Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Northern California for a whirlwind tour of wine country. On the day we were to return home, we came back to San Francisco with a few hours to spare before our flight. My travel companions, not at all interested in art, had a hankering to sit in a bar and have sushi and beer. As undeniably compelling that sounds, I decided instead to take a quick side trip into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to see the big Garry Winogrand retrospective.
There are more than 300 photographs in the exhibition, about half of which are being seen for the first time, having come from the more than 6,500 (!) rolls of film that he left behind after his death at age 56. Winogrand was an extremely prolific and influential photographer; his preferred subject matter being people going about their daily life on the streets of New York and all over the country. He shot more than 20,000 rolls of film during his lifetime; a number that is difficult for me to comprehend in the days before digital made it so easy. The press release for the show is well worth reading to get an idea of the character and scope of his work and influence.
In 2 short hours, I wasn’t able to see everything I would have liked to, but another exhibit I spent some time exploring was Don’t Be Shy, Don’t Hold Back, a selection of contemporary works that were the gift of collectors Vicki and Kent Logan. According to the overview, “The Logans have been guided in their collecting by a commitment to the work of living artists and a belief that the best contemporary art reflects the culture and society of its era. They are unequivocal in their willingness to engage with artworks that bring to light uncomfortable or challenging subjects that might be easier to avoid than embrace. Over the years they have consistently sought out work that is vigorous and vital by artists whose integrity and intensity have brought new perspectives to bear on conventional assumptions about the art and culture of our time.”
These works include some artists who have been able to make a pretty comfortable living by being “challenging” and controversial, like Tracey Emin, John Currin, and Damien Hirst (obligatory flayed animal head in vitrine looks just as you’d expect). There are some that are quieter and more thoughtful, and one or two that will undeniably make some people squirm, like Jenny Saville’s Hem. A monumental painting, it features “mountainous curves and valleys, highlights and shadows …
By far my favorite thing about going to an important art museum is seeing in person any work that I’d been familiar with from books or the internet. A good number of the old standbys and favorites on view: Robert Rauschenberg (always LOVE seeing the older ones close up — they seem so familiar now, it’s hard to imagine how they must have seemed back in the context of the time they were first seen), Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, Ellsworth Kelly — and even a real-live Duchamp Fountain (Number 4 in the artist-sanctioned remakes after the original disappeared soon after its creation in 1917). See the black-and-white Cite (1951) by Ellsworth Kelly – so like a beautiful contemporary quilt.
There were a lot of other things I didn’t have time for. I’ll just have to go back again soon.
