Frisco Vista

The Exploratorium has a pretty cool roof cam. It is set to shift its view every fifteen minutes, or you can select from several presets.
If several people are visiting the site at the same time they queue up to take turns controlling the camera. When you are in control of the camera you have the [...]

Construction has begun on a new rooftop garden at SFMOMA. Making a virtue of the necessity of providing parking, the museum will install the garden atop the parking garage adjacent to their galleries.
I suspect the space will often be used for fundraising parties.
The image shows the glass walkway that will connect the garage garden with [...]

This unusual view of the walkbridge at SFMOMA was from jasper’s photostream. Foreshortened figures are silhouetted by the skylight overheard.

The Fine Arts Museums presents its 24th annual Bouquets to Art at the de Young March 11 through 15 this year. It’s always a good idea to go early before the flowers start to look a little wilted (prepare for crowds). This year floral arrangers will prepare some 150 bouquets to accompany the museum’s regular [...]

 
From February 23 through May 18, SFMOMA will presents an exhibition of photographic works by Lee Friedlander (the show was organized by organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York). B in the D, when photography was getting a little full of itself, Friedlander infused it with irony and energy. His B/W photos often [...]

Abstract Rhythms: Paul Klee and Devendra Banhart is the title of an exhibition at SFMOMA that will feature a performance by Banhart. He will perform 8:00 p.m., January 17, in the Phyllis Wattis Theater. The event is sold out, but the museum is selling tickets for a live simulcast of the performance. Banhart will [...]

“Secret” and “nonprofit” are words that should not appear together. But the donors who have been financing Arnold Schwartzenegger’s jets and luxury suites have until recently somehow managed to keep their names private (despite nonprofit disclosure laws).
The donors receive tax breaks because their donations are made to an organization with nonprofit status. According to [...]

Here’s a song from The Aislers Set that evokes San Francisco (lyrics below the video).

i’ve been in the narrow slashes
velvet red and real as rashes
california’s got me wanting more
four years got me from this caption
generation came to kill
i know you and i know you will
who’ll be sleeping on the mission bells?
leave me or let me [...]

Now that the excitement of the opening of the new de Young Museum has cooled a tad, it might be a good time for a moment of nostalgia. The main entrance to the old de Young is shown below. Straight ahead was a large room with high ceilings, popular for events. The Asian Art Museum [...]

Most museums in the Bay Area waive the regular attendance fee one day a month. Following is a list of these free days. Museums may changes which day is free, so it’s worth calling or checking their websites (links provided below). Please let me know of errors or omissions in this list.
First Monday
Contemporary Jewish Museum [...]

Gap founder Donald Fisher’s announced intention to build a new museum in the Presidio has been widely reported. Namastenancy has posted a good summary. Apparently Mr. Fisher has a fine collection of modern and contemporary art, although it is difficult to tell at this time “whether the Fisher collection has institutional quality, like the Frick, [...]

Yesterday’s mystery image was a detail from a stainless steel “scholar’s rock” by the contemporary Chinese artist Zhan Wang. The example shown is displayed on the patio near the cafe at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park; the green colors were reflections of the trees and plants outside the museum.

That’s what Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes is saying about the De Young Museum under the relatively new directorship of John Buchanan:
Remember this ending to SF Chron art critic Kenneth Baker’s Hiroshi Sugimoto-at-the-de Young review?
Probably the de Young has never seen an exhibition of gravity and elegance to compare with “Hiroshi Sugimoto” and a [...]

The above image fascinates me. It’s from an exhibition of the prints of Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), currently showing at the Asian Art Museum in the city’s civic center.
Yoshitoshi witnessed a period of great transition in Japan, during which the country essentially went from feudalism to modernism. He works out of the ukiyo-e or “floating world” [...]

Some folks at the Asian Art Museum are installing a “manga lounge” for their summer Tezuka exhibition. The lounge will have videos, books, and even a photo machine. The lounge has a youth orientation, but no doubt the occasional old fart will avail himself of the facilities as well.
Astro Boy image from the AAM website

I’ve moved this post to a static html page because it wasn’t formatting properly here.  The new location for the summary of 2007 art exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area is here.

I have in front of me some travel guides to San Francisco. I’m curious to see how they cover the city’s museums, and specifically the Asian Art Museum (hereafter AAM), because I will be putting up a page on the Asian (as it’s commonly known) soon. The results are interesting. Here’s a selection:

Fodor’s barely covers [...]