When the work of my design studio, Volume, was included in SFMOMA’s Innovation by Design: CCA at 100 exhibition in 2007—I admit it!—the elite glow attached to the setting was a huge part of the thrill. I could now tell my parents, regardless of how much they truly comprehended what I did for a living, that my work was now in a museum. That th... More

Alongside our new curator “One on One” talks, we’re doing regular ‘one on one’ blog posts, from curators, staff, and public, on a particular work or exhibition they’re interested in. Today’s post is from John Zarobell, Assistant Curator of Collections, Exhibitions, and Commissions.]

Sargent Johnson is not an artist you might find in a standard history of modern art, but his contribution to sculpture in the 20th century is unique and Johnson was one of the most prominent mid-century sculptors in the Bay Area. With the murals by Ke... More

At the corner of Valencia Street and 18th Street in San Francisco’s Mission District is a construction site as seemingly banal as any other construction site: a chain-link fence designates a hard hat zone, wooden frames and scaffolding are visible, and hammering can be heard. As a resident of the Mission District and someone who prefers walki... More

Matt Keegan’s current show at the new Altman Siegel gallery at 49 Geary Street in San Francisco is smart, stylish, and very sweet.  The artist is intimately concerned with words and frames, how language shapes the context for perception, how social control hammers away at the psyche in the service of a skeletal hegemony.  Here his themes are postcards and calendars, which turn out to be mysterious enough to fill two good sized rooms.  Postcards and calendars: I’ve used them my whole life and never really bothered to think about them, but that’s like telling Peter Carl Faberge “I’ve had an egg for breakfast for the past 40 years but you, Mr. Faberge!”  (Indeed Matt Keegan, with his painstaking construction of multiple frames and perspectives, might have found lifelong employment in the House of Faberge in Romanov times, he might have done a beautiful one for the day Meryl Streep was presented to court.).  I went to the intensely crowded opening — so many young peo... More

SFMOMA has commissioned renowned artist Kerry James Marshall to create two murals for the museum’s Haas Atrium. For over 30 years, Marshall has explored stories of racial identity, the Civil Rights movement, and unsung histories in his work. In response to Marshall’s works, fifteen teens from three Oakland high schools are designing and producing a collaborative mural, in Town Park at DeFremery Park, focusing on the themes of silenced histories and storytelling. We’re blogging about it here on Saturdays.]

After a Saturday off for... More

Today we were treated to a dance performance in the Atrium, as part of National Dance Week‘s Dance Anywhere Festival.  It’s a Part II of sorts; a similar happening took place here last year.

Here’s a little clip from this afternoon.  More at Flickr.

Every now and again the Education Department, of which I am a part, takes some time out of the office to celebrate milestones, achievements, survival, etc. This afternoon we’re going out to do that, and — while there are many people and things to applaud, we’ll be especially celebrating one achievement in particular. Because this ... More

New York-based filmmaker Ramin Bahrani‘s third feature film, Goodbye Solo, opened this week in a limited Bay Area run. Ramin takes an approach to cinema that many people would call “low-budget,” but which I prefer to think of as economical: doing only what the story requires, no more and no less. He’s produced three feature ... More

[Our regular feature, "Collection Rotation". A local guest organizes a mini-exhibition from our collections pages online. Today's guest is CHUCK MOBLEY, curator at San Francisco Camerawork, right next door.  Almost all the musical guests have local connections to SF. Pictures link back to collection pages. Thanks Chuck!]
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Daddy always said that if one just stayed put in San Francisco, eventually everyone who mattered would show up here, and then he himself came as if to prove himself correct. I remember him tottering off the plane as though an earthquake was actually happening. And then he came back two other times, never entirely relaxing, but affable enough, like a mint julep. I thought of him tonight when John Giorno came to San Francisco and gave a jubilant reading for the Poetry Center at San Francisco State.

Even if you know nothing about poetry you will remember Giorno as the actor in one of Andy Warhol’s most notorious films, Sleep–Warhol’s first film, made when the artist was 35 years old and looking to try something new. Giorno was 27 and, it is said, Warhol’s boyfriend at the time. The film consists, as many know, of Giorno sound asleep for nearly five and a half hours-there’s a version in which some of the shot footage is repeated to make it last eight hour... More

Shucks. It’s been a year. First, do we think blogs get counted in something like dog years?  Next, keep your eye on the blog, as we’ve got something fabulous launching here in coming days that’s going to make the next twelve months very interesting indeed. Last, I had the blog’s chart done online (thanks Astro.com) for the happy occasion. Aries! Aries rising! Venus in Aries! OMG! Thanks for a great first year. xo, SS
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Introduction

This report... More

Alongside our new curator “One on One” talks, we’re doing regular ‘one on one’ blog posts, from curators, staff, and public, on a particular work or exhibition they’re interested in. Today’s post is from Elizabeth Gand, Assistant Curator of Photography.

When crisis or calamity strikes, what can photographs do? All four photographers i... More

[SFMOMA has commissioned renowned artist Kerry James Marshall to create two murals for the museum's Haas Atrium. For over 30 years, Marshall has explored stories of racial identity, the Civil Rights movement, and unsung histories in his work. In response to Marshall's works, fifteen teens from three Oakland high schools are designing and producing a... More

“What was it? A meteorite that fell to earth? Or a visitation from outer space? Whatever it was, there appeared in our small land a miracle of miracles: the ZONE. We sent in troops. None returned. Then we surrounded the ZONEwith police cordons… We did right… Although I’m not sure…” –From an interview with Prof. Wallace, Nobel Prize winner, on RAI.  (epigraph to Stalker)

With every passing year the legend of Andrei Tarkovsky grows more intense and intoxicating. In a career spanning a quarter-century, Ta... More

Alongside our new curator “One on One” talks, we’re doing occasional ‘one on one’ blog posts, from curators, staff, and public, on a particular work or exhibition they’re interested in. Today’s post is from Lisa Sutcliffe, Assistant Curator of Photography:

Please join me tomorrow evening at 6:30pm for a discussion of the work of Guy ... More

[SFMOMA has commissioned renowned artist Kerry James Marshall to create two murals for the museum's Haas Atrium. For over 30 years, Marshall has explored stories of racial identity, the Civil Rights movement, and unsung histories in his work. In response to Marshall's works, fifteen teens from three Oakland high schools are designing and producing a... More

Lots of big institutional news this morning: Kenneth Baker in the Chronicle, and Carol Vogel in the New York Times, on the museum’s plans to plan to expand.

A letter to the community from SFMOMA Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Charles Schwab, and our director Neal Benezra, here.

The press release is here.

Think it’s too early to pitch  for a bigger cubby?

Here’s my SFMOMA-related Flickr pick of the week. In the genre of the abject-romantic, my favorite.

time to go to the laundry again soon

And and and, an  awesome video of Sol Lewitt’s last public wall drawing. (At Culture Monster. Via MAN. Days and days ago, at least.)

Alongside our new curator “One on One” talks, we’re doing occasional ‘one on one’ blog posts, from curators, staff, and public, on a particular work or exhibition they’re interested in. Today’s post is from Henry Urbach, SFMOMA curator of architecture and design:

Guestbook by Jürgen Mayer H., principal of the Berlin architectural studio J. MAYER H., is a limited edition book composed solely of sheets printed with data protection pattern. A touchstone of the studio’s work and focus of the exhi... More

Frank Stella’s Khurasan Gate:

And here’s the whole thing(nearly 24 feet long):