Yerba Buena Gardens and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Yerba Buena Gardens opposite SFMOMA
After our breakfast at Dottie’s in the Tenderloin – see previous post – we drove down Jones and across Market to Howard, where we turned left towards the Moscone Center. Parking is always a problem in San Francisco but we found a car park on 3rd and Folsom where we could park for $10 all day.
(Click the images for larger versions. You’ll need to if you want to find Waldo in the last photo)
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, affectionately known as SFMOMA, was just a short walk away but we had some time to kill as it didn’t open until 10 am. We wandered around the outside of the Moscone Center, which is a huge conference/convention complex. It is named after George Moscone, a former mayor of San Francisco who was assassinated in 1978.
Then we sauntered around the Yerba Buena Gardens opposite SFMOMA. It has been some time since we visited this part of town and the gardens have become well established. Outside the Yerba Buena Center for Arts a dozen couples were having dancing lessons. It was a quickstep. I only knew this because occasionally I heard ‘slow, quick, quick slow’. Most of the other directions were given in Chinese. It was mesmerizing to watch them. The dance itself seemed to be quite slow and deliberate, almost like Tai Chi. There were also several groups on the grass in the middle of the gardens doing Tai Chi, including one gentlemen who did a bit and then sat in an electric wheelchair. I couldn’t help but admire the man.
I took a seat on a stone bench in front of the huge water feature and enjoyed people watching and writing while Tom wandered off . Although it
SFMOMA as seen from Yerba Buena Gardens
was overcast to begin with, the sun came out before too long but there was a bit of a breeze. Definitely not shorts and T-shirt weather. I looked towards the SFMOMA building which seems to be dwarfed by the buildings around it but it is a striking building. It’s main architectural feature is the huge skylight in the front. It resembles the vent on the deck of a ship in its shape but has black and white strips.
Just before 10 we walked across the road to the SFMOMA and bought tickets at the kiosk outside. It cost $28 for the two of us – senior citizens price – and this included entrance to the Georgia O’Keefe and Ansel Adams Natural Affinities Exhibition, which is the main reason for our visit today. This exhibition will be at SFMOMA until September 9 this year. We walked into the vast foyer but had to wait there. Both the stairs and the elevators were cordoned off until, at the stroke of 10, they were removed. Tom and I walked up to the third floor. We reasoned it would be quicker than waiting for a lift.
On the third floor, we shuffled in with a host of other people. At first it was difficult to get a clear view of the paintings and photographs with folks walking in front or pressing from behind but it soon thinned out as people wandered off in different directions. Tom is into black and white photography and I’m into color, so George O’Keefe’s vivid paintings attracted me far more than Ansel Adams stark photography. Her early paintings were a bit depressing for my taste but loved the New Mexico collection, especially ‘Black Mesa Landscape’ and ‘In the Patio III’. I must admit to liking Ansel Adams photo of ‘St Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico’. Tom’s favorites were ‘Early Morning, Merced River’, ‘Cedar Tree, Winter, Yosemite’, ‘Old Tree, Snowstorm, Yosemite’, Vine and Rock, Island of Hawaii’ and ‘Detail, Juniper Wood, Sierra Nevada’ – all by Ansel Adams of course.
The walkway at the top. You can see all the way to the bottom. OK Margaret what ever you do DO NOT LOOK DOWN.
After a pleasant hour browsing the exhibition we explored the rest of the museum. We decided to climb the stairs to the fourth floor but I was sidetracked by something drawn high up on a wall with apparatus hanging down from a walkway above so I asked a nearby attendant. He started to explain but then pointed to a notice on the wall. The graffiti like drawing was drawn by Matthew Barney on June 9, 2006 and is entitled ‘Drawing Restraint 14′. On that day he climbed the wall dressed as General Douglas MacArthur, navigating himself by hand holds up the wall and by carabines attached to the underside of the walkway to get the wall on the far side. From there he swung himself in a hoist to execute the drawing right under a window.
Satisfied that I had unraveled that poser, I ascended the curved staircase to the fifth floor, pausing to look through a window down towards Yerba Buena Gardens, before arriving at the walkway I had looked at from below. Some of you may know that I have no head for heights and this walkway was not only high up and narrow but was constructed of perforated steel – very scary. Tom had already crossed it so the least I could do was to walk across it as well. I took a deep breath and went for it, keeping my eyes on a large mural on the wall in front. The main exhibits here are under the heading ‘Between Art on Life’, which will be on display until January 3, 2010. Many interesting sculptures and other diverse artworks are on display and the most intriguing was a huge painting entitled ‘Princess of the Posse’ by Chris Ofili which was described as acrylic, collage, glitter, resin, map pins, and elephant dung on canvas. I loved the colors and the use of map pins but I’m not so sure about the elephant dung.
After looking at all the exhibits we wandered through the Coffee Bar and into the Roof Garden to view
Accross from SFMOMA we spotted Waldo. Can you? You might have to click so you can see the larger version.
the sculptures on display there. It is a very pleasant spot, with places to sit and relax and on top of that, it is a sun trap. There is a huge bronze statue by Louise Bourgeois entitled ‘The Nest’. Louise Bourgois is an amazing artist. Both this work and another piece by her entitled ‘Crouching Spider’, which was until recently was on display on the waterfront of the Embarcadero (part of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Temporary Projects in Natural Settings Initiative), was in her nineties when she executed both pieces. Walking up the slope to the walkway I glanced out of the window and spotted a cardboard cutout of Waldo hiding between pipework on the roof of the building opposite.
We visited the third floor on our way down to view the Looking In: Robert Frank’s “The Americans” exhibition. This was a fascinating series of 83 photos taken between 1955 and 1956 of Americans and their way of life. The book “The Americans” was published in 1958 with an introduction by Jack Kerouac.
We decided to call it a day. There is so much more to see at SFMOMA but we will have to return another day.
Related posts:
- Irving Street Cafe, San Francisco
- Santa Cruz Botanical Gardens
- UC Botanical Gardens, Berkeley
- The Embarcadero, San Francisco
- San Francisco – Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
July 14 2009 06:35 am | Special Places
