Revisiting SFMOMA During Pandemic and David Park's Retrospective

SFMOMA reopened yesterday, and we went today to see the David Park retrospective and quite a few old friends. Like visiting an all-but-forgotten place and time, but now we're back in smoke-n-COVID-n-unraveling-democracy world. Still. Well worth the trip across the Bay...

 

The main offer was the David Park, A Retrospective, October 4, 2020–January 18, 2021. It was a glorious exhibition. In the normal years, I would have returned to see it again soon. Hopefully, we will be able to see it before it ends.

 

 

 

We also saw drawings from David Park and his circle. These life drawing studio might be the one still in use in UC Berkeley and I probably have spent some time drawing models there as well.

Richard Diebenkorn 

Franz Klein

Robert Motherwell

Cy Twombly

Anselm Kiefer Cy Twombly

Paul Cezanne

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Max Beckmann

 Thank you, SFMOMA!

Richard Serra Drawing and 2010 SECA Art Award at SFMOMA

Before the year end, I visited SFMOMA for its Richard Serra drawing retrospective exhibit, a cerebral, intriguing more than exhilaration exhibit.  I enjoyed it very much but due to the photograph restriction, I can only share some images from SFMOMA's website:



They were just as monumental as his more celebrated sculptures, such as the "Sequence", currently in Stanford University and will move to SFMOMA once its new wing completes, though more somber and forbidding.  They were not all drawings - some were done with paint sticks on canvas or linen.  The richness of the texture completely compensated the absence of colors.

I then encountered the 2010 SECA Art Award exhibit, which also included many works from past winning entries.  In those rooms, everything has something to recommend though not every piece struck me as with exceptional depth, incredible beauty or iconographic longevity.  But one piece stood out for its unbridled fun and ever changing shapes and lines - Nest, made of Pencils and Glue, by Gay Outlaw, a 1998 SECA Art Award winner:









Another piece I do live very much was Japanese Maple II, Oil and wax on canvas on panel, by Anne Appleby, 1996 SECA Art Award winner:


Japanese Maple II, Oil and wax on canvas on panel, Anne Appleby, 1996 SECA Art Award

Finally, I'll cite a delicate watercolor on paper by Laurie Reid, another 1998 SECA Art Award winner - Love Litany:


Love Litany, Watercolor on paper, Laurie Reid - 1998 SECA Art Award