{"id":3511,"date":"2012-10-06T07:38:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-06T14:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=3511"},"modified":"2012-10-06T07:38:14","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T14:38:14","slug":"multi-faceted-exhibit-at-de-young-exquisite-inspiring-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/multi-faceted-exhibit-at-de-young-exquisite-inspiring-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-faceted exhibit at de Young: exquisite, inspiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Picasso\u2019s \u201cNude with Joined Hands,\u201d from the artist\u2019s Rose Period, features a definitively sculpted head atop a less-defined body.<\/p><\/div>\n

William S. Paley stands in front of Pablo Picasso\u2019s classic \u201cBoy Leading a Horse\u201d in his New York City apartment.<\/p>\n

You well might question the artistic wisdom of a man responsible for such lowbrow TV hits as \u201cI Love Lucy,\u201d \u201cGunsmoke\u201d and \u201cThe Ed Sullivan Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

But William S. Paley, longtime titan of the CBS network, vividly demonstrated through major artworks he collected that he was perceptive and intuitive \u2014 and perhaps clairvoyant as to which artists would grow in fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism,\u201d a new, multi-faceted exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, can prove it.<\/p>\n

In the show are masterpieces from Braque, C\u00e9zanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Miro, Picasso, Renoir, Rousseau, Toulouse-Lautrec and others, many others. Sixty paintings, drawings and sculptures in all.<\/p>\n

Impressionism. Post-Impressionism. School of Paris. Modernism.<\/p>\n

Exquisite.<\/p>\n

And evocative.<\/p>\n

Timothy Anglin Burgard, curator-in-charge of American Art for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, indicated that the exhibit, organized by The Museum of Modern Art in New York, to which Paley had bequeathed his collection, simultaneously informs and inspires viewers.<\/p>\n

Bulls-eye.<\/p>\n

Consider, for example, Henri Matisse\u2019s 1927 painting \u201cWoman with a Veil,\u201d which shows his desire to utilize \u201ca flatness, a two-dimensionality\u201d combined with a classic pose of melancholia to \u201cget at a greater truth\u2026as well as beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or two Pablo Picasso paintings from his Rose Period \u2014 the 1905-06 \u201cBoy Leading a Horse\u201d (which was owned originally by Oakland poet laureate Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo) and the 1906 \u201cNude With Joined Hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBoy,\u201d which portrays a much younger Picasso than the 27-year-old painter who\u2019d already become a master when he brush-stroked it, is visibly a work of genius.<\/p>\n

It also was a linchpin of last year\u2019s successful San Francisco MOMA exhibit, \u201cThe Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde.\u201d<\/p>\n

For \u201cNude,\u201d the artist painted a definitively sculpted head atop a less-defined body of a woman who is modestly covering her genitalia with her hands.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s alleged that Picasso stole the sculpture on which he based the head from the Louvre, returning it when he was done.<\/p>\n

The exhibit, not incidentally, is majestically mounted, with paintings given breathing space on shaded walls that make them stand out.<\/p>\n

Facts about Paley\u2019s collection can be intriguing. But so can the attendant fiction.<\/p>\n

In that category, said Burgard, is the broadcasting innovator\u2019s middle initial, which didn\u2019t stand for anything (though he\u2019d never dissuade folks from believing that it represented his father\u2019s name, Samuel).<\/p>\n

Another inaccuracy: Paley was a co-founder of CBS, not its exclusive architect, Burgard noted during his brilliant and witty pre-opening press tour of the exhibit.<\/p>\n

Also, Paley insisted \u201cWoman with a Veil\u201d was purchased directly from Matisse. The truth, said Burgard, is that the spinmeister bought it from artist\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

One real fact is that Paley\u2019s first art purchase, in 1935, was the 1875-1876 \u201cSelf-Portrait in a Straw Hat\u201d by Paul C\u00e9zanne.<\/p>\n

Another fact is that Paley, as a Jew, had to overcome the rampant discrimination of his time.<\/p>\n

He was denied admission to fraternities in college, and despite his subsequent major philanthropy and an upper-crust reputation garnered by owning a string of racing thoroughbreds, he was denied membership in multiple posh clubs.<\/p>\n

As a young man, Paley, who died at age 89 in 1990, wasn\u2019t exactly self-made. His father had earned millions manufacturing and selling cigars, giving William S. Paley quite a jump-start.<\/p>\n

Paley the Collector, on the other hand, was strictly his own person: The range of the paintings in this exhibit is wider than you might expect.<\/p>\n

On the modern end, for instance, are two existential early-\u201860s triptychs of distorted faces by Francis Bacon. According to the audio tour, the artist said his portraits were of friends \u2014 because if they hadn\u2019t been, \u201cI could not do such violence to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, on the other end, are two soft 1866-68 pencil sketches by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, \u201cPortrait of a Woman\u201d and \u201cThe Jockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

A photographic bonus for visitors is a hallway of large images revealing the interior of Paley\u2019s Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, where masterworks adorned the walls.<\/p>\n

If you visit the de Young exhibit, make sure to stop in front of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec\u2019s \u201cMme Lili Grenier.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 1988 painting soul-stripping the wife of a wealthy friend. She\u2019s lounging in a chair while wrapped in a Japanese kimono, her hands toying with a pale blue ribbon. At age 20, she has a smug look of self-satisfaction \u2014 reflecting, most likely, how well she married.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n

In fact, don\u2019t miss the exhibit as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism\u201d will be at the de Young, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, through Dec. 30. Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., except Fridays, when open until 8:45. Admission: $10 to $20, free for members and children 5 and under. Information: (415) 750-3600 or www.deyoungmuseum.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William S. Paley stands in front of Pablo Picasso\u2019s classic \u201cBoy Leading a Horse\u201d in his New York City apartment. You well might question the artistic wisdom of a man…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"