Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A Jaunt through SFMOMA



The contract job in Silicon Valley has finished after four months, so I was free to take a weekday jaunt last week through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art with Patrick Vaz, who has a membership. There was a new mural on the second floor atrium by PARRA, an Amsterdam "graphic designer, illustrator, artist, art director, and clothing company owner" (click here for an amusing studio visit and interview at Fecal Face Gallery).



We also checked out the newly purchased, multi-million-dollar Edward Hopper painting, Intermission, which we both found a little underwhelming, particularly since an earlier, uncharacteristic Hopper had been sold by the museum to help finance the purchase.



We also went to the Photography in Mexico exhibit, which is a mostly dreary imposition of New York style art photography on our neighbor to the south. Some of the present-day photos by actual Mexicans were interesting but the subject deserves a more fresh, insightful and provocative treatment, as the optimistic signage would have it.



The main reason to go to the museum right now is to see the Mark Bradford exhibit (not pictured), an extensive show of large paintings/collages by a gay, black, Central LA artist who is creating wonders.

3 comments:

Nancy Ewart said...

Bradford's work is awesome and he's a super nice guy who took time to talk to the lower echelon press - something that the art superstars don't bother to do. I was disappointed in the Mexico show except for Gracelia Iturbe (sp?) and the photos of the Mexican wrestlers. Now, those were unique.

Civic Center said...

Lower echelon press? What could you possibly mean? Not bloggers, surely.

Nancy Ewart said...

HA! Ha! Ha!