We drove to the deYoung Museum to see the Art of Venice last Friday. The day was beautiful and clear, but since it was a featured exhibit, no photos were allowed. (You may be relieved that I couldn’t stuff this blog with more Italian art…) so when I came across an exhibit of the work of Stephen DeStaebler I thought that would be plan B, but the guard said that couldn’t be photographed either…couldn’t share the clay faces and tortured bodies…plan C was modern art that I randomly enjoyed on the visit…not third place, because standing in front of an original Wayne Thiebaud really gets my blood pumping…just happens to be what I could photograph on this particular day…although I had seen this one before (I had a poster of it in my classroom for many years…in person is better for sure…
These two that I had not seen before had me instantly, deeply in love…and there I was, as the label said, somewhere between representation and abstraction and being absorbed by the colors…
Wayne Thiebaud, Ponds and Streams, 2001
Wayne Thiebaud, Diagional Freeway, 1993
They are sooooo California…
Also, there was
Sam Francis, Hello, 1986
Robert Motherwell, Music over Music, 1981
William deKooning, Untitled XX, 1977 and
Richard Diebenkorn, Berkeley No. 3, 1977
What I like about museums is that my visual cravings get satisfied even in the smallest details…down to the fresh flowers in the bathroom
And restaurant
The hand blown lights in the restaurant
There at the entrance door was a fabulous floral display using the architecture of the building and the light reflecting from the courtyard to create a sculptural visual treat for me to enjoy…
We didn’t remember a day with such great weather, so an investigation of the exterior was in order…here is the reward
The pattern of the exterior siding is carried through everything (did you notice the dots in the restaurant above?)
a cougar struggling with a snake
And a certain somebody thought they could improve on it…hey, joker, this isn’t interactive art!
A tribute to Francis Scott Key
Then back across the bridge to home…
