Two weeks ago when we spent the day with the girl with a pearl earring and the goldfinch at the deYoung Museum, we also enjoyed an exhibit about the life and career of Rudolph Nureyev. Costumes from his ballets and videotapes of his dancing brought back memories of my youth when I saw him dance many times. (Ah, yes, I saw that ballet where he threw himself through large, red lips at the back of the stage at the end.)
It reminded me that I had never processed my photos from our walk to see the Paris Opera last fall.
Motivated, they are here…
Space Invader, graffiti artist, had been here, soaking up the cultural atmosphere.
Just what motivated us to make this trek? We had read in a blog that Fauchon, the fancy patisserie, collected and packaged the honey from the hives that are on top of the Opera building. Fauchon does not have it in their store, however, it is only carried in the store connected to the Opera. Off we went first to Fauchon and then to the Opera. I know now that the next time I go to Paris, I will definitely take the paid tour of the inside of the building and I will try my best to get tickets to a ballet performance. This also gives me a chance to end this post with a picture of a macaron tree. What more can you ask for?
Last week— a trip to SF to see the current show at the deYoung Museum. The special exhibit has “The Girl with a Pearl Earring,” (ca.1665). Loved the book, loved the movie, wanted to see the painting in person. Johannes Vermeer did not disappoint. The man knew light and the painting was gorgeous…but, the one that knocked my socks off was a small painting by Carel Fabritius, “The Goldfinch,” that was exquisite. Painted by Fabritius in 1654 it is a beautiful rendering of a pet bird (notice the chain). Fabritius had been a student of Rembrandt. In reading about the work I found out that, at the time, goldfinches were often pets and sometimes were successfully trained to lower a thimble-sized bucket into a glass of water so they could quench their own thirst. !? Not much of the art of Fabritius survives because he died young and his studio was destroyed in a munitions explosion that leveled one-fourth of the city of Delft. His painting glowed, but I could not take pictures in the exhibition. I was left with the photos I took later of the post cards I purchased of the works. (The museum also has a concurrent exhibition of “Rembrandt’s Century”.) Lots and lots of etchings. Another beautiful day in San Francisco, highlighted by art that feeds the soul…the paintings will be at the de Young until June 2, 2013.
and, of course, the flowers from the women’s restroom and the restaurant:
I really am finished with my Paris photos but I still can’t seem to get away from Paris. Since I have been home I went with some friends to the DeYoung Museum to see their exhibit of the work of Jean-Paul Gaultier, fashion designer. This is what I know from seeing this exhibit…I would wear a dress with a beaded Eiffel Tower on it, the big problem is that I do not frequent the type of venue where it would be appropriate…coffee at Peet’s?…the Morro Bay Bird Festival?…I don’t think so…
Above is my favorite dress, me and stripes in the French way…but where to wear the feathery skirt?
This exhibit was multi-media and the blank faces of the models had projections on them so they talked, smiled, and moved their eyes. The other nice thing was that you were allowed to take pictures…here is my impression…
Oops, that should be Bouquets to Art at the deYoung Museum last week. Guess I hadn’t had enough coffee when I pushed the publish button. Onward with the flowers and art…
Jean-Gabriel Charvet and Joseph Dufour, Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, 1806
Silver service, 1652-1783
John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Daniel Sargent, 1763
David Ligare, Still Life with Grape Juice and Sandwiches, 1994
Richard Diebenkorn, Berkeley No. 3, 1954
Robert Motherwell, Music over Music, 1981
Wayne Thiebaud, Ponds and Streams, 2001
Roy Lichtenstein, Modern Head #5, 1970
Dale Chihuly, Ultramarine Stemmed Form with Orange, 1988
and a couple of my favorites just because the contrast of the wire against the concrete wall along with the pop of the color from the flowers made a perfect small environment for photos.
Lucky for me, last week I was invited to go with some friends to the special exhibit at the deYoung Museum called Bouquets to Art. Floral designers interpret art work in the museum. It attracts large crowds. Good news is that they allow photos without flash, not so good is that the crowd is so massive it is difficult to get shots that don’t have somebody’s arm or leg in them. I tried to line up my shots of the arrangements with the art work and sometimes just took pictures of the flowers.
It was rainy, rainy, rainy…
We were snug inside surrounded by flower beauty.
Oh, and the bathrooms…
And since it is the year of the dragon, interpreted in floral…
A floral raptor dodging an energy windmill.
19th to 20th century chairs
John Singer Sargent, La Verne de Porto (A Dinner Table at Night) 1881
George Hitchcock, Tulip Culture, 1889
John Singer Sargent, Caroline de Bossano, Marquise d’Espeuilles, 1884
William Merritt Chase, Portrait of Miss. D, ca 1900
Georgia O’Keeffe, Petunias, 1925
Arthur Dove, Sea Gull Motive (Sea Thunder or The Wave), 1928
Raul Anguiano, Untitled (Seated Girl Holding an Apple), 1943
Part 2 tomorrow…
It is hard for me to believe, but in my first year of retirement I may have been over to San Francisco more times than in the ten years previously. Something about freedom that makes you move…Yesterday was another excursion over to catch the Impressionist Exhibit at the deYoung Museum before it closes on Sept. 6. Woke up to the fact this week that I was going to miss it if I did not jump. I think half of San Francisco also realized that, because there were crowds everywhere.
Crowds to get on the bridge
Please note, this is an iPhone picture without post-processing, significant in the color of the sky. Big Note: no FOG!
Crowds to get off the freeway (construction on Fell St. backed everything up).
and crowds in the museum where you were not allowed to take pictures inside the Impressionist Exhibit…
So, I took what shots I could get a good vantage point of (with no one standing in front of me) and which thrilled me to see. There was Joan Brown’s Noel and Bob, 1964. Lush color and texture and great face on Noel (plus anything with a dog…)
and the other side of my psych that likes images that represent the simplicity of Asian Art was fed, too. (The murals by Piazzoni, The Sea, 1931, that were saved from the old library that is now the Asian Art Museum):
Then, as we waited for our appointed hour to get into the main show, I found a small gallery that swept me away—photos and grids, photos and grids, photos and grids, tra la…
Ed Ruscha and Los Angeles parking lots:
Even Dodger Stadium and Ruscha’s Every Building on The Sunset Strip, 1966, accordion book:
The only text is the street numbers of the buildings.
The grid of forty-six photos on the wall taken in Iceland by Olafur Eliasson, The River-raft Series, 2000. Does repetition make it a mosaic?
and a collection of found everyday objects by Nigel Poor, “Found” Project, 1998.
A David Hockney photocollage of Luncheon at the British Embassy, Tokyo, February 16, 1983.
A panoramic view of San Francisco by Mark Klett and Michael Lundgren, 2004,
There was a lot in this small gallery to absorb. Note to self: try more black and whites and get into that panoramic mode!
After fighting the crowds, things took a definite up-swing when we found a new restaurant for a late, ravenous lunch that may have had the best pizza, evah…
Pizzette 211 at 211 23rd Street
The desert and frosting on the cake were the mosaic murals we passed on the facade of a school when we walked on 23rd Street from the restaurant back to our car.
“Art, art, I want you. Art you make it pretty hard not to.” (don’t miss this Youtube video)
A black and white using the RetroCamera app. Now all I have to do is find a large wall that is empty so that it can take twenty framed photos!
My trip to the Academy of Sciences must have been momentous, I am going for days on the pictures. These will be the last, honest…Frogs of stripe and color, the fish lady feeding the penguins with funny displaced legs and fog, every where fog. On the roof looking across at the DeYoung Museum. Will be back soon so I can see the big Impressionist show. Ahh, San Francisco, you are such a treasure…
Lois Reynolds Mead 