A group of California College of Arts MBA in Design Strategy students met at the museum for a social outing and activity. They were asked to take three pictures of things that moved them, and as you can see, some took that literally by reenacting Eadweard Muybridge‘s Jumping over boy’s back (leap frog) on the third-floor landing. A new spin on Jumping in Art Museums?

Thanks to Laura Ramos for snapping this great pic and to Jessica Watson for posting it on Flickr!

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Thanks to Leonard Davich for catching this shot of a visitor adding one more blue color block to Ellsworth Kelly’s Red Yellow Blue White and Black with White Border (1952–53) from the Fisher Collection.

“I’ve been experimenting for a while with overexposed photos as a way to enhance and isolate subjects, colours, and forms,̶... More

Carter Young took this photograph of two people chillin’ in Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July’s Learning to Love You More installation. The work includes 70 assignments completed by strangers and sent in to the artists, selected by SFMOMA Media Arts Curator Rudolf Frieling and artist Stephanie Syjuco. It’s nice to see quiet moment... More

Daniel G. Marchand caught Robert Arneson’s No Pain (1991) spying on a museum visitor.

“We were visiting the museum and having a coffee in the [rooftop garden] when I noticed this woman reading her newspaper, being watched by the “head”. I just had to get to ground level and capture the moment.”

Thanks Daniel!

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If this sculpture, Hail to Reason (2004) by Rachel Harrison, could be said to have a face, then I believe these two are standing nose to nose. Ugo52, aka Hugo Molina, happened upon this scene and documented it for us:

“I was visiting the museum with a friend that day when I saw this person by that sculpture without moving or doing anything but standing in the position for a long time, so I said to myself that has to [be] a powerful piece of art and I just took the picture.”

You can see this work by Rachel Harrison in the 5th-floor g... More

Matthew Felix Sun took this photograph of museum visitors adding their own colors to Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Green Black Red, 1996. “This picture was a chance photo of mine,” he writes. “I don’t know the people who posed for this wonderful tableau—”

Thanks, Matthew!

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Masami Kawazato, a.k.a mamichan, made her own personal installation on the 5th floor turret bridge with her gray shoes and dress alongside the steel mesh of the bridge.

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You may remember a Flickr pic of the week post from last May of Sol Lewitt’s Steel Sculpture. Here’s another take on the same work that I couldn’t pass up. Christie Landrie took 365 pictures of herself in 2010, and we were lucky that she took #273 at SFMOMA.

Thanks, Christie!

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Penelope Umbrico’s 5,377,183 Suns from Flickr (Partial) 4/28/09 is on view through January 16. This installation comprises 1,440 prints of photos of the sun taken by Flickr users, and the title of the work refers to the number of results returned for the Flickr search “sunsets” the day the artist produced the work. You can read more about the work at the artist’s website. I thought it would be fitting to make our own collection of pictures from Flickr of people in front of Suns from Flickr.

A big THANK YOU to t... More

Thanks to Autumn Peterson for snapping this shot of an ambitious museum visitor and Claes Oldenburg’s Geometric Apple Core.

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Thanks to Ron, aka Cuzinyung, and his wife, April, for this great series. I love how April interpreted Robert Therrien’s Untitled (Bent Cone)!

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It came as no surprise to me that Acey Thompson, who snapped this shot, and model Marcus Gannuscio are both artists. I love the black hoodie and yellow shirt next to this blue and white Ellsworth Kelly. Acey fills us in on their trip to the museum:

“Marcus is my boyfriend, and we live together up in Portland, OR. We’re both from Califor... More

Thanks to Ken Osborn, aka Misterken, for taking this great photo of visitors interacting with George Segal’s Chance Meeting. Ken explains it further:

“I went to SFMOMA with friends to see the Fisher Collection (Calder to Warhol). While it was truly an impressive collection, I was most fascinated by New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. Perhaps that’s my bias as a ‘photographer.’

“While looking at the art on the rooftop garden, I waited for a group in front of this sculpture so I could ta... More

Thank you, Ken Yee (aka yuweiquan), for capturing this!

Plus, Ken has quite the story behind his trip to SFMOMA that day:

I wanted to check out and attempt photographing something I had observed on a rooftop garden visit from a couple of weeks earlier. I was sitting to the left of the Ellsworth Kelly (with the Louise Bourgeois behind), admiring jus... More

The Flickr universe just got a little smaller.  Back in August I posted a Flickr Pic of the Week by Chris Gruhl, a.k.a Shadowgolem.  I loved Chris’s image and associated text because he took an artwork he didn’t particularly appreciate and he used his creativity to make it more to his liking:

Anne Bast, SFMOMA’s intellectual pro... More

Maurice, the pug, steals the show in this pic by Sergio.

“I’m actually trying to get photos of him in front of different landmarks around SF, like the SFMOMA building. He was in a playful mood that day and started tugging on his leash to get my attention, so I thought that would make a great shot.”

Thanks Sergio and Maurice!

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Chris Gruhl aka Shadowgolem says about the mono-colored painting, “A big solid gray canvas? Really?…Art needs to have more than just intention, it needs execution” and instead of just thinking it, he created his own work of art using Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s poster available in the 2nd floor galleries. He says, “this composition was our attempt to add a bit to it. Still very abstract but not quite so, well, boring.”

Thanks Chris!

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Laura‘s great pic of Dan Graham’s Double Cylinder (The Kiss) just begs for this soundtrack:

Excuse me while I kiss the sky. Thanks Laura!

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There’s something about Charles LeDray’s Come Together that begs you to put on the tiny shirt. In Christine’s words:

“As we made it through the museum Nathan and I had fun with some of the incredible art (more photos on my flickr!). This particular picture was his idea, wanting to make it look like he was wearing the tiny shirt and a fun challenge to get the right angle and distance to accomplish his idea.”

Thanks Christine!

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Constantin Brancusi’s La Négresse blonde (The Blond Negress) – can you guess my favorite part of this series?

Each image links to the original on Flickr.  We have many to thank (from the top then right): Carmen aka Boxercab, Design.Her aka Maggie, Fragmentary Evidence aka David Colburn, Drekne aka Andreas Knecht, Torontofoto aka David B., Thom Watson, JLTP aka Jodi Lynn Trautman-Phelps, Wordster 1028 aka Gregory Schultz and Rocor aka Rob.

Anonymity no more! I love how the photographers are captured in the reflections.

W... More

My mom is terrified of walking across the see-through fifth-floor bridge at SFMOMA.

Pierre and his two friends are mighty brave to take this shot looking all the way down to the Atrium below.

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Tony Stone a.k.a itonys took this colorful shot of the Kerry James Marshall murals reflecting off of the usually somber granite of the SFMOMA Atrium.

We choose the Flickr pictures of the week from anything tagged “SFMOMA”. You tag too!

This week we have an example of two ways to see Sol Lewitt’s Steel Structure.   SFMOMA’s image:

And our Flickr pic of the week from Doug Smith:

Doug says: “I find it intriguing that a medium (photography) can portray another medium (sculpture) in a whole new light/perspective.” Thanks Doug!

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Bob ‘s  title of this picture:

“Hold on, Betty. I’ll save you. But first I need to take a picture.”

He writes:

“Story? Not really—I was fascinated by the people (in addition to the truly incredible Robert Frank and Richard Avedon exhibits). And the entire scene reminded me of how my photographer friends will whip ou... More

[A series this time around—visitors posing with Kiki Smith's Virgin Mary sculpture in the SFMOMA Rooftop Garden.]

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Did you know that SFMOMA produced one of the first-ever TV shows dedicated to art?  Chris de Rham a.k.a. ah zut caught visitors taking it in.  You can too in 75 Years of Looking Forward: The Anniversary Show, up now on the 2nd floor.

We choose the Flickr pictures of the week from anything tagged “SFMOMA”. You tag too!

Graham Currie aka gc1 snapped this pic of the aptly titled exhibition The View from Here.  We like your view, Graham!

We choose the Flickr pictures of the week from anything tagged “SFMOMA”. You tag too!

Thanks to Ohad for snapping this photo of the SFMOMA Rooftop Garden growing some new vines!

We choose the Flickr pictures of the week from anything tagged “SFMOMA”. You tag too!

SFMOMA visitors have the best taste.  Just take a look at the color and variety of their umbrellas!  Thanks to Scott DuBose who caught the very well accessorized unattended umbrella rack on a rainy day.

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At SFMOMA. Photo: Tom Noble

Ellen has this image on her Flickr stream of model Raponesa in front of Chris Johanson’s The Sunlight of the Spirit Is the Warmth of Love installation.  Thanks to Tom Noble, the photographer, for capturing the love.

This couple was also feeling the love:

Jen and Jeremy stopped by SFMOMA on day 10 of their Califo... More

Here at the Open Space, we are huge fans of a site called Jumping in Art Museums. So when we saw Malia Campbell‘s set of images in front of Ellsworth Kelly’s Stele I on the SFMOMA Rooftop Garden, we were super excited.

Malia says:

The subject in the photo is my boyfriend, Scott Hargis. He lives in Oakland and I live in Seattle. Whenev... More

Penny Kim took this picture of the beautiful California light reflecting off the SFMOMA Rooftop Garden’s newest addition— Tony Smith’s Throwback, 1976.

Thanks Penny!

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Benjamin Heath took this picture of SFMOMA reflected in a window of the Contemporary Jewish Museum across the street.  Good eye, sir.

Kevin Dini aka buddah is took this sparring pic of James Rosenquist’s Leaky Ride for Dr. Leakey which is on view in the 75 Years of Looking Forward exhibition. And yes, that is Kevin’s thumb, although I should mention that he says of the nail polish, “I try to keep it up better than that, but sometimes it gets away from me.”

Thanks Kevin!

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Nick, a.k.a kukkurovaca, took this picture of Ellsworth Kelly’s Stele I in the SFMOMA Rooftop Garden. Looks like the person on the left is entering another dimension.  The dapper gentleman on the right may have just returned from it.

Nick says:

“There’s no real story to this photograph—If I remember correctly, I had just gone to see the Avedon exhibit for the first time, and the Adams-O’Keeffe for the third or fourth time, probably. I went up to the roof, got a beverage, and sat down to people-watch. I had my camera w... More

I love the matching blue shirts and the Avedon gestures of these two.  The pictures come from Anitechi’s flickr, and she writes:

“This trip was our honeymoon, and I was glad there were fabulous exhibitions in my favorite museum. I appreciate that you like these photos. It will be a special experience to see our photos on SFMOMA’s blog.”

I was instantly charmed by this image of stockings that match the SFMOMA grand staircase and walls.  Thanks Marco!

Here’s what he had to say about the shot:

“The legs belong to my girlfriend Holly. The story is nothing special, I was feeling creative after we saw the Robert Frank and Richard Avedon photographs and I saw the similarity ... More

Rita, a.k.a Seenyarita, snapped this picture at the entrance to the current Richard Avedon exhibition.  From time to time, the SFMOMA freight elevator is in use during public hours and the doors open, much to the surprise of visitors.  Rita explains her picture better than I could:

“I’ve been to see the Avedon show 3 times now. Probably will go back at least one more time before it’s over.  I was intrigued by the way that the image on the elevator parts to reveal another world. I feel that Avedon was able to show worlds to us through portraits on a white background. There was no need to see anything in the background beyond the subject since the portraits themselves spoke volumes.“

Photo: Scott Owens

Not sure how this worked, but Scott Owens claims this it is a  self-portrait, taken while on a field trip with The San Francisco Foundation to visit the new Rooftop Garden.  Looks like he’s having a good time inside Barnett Newman’s Zim Zum I (1969).

Loves it!

San Francisco – May 2009.  Photo: Irene Pomianowski aka bellearielparis

Irene Pomianowski took this shot of Anish Kapoor’s Hole (1988) while at SFMOMA with a group from the Newark Museum.  She says, “In the 5 days we were in SF we went on tours at 6 museums (in addition to SFMOMA), City Hall, Napa Valley for winetasting & ... More

Photos: Global X

A mysterious person named Global X made this mini-series involving a red A17 coat-check tag.  Thank you X!

Photo: Rands

From this angle,  Donald Judd’s Untitled (1973) looks an awful lot like the staircase in the Atrium.  Photo by Rands.

Shades of Blue! photo by SFMOMA visitor Rob Reich

I liked this fabulous image of  Alexander Calder’s Big Crinkly (1969), now on view in our Rooftop Sculpture Garden. Photo by Rob Reich.

Thanks Rob!

This pretty snapshot, taken by SFMOMA visitor Jeanee Chung (and scooped  up from Flickr), shows  a portion of Damien Hirst‘s painting Pray (2003)  and, in the reflection of the glass, one corner of a gallery in our current fifth-floor contemporary exhibition, Between Art and Life, organized by Gary Garrels.  On the left side of JeaneeR... More