Museum Monday 2026/36

 

detail of a self-portrait by Jeanne Hébuterne, seen at SFMOMA as part of the exhibit Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal

Museum Monday 2026/32

 

detail of an untitled study by Diego Rivera for Allegory of California, a ceiling mural for the Pacific Stock Exchange Luncheon Club in San Francisco

Museum Monday 2026/22

 

a hat designed by Caroline Reboux, seen at SFMOMA as part of the special exhibit Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal

Museum Monday 2026/21

 

Two sculptures by Alexander Calder at SFMOMA: to the right, Big Crinkly, & to the left, Intermediate maquette for Trois disques (Three Discs)

Museum Monday 2026/13

 

detail of Family II by Hung Liu, now in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Museum Monday 2026/4

 

detail of The March to Sagesse (The March to Wisdom), a fiber sculpture  by Sheila Hicks, on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) as part of the exhibit New Work: Sheila Hicks

Museum Monday 2026/3

 

detail of Marie Stadler Artichaud by Joan Mitchell, now at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Museum Monday 2025/44

 

detail of Triptych for Steven by Suzanne Jackson, seen at SFMOMA as part of the special exhibition Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love

Museum Monday 2025/40

 

detail of Rain Garden Zag IV by Louise Nevelson, now at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

Museum Monday 2025/31

 

detail of Untitled (Pink Hydrangea), a watercolor by Ruth Asawa, currently on view at SFMOMA as part of the special exhibit Ruth Asawa: Retrospective

Museum Monday 2025/27

 

detail of a sketch for Le Bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) by Henri Matisse, now at SFMOMA

Museum Monday 2025/18

 

detail of Untitled (Gingko Leaves on Three Branches) by Ruth Asawa, seen as part of Ruth Asawa: Retrospective at SFMOMA

Museum Monday 2025/10

 

detail of All Things Bright and Beautiful by Amy Sherald, part of the exhibition Amy Sherald: American Sublime at SFMOMA

Museum Monday 2024/51

 

detail of Amy Sherald's What's different about Alice is that she has the most incisive way of telling the truth, currently on view at SFMOMA as part of the special exhibit Amy Sherald: American Sublime

Museum Monday 2024/29

 

Duchamp's Fountain, Matisse's Femme au Chapeau, & Diego Rivera's The Flower Carrier, lined up at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Musical Mishaps at SFMOMA

I was at SFMOMA yesterday, partly to wander but mostly to take another look at the gorgeous Frank Bowling exhibit & a first look at the exhibit commemorating the late Hung Liu. But when I reached the Liu exhibit on the 2nd floor there was the persistent, annoying thumping of overamplified trash music. I ended up fleeing the galleries with barely a glance at the exhibit I had come to see. It turns out that the intrusive noise was coming from several rooms away, & was part of a "sound sculpture" in an exhibit on lowrider cars.

Lowrider cars are as good a subject for an art exhibit as anything else; personally, I have almost zero interest in or sympathy with car culture of any sort, but it's easy enough for me to avoid those galleries, or give them a cursory look. What I object to is having trash music imposed on me when I'm trying to experience something else. You know those idiotic assholes who cruise through neighborhoods, stereos at top volume, setting off car alarms, rattling windows, & generally forcing anyone within half a mile to stop what they wanted to do & wait until the noise mercifully diminishes? It turns out the experience isn't any better when you call the obnoxious irritant a "sound sculpture" & stick it in a gallery rather than a suburban neighborhood.

I will also mention that there's a similar problem on another floor; a Nam June Paik video, which was originally set to Beatles songs which were then stripped out by the artist, has now, if I understood the label correctly, had a bunch of the songs added back in by the curators at SFMOMA, for reasons that were not at all clear. You are forced to hear the songs out of context in the adjacent galleries. But at least up there, because of the volume of the songs & the size & arrangement of the galleries, the effect, though annoying, is less intrusive.

This incident reminded me of something that used to irritate me regularly about the museum pre-lockdown: as far as I know, SFMOMA has had almost no engagement with modern music in any non-pop/rock sense. I don't expect them to highlight music, as they're mostly about visual arts, but almost all of what they play in the store, in their restaurants, in related exhibits, is the regular stuff you'd hear on commercial radio. Do they partner with new music ensembles, or offer them a performing space? Has there ever been a mention in the museum of the Second Viennese School, or the postwar Darmstadt school, or Glass/Reich/Adams/Riley & others of their school? Has there been any jazz, any neo-romantics or neo-tonalists? any interest in experimental instruments or tunings? . . . It's pretty much just grating rock songs (I used to have to flee the museum store fairly regularly because of what they were playing). Why is modern music so little recognized or promoted by a place that considers itself a central spot for modern & contemporary art? They wouldn't install a Burger King or McDonald's as the museum café (nor would I eat there if they did, but still) – why is the only music they ever highlight the aural equivalent of corporate-run fast food?

Friday photo 2016/24

detail of an untitled sculpture by Ruth Asawa, with shadows, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 2016

Friday photo 2016/22

plus ça change at SFMOMA: this was taken 19 May; check out the picture taken three years earlier, which I ran two weeks ago

Friday photo 2016/20

Diego, Frieda, & Co

From the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 2013, right before it closed for a three-year expansion. It re-opens officially tomorrow, 14 May 2016.

Friday photo 2016/19

In honor of its re-opening on 14 May, here's a shot from 2012 of the (former) lobby of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art