that I can find, to contact the owner. There are a lot of ads on the site so somebody is making some money. I've already posted this up on FB and on a number of sites where I am active, asking if there is anything we can do. Useful suggestions are welcome!
http://www.aggieasianarts.com/

Otherwise, it's a cool day here and I'm recovering from the funeral yesterday of my cousin. Her death was unexpected (age 55) and the family is still in shock. The memorial service was quite moving as she was very much loved. There was a fantastic feast back at the family home but it was hot and I was ready to go home by 2 PM. Actually, I was ready to go right after the service with mutual friends who lived in SF, but didn't want to appear rude by leaving too soon.

An elderly couple, friends of the family, agreed to drive me back to BART as it was on their way home. Unfortunately, the male of the couple was in no hurry; Senior Slowpoke took his time, eating a plate of food in the slowest fashion possible while peppering me with rude-disguised as humorous comments.

I have never seen anybody eat a small bunch of grapes so slowly! I must have showed my fatigue and impatience because he snipped at me about "being in a hurry." I kept explaining that I knew there was a ball game on and I wanted to miss the crowds.

Unfortunately, I didn't. There's a hot of hostility there and I was sorry to be the target of it. Even his adult sons were urging him to hurry up but to no avail.

By the time they managed to make their way to the BART station, getting lost on the way, the trains were so crowded that I had to stand until a very nice lady gave me a seat. I was so glad to sit, having been up since 6:30 AM to get over to Lafayette in time to help decorate the church with pictures and mementos of Janet (my cousin) that I had put together for the family.

Naturally, several people were already drunk and there were a number of kids who were noisy and excited to be going to the game. The train was hot and it seemed to take forever to get back to SF.

I kept my cool, realizing that you can't blame kids for being kids but really annoyed at Senior slow poke who took a nasty delight in causing me (a complete stranger) a lot of hassle and inconvenience.

So, today I'm wiped but recovering. The boys from upstairs seem to be away for the weekend so I was able to get a full night's sleep. I am heading over to the Civic Center Farmer's Market and the library and will probably treat myself to lunch. It's good to be home.

Blue Landscape #1

2011-09-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

I'm gearing up for Open Studios, finishing a half dozen pieces in my studio, getting my water colors matted and shrink wrapped and - finally - getting some of my better pieces professionally photographed. This little canvas is 20 x 20 and I'm pleased with the results. I don't quite know where the peace in this painting came from but I'm happy that it's there. It's a sweet little piece and I am hoping that it will sell.

Carnation Mush

2011-08-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

A bit of SF history was revealed when the building next to this one got torn down. Now, does anybody know more about "Carnation Mush?"

I have walked by the building that covered this sign for almost every day of the forty years I've lived in the neighborhood and never gave it much thought. But I was walking by a slice of SF history.

Judging by the age of the other buildings on this stretch of Market St., between Van Ness and Valencia, it was probably built between 1907-1910. Even before the big one in 1906, SF had suffered many major fires and I'm guessing that this was part of the rebuild after the 1906 earthquake. I don't think it would possibly predate 1906 as all this part of the city was reduced to rubble. When I have time, I'm going to the archives at the Main library and see what I can find out.

Until it was closed, it was an antique store of sorts. For years, on my way to and fro, I would see an elderly man sitting in the doorway, accompanied by his cat and sometimes I would stop and chat. But in those days, I was too young to appreciate the value of local and oral history - so I never asked him any questions. I wish I had because I am sure there is a story behind those dusty bricks.

Given that I haunted antique stores and was always looking for some little treasure of books or furniture, art or jewelry. I must have thought that there was nothing there worth buying - assuming you could find anything in the first place.

The room beyond was in darkness but I could see huge wooded crates piled up as high as the rafters with an occasional chair or chest of drawers pushed up against the wall. The place was dusty and in disarray and showed no apparent signs of organization. I never saw anybody go in and I imagine that it would have been impossible to buy anything.

I don't know when the elderly man left but the building has been boarded up for at least two decades. There were huge gaps in the boards and I am sure that many generations of pigeons roosted in the place. The local homeless were squatting inside for a while until the lower floors were boarded up with steel panels to keep them out.

According to the neighbors, the state had to search forever to find a surviving relative. Apparently they finally did find one who gave permission for the place to be torn down.

Pam (of Zommie Station) and I found the same information about Carnation but nothing more specific about mush:

"Cereal Mills were close relatives to flour mills and most familiar to our area was the Albers Bros. Milling Company. Albers began in Portland and moved north to Tacoma and Seattle. It was purchased by the Carnation Milk Company of Seattle when Carnation was unsuccessful in stopping Albers from using the trade name "Carnation Mush." Albers was able to keep its local mills going right into the 1960s and 1970s by concentrating on pet and animal foods. Today, owned by the Nestle Corporation, they are still in the animal food and cornmeal business but do not have a mill in Washington."

I wonder if what they were referring to as "Carnation mush" was what we now call cornmeal mush or hasty pudding? It was certainly a stand by in my family kitchen, an inexpensive and quick meal. Corn, water or milk and salt was mixed into a thick tasty pudding that you could serve plain or top with maple syrup or brown sugar.

Bombay Bazaar Reopens

2011-08-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/bombay-bazaar-reopens

Four Saints in Three Acts - no pigeons, no grass and that's a fact!

2011-08-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

“Gertrude was wonderful to set to music because there was no temptation to illustrate the words,” Thomson, an American composer who was an expat in Paris along with Stein in the 1920s, once remarked of his chief collaborator. “For the most part you didn't know what it meant anyway, so you couldn't make it like birdie babbling by a brook or heavy, heavy hangs my heart.”

I'm not a music critic nor do I pretend to be but I confess that I was mostly underwhelmed.

Since the libretto was by Gertrude Stein, I didn't expect logic. In fact, one of Gertrude's charms is her lack of formal logic but one of her charms is the rhythm of her prose. Alas, for the most part, both rhythm and diction were lost in this production.

YBCA divided the presentation into two uneven acts, padded by (IMHO) a mumbling, boring, dreary prelude by Italian composer Luciano Chessa (who teaches at the SF Conservatory). The curtain opened on a black stage, with a chorus of singers dressed as monks in black who proceeded to chant in unintelligible whispers for what seemed an eternity. Even the presence of a supposed notable multi-media performance artist (Kalup Linzy) didn't enliven the gloom.

His facial features don't improve when blown up 40 feet on a back screen projection and the slow motion clouds were lovely but quickly got tedious. My favorite part of that part of the production was when the shinny floor covering slithered down off the stage across the front of the proscenium.

If nothing else, that proves that YBCA has a state-of-the-art theater mechanics.

The "Gertrude" part of the production was much more lively and interesting, although still marred by sloppy diction. The only exception was Eugene Brancoveanu (Saint Ignatius) whose "solo" of "Pigeons in the grass, alas" was the best part of the show as was his warm, thrilling baritone. Compère (John Bischoff) and Commère (Wendy Hillhouse) act as the Masters of Ceremonies had good comic timing and Ms Hillhouse, in particular, belted out her arias with feeling.

Nicole Paiement conducted with passion and the orchestra was flawless. Some of the stage business was funny - the tango segment was genuinely witty. But why clothe St. Ignatius in red and turn him into a surgeon and then, some sort of torture victim? Mr. Brancoveanu has a physique that can wear red but why mess with the original staging?

We had St. Therea wheeled around the stage in an open-four poster bed, St. Ignatius playing a surgeon and later, a torture victim. The ending, with St. Ignatius strapped to a torture chair, wrapped with cables while miming electric shock was not funny -

and that's a fact.

Mike Strickland (one of the bad cops in black in the production): http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2011/08/critics-on-grass-alas.html

Josh Korman's review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/22/DDVH1KQBRK.DTL#ixzz1VoVOoCdS

Most astute and thorough commentary (found via SF Mike)
Patrick Vaz: The idea of continuing the avant-garde performance tradition association with 4 Saints is not in itself a bad one, but they would have been better off leaving 4 Saints alone..(read the whole thing as it's fantastic).
http://reverberatehills.blogspot.com/

Films at the Asian, zines in Golden Gate Park and a new window for YBCA

2011-08-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy week at Chez NamasteNancy with some very bad family news. So, I'm a bit late in getting the word out about Tuesday's film at the Asian. If you live in the Bay Area and can make it, "Talking to the spirits" looks to be fascinating.

Michael Wiese, director of "Talking to the spirits." His publishing company, MWP, founded in 1981, has become the leading independent publisher of books on screenwriting and film making, with a current line of more than 130 titles.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/films-at-the-asian-zines-golden-gate-park-and-a-new-window-for-ybca?CID=examiner_alerts_article

photo courtesy Divine Arts Media

The Mourners. Tomb sculptures of the Dukes of Burgundy

2011-08-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

A group of nearly 40 of the greatest masterpieces of medieval sculpture have been making a pilgrimage across the United States.

Carved by Jean de La Huerta and Antoine Le Moiturier between 1443 and 1470, the unique devotional figures, known as “mourners,” were commissioned for the elaborate Gothic tomb of the second Duke of Burgundy. Crafted with astonishing detail, the alabaster sculptures exemplify some of the most important artistic innovations of the late Middle Ages. They were meant evoke the funeral processions of the dukes, events that brought together various elements of Burgundian society: nobility, clergy, and upper class lay persons. Their rotund alabaster simplicity was a moving contrast to the ornate tomb architecture. Originally placed in arches beneath the main body of the tombs, they can only now - and only for a short time - be seen in the round.

John the Fearless and mourner

During the French Revolution the tombs were moved and damaged, but by the early 19th century they had been reassembled and installed in Dijon's Musée des Beaux Arts.

Philip the Bold and mourner

As the French museum at Dijon is currently undergoing restoration, it was decided that the sorrowing group would be liberated from the duke's tomb and sent on a pilgrimage around the United States. San Francisco is the last stop on the eight-city tour, and anyone who cares about the art of sculpture should pay them a visit, for each is a small masterpiece, prefiguring the Renaissance in their eloquent simplicity.

The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy represents the only time that these figures will be seen together outside of France and provides an unprecedented opportunity to appreciate each sculpture as an individual work of art.

For most of the 14th century, Burgundy was the wealthiest kingdom in Europe and the dukes of Burgundy the most powerful princes in the Western world. Their wealth derived from the merchant classes of Lyon, Bruges and Ghent and their capitalistic acumen, rather than the traditional medieval reliance on farming. The dukes' revenues outstripped those of the French kings (their close cousins and political rivals).

Ruling from their capital at Dijon, the Dukes of Burgundy were enthusiastic patrons of the arts. Among their most memorable commissions were elaborate above-ground tombs, which combine recumbent effigies of the dead surrounded by a series of mourning figures, represented a cross-section of both clergy and ordinary, but upper class, people.

The tomb of Philip the Bold (reigned 1363-1404), designed by the great sculptor Claus Sluter and others in the early 15th century, provided the model for this type of monument. Sluter is best known for his Moses Well, still at the Carthusian Order's Charterhouse of Champmol in Dijon. (An order of hermits, the Carthusians were founded in the early 11th century by St. Bruno and may today be best known for the liqueur Chartreuse, produced under their supervision.)

The sculptures are small but convey powerful emotion. Their heavy draped garments envelop their bodies, yet each simple swelling form conveys a sense of the individual as well as a sophisticated knowledge of human anatomy. Originally carved for placement in niches surrounding the lower tier of the tomb, it is clear that the sculptors did not stint in detail. Back as well as front is completely carved. The faces are almost all covered with overhand cowls or folds of cloth. Yet each conveys individuality with careful touches of pose and gesture and even accessories.

The artists’ attention to detail extends to specifics of clothing, belts, buttons, purses, decorative borders and even seams in the cloth. A couple of figures hold finely carved rosary beads, and one Carthusian monk is shown actually reading from his open book. Virtually all the faces, other than those that are covered, are demonstrating their deep grief; some are totally self-involved, while others look out at you for some sign of comfort.

In his famous chronicle, “The Waning of the Middle Ages,” Johan Huizinga called the “the most profound expression of mourning known in art, a funeral march in stone.” If he was exaggerating, it was not by much. We know nothing of John the Fearless yet the mourners transcends their original task to glorify princely splendor and reminds us that grief at loss is timeless and universal.

The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures From the Court of Burgundy” was organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon under the aegis of Frame (French Regional and American Museum Exchange). (Besides the 37 mourners centrally presented, three more that were separated from the group long ago and are now owned by different museums are also on view in a separate vitrine. One last stray has yet to be found.)

Website where you can see the images in the round:
http://www.themourners.org/

Opens at the Legion on Saturday.

Weekend Picks for SF and the Bay Area

2011-08-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

There is no singing the summertime blues around Chez Nancy. Well, I will make an exception for the days when my clueless upstairs clods keep me awake past 3 AM with their clomping and stomping. But I just get myself out the door anyway and enjoy the cultural riches that abound - while plotting revenge.

I realized that if I listed everything - like the Schwitters' show and the two Stein shows and what's up and coming at the Legion and the two new shows at the De Young, I'd run out of space and try your patience. So, I'm just going to limit this to two ..or three...or four.. or...

Tiger barong (barong macan), approx. 1900–1930 (top). Mas, Gianyar. Wood, pigments. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, the Netherlands, 2407-51

At the Asian Art Museum: Bali closes on Sept. 11, so beat the crowds and catch some stellar programs while you can. Living legend I Wayan Wija -- one of the world's best shadow puppeteers -- performs this Thursday at MATCHA for just $10, again on Aug.25 with a different presentation, and demonstrates Aug. 17-28. Watch a screening of Talking with Spirits on Aug. 23 followed by a filmmaker Q&A, and a shadow puppet making demonstration Aug. 31-Sept. 11.

I thought this was one of the most vibrant, exciting shows that I'd seen in ages and gave it 5 stars: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/bali-art-ritual-performance-at-the-asian-art-museum-review.
The Asian is offering a reduced admission fee (code is BALI5)
http://www.museumtix.com/ticket/ord_eventdate.aspx?vid=822&pid=6512949&evd=8%2F16%2F2011&pvt=aam

Why did Gertrude Stein and I decide to write an opera about saints? Simply because we viewed a saint’s life as related to our own. In all times the consecrated artist has tended to live surrounded by younger artists and to guide them into the ways of spontaneity. And thus to characterize one’s gift is indeed to invite “inspiration” and just possibly, through art, make “miracles.” — Virgil Thomson

At Yerba Buena: Three Saints in Four Acts
One of the most important alliances in the history of American opera began in Paris in 1927 when the young, little-known composer Virgil Thomson invited fellow expatriate artist Gertrude Stein to write a libretto he could set to music. In 1934, back in the United States, the curtains finally rose on Four Saints in Three Acts, an experimental milestone in 20th-century music as well as a Broadway hit in its day. Considered radical for its convention-defying format, Four Saints remains a cornerstone of avant-garde theater—one that brought the zeitgeist of bohemian Paris to America and helped usher modernism into mainstream culture.

I have tickets for Sunday's matinee and I can hardly wait!

Review by Janos Greben at the SF Examiner:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2011/08/saints-alive-experimental-opera-revived

An inside look by local blogger, Mike of Civic Center fame who is one of the supernumeraries in the show: http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2011/08/summer-of-gertrude-stein-4-rehearsing.html
www.ybca.org

Warren Gee. @artist/Creativity Explored

At Creativity Explored: Structure, a new exhibition at Creativity Explored Gallery, represents all of these variations on a theme — illustrating how one concept can relate to nature, science, geography, architecture, music, language, and much more. Opening Reception: Thursday, August 18, 2011, 7:00 pm to 9:00 PM. 3245 16th St, San Francisco. http://www.creativityexplored.org/

The San Jose Museum of Art’s popular series “DIY Art” continues on Saturday, August 20, from 1 to 3 p.m., with a session on “Drawing Comic Books.” Visitors of all ages will learn the fundamentals of creating comic books, from storyboarding and writing to layout and draftsmanship. Richard Becker, author and illustration of the book "How to Draw the Marvel Heroes," will instruct. Comic book costumes are welcome. The program is free with Museum admission of $8 ($5 for students, seniors, and youth ages 7-18; free to members and children under 6).
www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

The Oakland Museum continues to honor John Muir's legacy by preserving a unique collection of butterflies:
http://museumca.org/blog/restoring-omcas-butterfly-collection

At the Exploratorium: Girls Science Institute
This four-day workshop for girls ages 10-12 will cover Newton’s Laws, forces and motion, and engineering through exploration of the lives of women who impacted the field, hands-on activities, and creative expression. $240 members/ $275 nonmembers. For questions please call 415-561-0376.
3601 Lyon Street. San Francisco, CA 94123

Mermaid Fountain at Ghiradelli Square

2011-08-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Fountain by Ruth Asawa, watercolor by Nancy Ewart.

70 Years of Archie Comics and the Green Lantern at the Cartoon Art Museum

2011-08-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Even though this cartoon strip came after the original creator served in WW II, it's still so very innocent and naive. Reality never intrudes in Archie's world. He may be seventy but he's still got all his hair, his freckles and hasn't gained an ounce of weight. Furthermore, he's still dithering between Betty and Veronica.

The Archie stamp features Archie sharing a chocolate shake with brunette Veronica Lodge on his right and blonde Betty Cooper on his left. Offering an idealized portrait of American adolescence, Archie existed only in comic-book form before debuting in newspapers in 1946. A typical small-town teenager with a knack for goofing things up, 17-year-old Archie Andrews is often torn between haughty Veronica and sweet Betty.

Read more at: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/70-years-of-archie-comics-and-the-green-lantern-at-the-cartoon-art-museum

Michael McMillen: Train of Thought' at the OMCA

2011-08-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

I liked the show a lot better than I thought I would; usually conceptual and installation art leaves me cold but this was interesting, thoughtful, quirky and edgy with a high level of craftsmanship and a mordant sense of humor.

Michael C. McMillen: "Train of Thought," the current exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is a retrospective look at the career of Michael C. McMillen, an internationally renowned Southern California-based mixed-media artist. The exhibition features large-scale multisensory installations, assemblages, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and films that invite viewers into McMillen's imaginary world. Read more at:

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/michael-c-mcmillen-train-of-thought-at-the-oakland-museum-of-california

(really infuriating that the Examiner template cuts off the top and bottom of almost all images)

Some rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen

2011-08-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

Woody Guthrie

Studying with Hans Hoffman

2011-08-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

“Hofmann's ability to handle paint, to fuse the action of painting and drawing into a single, immediate gesture, carried colored pigment into the viewer's presence with the force of a bomb. . . . Hofmann's genius lay in his ability to expand our dimensional experience of the pictorial surface.”—Frank Stella, 1999

Going back in time to study with one of the most influential teachers of modern art would require a time machine and I am afraid that we haven't built one yet. But the next best thing is right here in the Bay Area. UC Berkeley has a huge collection of Hoffman paintings and almost always has one gallery exhibiting work.
After all, the Berkeley Art Museum was founded in 1963 by following the donation to the university of forty-five paintings and $250,000 from artist and teacher Hans Hofmann. Their on-line data base also has a large number of Hoffman images; the archive is not very searchable but the images are fairly large and the captions are comprehensive.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/studying-with-hans-hoffman-resources-at-the-berkeley-art-museum#ixzz1USVR6mUh

"In preparation for "The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America’s Oldest Continuous Art Colony 1899-2011" The New Britain Museum compiled a link list of online interactives and research materials. If you've ever wondered what it was like to take classes with legendary art teacher Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, check out this video which was included on their list. I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibition, which focuses on Provincetown's legacy as an art colony and includes over 100 artists from Charles W. Hawthorne's founding of the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899 to the present day. Apparently it's the most comprehensive survey of the art colony completed in over 40 years. I'll put up a list of participating artists shortly."

http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/2011/08/video-studying-with-hans-hofmann-in.html

Reviewed in The Boston Globe.

"The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America's Oldest Continuous Art Colony 1899-2011," The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT. Through Oct. 16, 2011."

Now, I have to confess that I was not that impressed by the last show at the BAM (2008?). The "push pull" theory usually means a square is plopped down in the middle of loose, abstract brushwork. It was probably revolutionary for the time and he was certainly an influential teacher but I wish I liked his work better. However, they are colorful enough to stand up to the dead gray color of the museum's walls and powerful enough to counteract that echoing space in the middle of the building. Maybe it's time for another retrospective - as if the overworked staff at the BAM doesn't have enough to do! Sometimes I wonder what pieces I would chose if I were to put up a show from the permanent collection - it's probably a good thing that I won't ever get the chance.

Games, videos and other resources:
http://nbmaa.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/interactive-resources-for-the-provincetown-fan/#more-229
http://www.hanshofmann.net/
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/hofmann2008
images from the Berkeley Art Museum archive.

Battle over the Barnes heats up again..

2011-08-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

With its new building scheduled to open in Philadelphia next spring, the Barnes Foundation has met another challenge to its impending move from suburban Lower Merion, Penn. On Monday, Montgomery County Orphans' Court Judge Stanley Ott presided over a hearing requested by a citizens group that argued he didn't have all the evidence when he approved the museum's relocation of its multibillion-dollar art collection in 2004.

The Friends of the Barnes Foundation said Ott was misled by the actions of the attorney general's office, which has oversight over charitable trusts and had "failed to serve as a neutral party." The "Friends" group is still trying to keep the collection intact and unmoved, according to the will of museum founder Dr. Albert Barnes, who died in 1951.

Ott had determined years ago that the citizens group has no legal standing in the case, according to the Barnes Foundation attorney. (The ongoing struggle over the renowned collection of Impressionist to modern art masterpieces was well-documented in the 2009 film, "The Art of the Steal.")

The foundation closed the doors to its neo-classical house museum in June.

The Barnes' move into Philadelphia is seen by some as a boon to the city's expanding "Museum Mile" of cultural attractions that will aid in the maintenance and accessibility of the collection. Pew Charitable Trusts, The Lenfest Foundation and The Annenberg Foundation offered $150 million for the Barnes to build a new gallery and an endowment when the relocation to Philadelphia was approved.

A ruling is expected in about one month.