Descending Ashtray

I got back from San Francisco early this evening, and was able to see quite a few interesting things while there.

I’ll start with SFMOMA.

Usually, this is the place I most look forward to going when visiting San Francisco. I’ll usually pop into the museum for a couple of hours between other duties, and get my eyefull of art for the month. Compared to Portland’s art museum, this place is great, and a sight for sore eyes (until very recently, PAM had an almost negligible modern/contemporary art collection, and what they have now is only marginally better, but I digress … ).

This time, though … eh. I wasn’t that impressed. The permanent collection is great, but not that different from the last time I was there: a Jasper Johns flag, quite a few Diebenkorns, and lots of other old friends. And then there was the Matthew Barney show.

I really struggle with a reaction to his work. On the one hand, I really admire his commitment to a storyline (a paralell to my own conceptual path I have to admire) and the scale of his work. A lot of the sculptures of plastic and Vaseline were nearly beautiful, as was some of the still photography.

On the other hand, though - he comes across as pretty egotistical, in this show hiring a cast of Japanese actors to fulfill his vision of an obscure whaling-inspired drama. It reads, to someone who has been there, as large-scale art school bullshit. You could see it in people’s faces as they walked around, confused, skeptical, turned off, ripped off ($12.50 admission). I’ve been to art school. I follow, as much as that is possible. But I’m not buying it.

I must also say that his relationship (girlfriend? wife?) with Bjork isn’t helping his credibility. I love her music, but she’s a strange duck … er … swan.

So that’s my take on Matthew Barney. I know it’s incomplete and poorly formed, and just this one man’s opinion, but … what a bummer.

On the plus side, the curators did something pretty interesting. A lot of museums do the audio tour thing, where you walk around with headphones and a CD player and listen to extra information about each piece. Typically, the museum charges $3-5 to rent the player, and it seems as though about 15% of visitors actually do it. This show had a telephone number visitors could call from a cell phone and listen to the same commentary, using something they already had. A neat idea, I thought. If you’d like to try it out, call (408) 794-2844, followed by the # key. Follow the instructions, and hit 24# for information on “Ambergris: Drawing Restraint 9″.

The de Young museum I had never been to before this trip. What a redeeming experience it was. I couldn’t have been in a less art-appreciating mode, having spent 2 days walking the concrete jungle of San Francisco (grass? anyone?) when we encountered this glorious museum in the heart of Golden Gate Park. The architecture of the building is pretty controversial, I understand, a rusty-looking industrial-type structure recently completed by Herzog & de Meuron (also doing Minneapolis’ Walker expansion), but I thought it was nice, if not very related to its surroundings. It was also incredibly spacious inside, defying the notion I held that claustrophobia was the expected result of dramatic architecture in museums like the Weisman. Great light, too.

There was an outstanding 20th century American collection, featuring more and better Diebenkorns (sorry, MOMA), a great Ruscha, and a Grant Wood piece that I had never seen before, Dinner for the Threshers.

One particular exhibition really caught my mind, though, “Crown Point Press: The Art of Etching.” The organizing theory of the show is a print or prints illustrating each of Crown Point Press’ founder Kathan Brown’s “Magical Secrets of Creativity.” The secrets are a little corny and self-help-y, but pretty good advice for someone starting out, and the examples used are just stunning. Probably my favorite print, used to illustrate truth no. 2 “Use a Lot of Time,” was Chuck Close’s Keith, which took nearly 3 months to complete. A typical mezzotint measures 3-4 inches on a side, while this print is neatly 3×4 feet. A good message to remember, when that little American in you is telling you to produce, produce, produce. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, right?

I ended up purchasing the book for this exhibition, which was a good read, and also a great reminder of all the etching processes available.