{"id":9311,"date":"2014-01-03T14:09:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T22:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=9311"},"modified":"2014-01-04T07:20:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T15:20:03","slug":"three-art-exhibits-stir-passion-discovery-edification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/three-art-exhibits-stir-passion-discovery-edification\/","title":{"rendered":"Three art exhibits stir passion, discovery, edification"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Woody’s [rating:5]<\/span><\/p>\n

Passion.<\/p>\n

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Anders Zorn shows his watercolor skill with light, reflections and water via 1886\u2019s \u201cSummer Vacation.\u201d Photo: Stockholms Aukionsverk.<\/p>\n

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Using a model instead of a grief-stricken person, Anders Zorn captures a photographic quality in his 1880 watercolor, \u201dIn Mourning.\u201d Photo: Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.<\/p>\n
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Oil \u201cPortrait de Sarah Stein\u201d is part of \u201cMatisse from SFMOMA\u201d exhibit at the de Young Museum. Photo: Ben Blackwell.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA Bigger Message\u201d is David Hockney\u2019s tribute to the Sermon on the Mount, on 30 canvases that reach up, up and up. Photo: Richard Schmidt.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Jugglers\u201d is a David Hockney \u201cCubist movie\u201d made from 18 digital videos synchronized and presented on 18 screams to comprise a single artwork.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Museums have been arousing that sensation in me for seven decades \u2014 ever since my mom took me to Manhattan\u2019s Museum of Modern Art when I was a gangling suburban kid who knew nearly nothing about anything except how to climb a tree barefoot.<\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve eagerly visited museums in dozens of countries, almost always having a top-notch experience.<\/p>\n

With my shoes on.<\/p>\n

So read what follows knowing that \u201cnormal\u201d for me is to wear rose-colored glasses.<\/p>\n

But understand, too, that the three exhibits I saw recently at the two Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco would deserve high praise even if I weren\u2019t such an enthusiast. Each provides an opportunity to cavort momentarily inside a painter\u2019s mind, to glimpse his vision from the inside.<\/p>\n

Most riveting for me, and edifying, is the \u201cAnders Zorn: Sweden\u2019s Master Painter\u201d display at the Legion of Honor. Most likely because what I\u2019d known about him before could have fit into Thumbelina\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n

Zorn\u2019s watercolor portraits are exquisite, even if they don\u2019t match the genre\u2019s highest echelon.<\/p>\n

At first glance they may appear to be detailed yet delicate airbrushed photographs instead of multiple layered paintings. One good example is \u201cIn Mourning,\u201d a graceful, pensive 1880 oval creation.<\/p>\n

Superb, too, are his land- and waterscapes \u2014 showing off his fixation on reflected light. Witness, specifically, 1887\u2019s \u201cLapping Waves\u201d and 1886\u2019s \u201cSummer Vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zorn\u2019s etchings (he produced close to 300 of them) also captivate.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re more vigorous, more dramatic.<\/p>\n

His gouache work, meanwhile, is unbelievably powerful \u2014 even \u201cUne Premiere (A First),\u201d an 1888-94 work he modified and modified yet still hated enough to cut into pieces (it was restored by an artist friend, who donated it to a museum).<\/p>\n

And although Zorn\u2019s oils don\u2019t reach the artistic heights of either his watercolors or etchings, they\u2019re still compelling.<\/p>\n

I found particularly intriguing \u201cOmnibus,\u201d an 1891-92 work that delves into the working class by focusing on a milliner, as well as the 1896 entranceway painting, \u201cSelf-Portrait with Model,\u201d which experiments with light and shadow.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-Portrait in Red\u201d (1915), in contrast, is a blindingly bright work in which the color of the artist\u2019s coat and vest are so strong they distract from Zorn\u2019s stern, mustachioed face.<\/p>\n

The artist lived and worked in Mora, Sweden; London; Paris. He visited San Francisco in the winter of 1903-04 on one of seven trips to the United States. And luxuriated in commissions of society\u2019s elite (and painted portraits of three American presidents).<\/p>\n

His oil of President Grover Cleveland, in fact, is one of the 100 pieces (that include a handful of sculptures) in the Legion\u2019s exhibit.<\/p>\n

He alone is a discovery emphatically worth a trip into the city.<\/p>\n

But, as a bonus, right next to that exhibit in a single room is \u201cMatisse from SFMOMA,\u201d a display of 23 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by the Impressionist color virtuoso \u2014 plus six pieces not owned by the modern art institution.<\/p>\n

Among the highlights are \u201cThe Girl with Green Eyes\u201d (a 1908 oil) and 1916 commissioned portraits of Sarah and Michael Stein, brother and sister-in-law of Oakland\u2019s legendary writer-poet-art collector Gertrude Stein.<\/p>\n

The Stein portraits certainly prove there was a there there for Bay Area art patrons.<\/p>\n

Why the Legion?<\/p>\n

MOMA\u2019s undergoing an extensive expansion and will be closed during construction until 2016. So the facility\u2019s doing joint exhibits with virtually every area museum.<\/p>\n

Across town at the de Young, \u201cDavid Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition,\u201d continues to draw both aficionados and new fans.<\/p>\n

Why? Because the 300-piece exhibit is astounding \u2014 clearly showing the 76-year-old Brit\u2019s development from 2002 through last year, including his integrating iPhone, iPad and digital movie techniques to create new art forms.<\/p>\n

Despite his having a major stroke.<\/p>\n

The audio guide, in fact, tells of his turning the resultant speech problems into a boon: By not talking much, he concentrates better.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s too much to even sum up in a review. Oils. Watercolors. Charcoals.<\/p>\n

Portraits. Still lifes.\u00a0 Landscapes.<\/p>\n

Homages to and parodies of van Gogh and Picasso.<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t take long to discover the \u201cbigger\u201d in the title is fitting\u00a0(at 18,000 square feet of gallery space on two floors, it\u2019s the largest in the museum\u2019s history).<\/p>\n

Size appreciation can stem from viewing a Hockney \u201cCubist movie\u201d that took 18 different perspectives from 18 digital cameras and synchronized them to comprise a single artwork on 18 screens.<\/p>\n

Or from many of the artworks being colossal \u2014 including a fascinating strip of 12 portraits with 12 paintings beneath them of the subjects\u2019 hands, an enormous montage of prints tracing art history from 1200 to 1900, colorful 12-foot-high images of Yosemite, and \u201cThe Bigger Message,\u201d a 30-canvas re-working of Claude Lorrain\u2019s \u201cThe Sermon on the Mount.\u201d<\/p>\n

One six-year-old boy visiting with his San Francisco Day School class exclaimed, \u201cWow! Those are biiig pictures.\u201dI may be three feet taller than he, and about 150 pounds heavier, but I agreed \u2014 big time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnders Zorn: Sweden\u2019s Master Painter\u201d will be displayed at the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park (34th Avenue and Clement Street), San Francisco, through Feb. 2. \u201cMatisse from SFMOMA\u201d will run there through Sept. 7. \u201cDavid Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition\u201d will be up through Jan. 20 at the de Young, Golden Gate Park (50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive), San Francisco. Details: (415) 750-3600 or\u00a0legionofhonor.famsf.org<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/em>\u00a0or deyoungmuseum.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Woody’s [rating:5] Passion. Museums have been arousing that sensation in me for seven decades \u2014 ever since my mom took me to Manhattan\u2019s Museum of Modern Art when I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-9311","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":"