The 5 Big Stars of the New SFMOMA

The biggest event in the Bay area art scene in the past few years was the 100-year loan by Donald and Doris Fisher, founders of the Gap clothing stores, of their renowned collection of art from the last half of the 20th century to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Fishers had originally dreamed of building their own museum in the Presidio, but the officials at the Presidio were not keen on new, modern, buildings, whereas Director Neil Benezra of SFMOMA offered to partner with the Fishers to add an exciting new wing to the museum where their collection could be handsomely exhibited.

The museum has been closed for three years—long, tedious years for fans of modern art—for the $305 million addition. The work is finishing up now, the collection is in place, and preview days are being given to "charter" members, that is members who continued paying dues during the dark period, like myself and Dan. The new museum opens officially May 14.

We were eager to see what the new building was like, of course, but our major excitement was to experience the Fisher collection, and to understand why it is so highly valued.

The Fisher Collection

The Fisher collection is rooted in blue-chip work of the white male art world of 1960s America and Germany. It compliments the museum's regular collection, since it has many of the same artists. For the opening, the Fisher collection is shown intact, so you will encounter the same artists in two different locations. In the future, the museum will be able to show all the works by the same artist in the same galleries. You can appreciate an artist better when you can see many of their works at the same time. The work of several of my favorite artists is presented in great depth.

The examples below—my own iPad photos—are from the Fisher collection, unless otherwise noted.

Wayne Thiebaud, born 1920

California artist, Wayne Thiebaud, is still working at age 96. Whether he is painting sweet treats or steep streets, flat rivers or towering canyons, demure students or frank nudes, Thiebaud makes it all look delicious, if slightly out of reach. Early in his career, he preferred blunt, straight-on compositions, but later he exploited unusual, if not impossible, perspectives.

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Confections, 1962
SFMOMA's regular collection

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Student, 1968

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Girl with a Pink Hat, 1973

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Sunset Streets, 1985

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Flatland River, 1997

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Valley Streets, 2003

Wayne Thiebaud, b. 1920
Canyon Mountains, 2012

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015

New Yorker Ellsworth Kelly, who just died this past December, was the ultimate minimalist. Minimalism is an approach to art that aims to produce maximum impact with limited means. Kelly confined art to explorations of primary colors and simple geometrical shapes, and the interaction between them. He gave the results importance by making them large and imposing.

The following examples are from a series of multi-panel works from the Fisher collection.

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Red Green, 1968

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Black Triangle with White, 1976

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Yellow Relief with Black, 1993

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Red Curves, 1996

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Red on Red, 2001

Sometimes he created shaped "canvases" from wood or bronze.

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Curve XXI, 1978-1980

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Untitled (Mandorla), 1988
SFMOMA regular collection

Here are two irresistible color experiments from early in his career that are part of the museum's regular collection.

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Spectrum Colors Arranged by Chance, 1951-53
SFMOMA regular collection

Ellsworth Kelly, 1923-2015
Spectrum I, 1953
SFMOMA regular collection

Gerhard Richter,  born 1932

German artist Gerhard Richter has three completely different modes. One is to paint blurry copies of photographs, whether portraits, objects, or scenes. The second is to create intensely contrasting abstractions using various devices to scrape the paint into layers. The third is to experiment with color in a flat, impersonal manner.

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Cityscape Madrid, 1968

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Two Candles, 1982

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Seascape, 1998

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
The Reader, 1994
SFMOMA regular collection

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Janus, 1983

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Abstract Painting, 1992

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
256 Colors, 1974/1984

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Mirror, Blood Red, 1991

Gerhard Richter, b. 1932
Strip, 2012
SFMOMA regular collection

Chuck Close, born 1940

New Yorker Chuck Close paints only faces. He first became known for large-scale, photorealistic portraits using pencil or watercolor.

Chuck Close, b. 1940
Gwynne, 1982 

Then he began experimenting with different media, such as fingerprints made from an ink-pad.

Chuck Close, b. 1940
Phyllis, 1981

To transform photographs into massive images, Close uses a grid system. Gradually, he began focussing on the grid itself, treating each cell as a design element.

Chuck Close, b. 1940
Lorna, 1995

This portrait depicts Close's friend Roy Lichtenstein.

Chuck Close, b. 1940
Roy I, 1994

This portrait shows artist Agnes Martin, whose work the Fishers also collected.

Chuck Close, b. 1940
Agnes, 1998

In the 21st century, Close has made wall-size tapestry portraits, composed of thousands of combinations of woven colored thread.

Chuck Close, b. 1940
Lorna, 2006

It should be noted that Chuck Close became a star despite several handicaps. In addition to being dyslexic, he has a rare condition that makes him unable to recognize faces—hence his obsession. In 1988, after he was already a celebrated artist, Close had a seizure that left him paralyzed from the neck down—spinal artery collapse. Although he has regained a small degree of mobility in his limbs, the brush must now be taped to his arm, and he relies on an assistant to create the grids for his paintings and to manipulate the position of the canvas. If anything, his work has become even more interesting.

Anselm Kiefer, born 1945

German painter Anselm Kiefer is concerned with the history and culture of his country, and dwells on scenes of destruction and loss in wall-size paintings that often incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. He also does sculptural installations on the same themes.

Anselm Kiefer, b. 1945
Margarethe, 1981

Anselm Kiefer, b. 1945
Wayland’s Song, 1982

Anselm Kiefer, b. 1945
Sulamith, 1983

Anselm Kiefer, b. 1945
Operation Sea Lion, 1983-84

Anselm Kiefer, b. 1945
Melancholia, 1991

The Big Five

Who was that again? In chronological order.

Wayne Thiebaud is a California artist whose style is realistic with romantic overtones.

New Yorker Ellsworth Kelly was the ultimate minimalist painter.

German artist Gerhard Richter does blurry paintings of photographs, scraped paintings with intense colors, and detached color experiments.

American Chuck Close paints only faces, usually on a very large scale, in a variety of techniques.

German Anselm Kiefer dwells on scenes of destruction using natural materials such as weeds and lead.

Now when you visit SFMOMA, instead of saying, "Huh?" you can say, "Oh sure. I recognize his style."

Women in the Fisher Collection

Although the Fisher collection has many impressive holdings, it doesn't earn any points for diversity or adventurousness. The only woman artist shown in depth is a minimalist named Agnes Martin. Several of her meditative works are exhibited in a hexagonal room, where they create a sort of temple of serenity.

Agnes Martin, 1912-2004
Night Sea, 1963

Agnes Martin, 1912-2004
Drift of Summer, 1965

Agnes Martin, 1912-2004
Untitled #9, 1995

Works by only three other women from the Fisher collection are exhibited in the opening show.

Joan Mitchell, 1925-1992
Harm’s Way, 1987

Lee Krasner, 1908-1984
Polar Stampede, 1960

Pat Steir, b. 1938
Three Pointed Waterfall, 1990

Women Artists in the Collection of SFMOMA

Fortunately, SFMOMA's regular collection includes paintings by several other women.

Possibly the greatest portrait painter of the 20th century was Alice Neel. Although Chuck Close depicted faces, he didn't do character studies, in the tradition of Rembrandt, for instance. Neil's portraits are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color and their insight into character.

Alice Neel, 1900-1984
Geoffrey Hendricks and Brian, 1978

American Dorothea Tanning, who lived to be 102 years old, had formidable creativity that expressed itself in sculpture and poetry as well as in painting. Her early painting style was influenced by Surrealism. The painting below expresses a common feeling for people whose consciousness is expanding.

Dorothea Tanning, 1910-2012
Self-Portrait, 1944

Bay Area artist Jay DeFeo is associated with Beat Generation artists. In her characteristic works she used thickeners to give the paint the texture and malleability. She used palette knives and other tools to sculpt it into a dramatic shape. This example emulates the swirl of a cape used in a bull fight.

Jay DeFeo, 1929-1989
The Verónica, 1957

Another Bay Area artist associated with the Beat Generation is Joan Brown. Her work was entirely figurative and autobiographical, but her style was constantly evolving. She swam in San Francisco Bay daily, and was especially proud of having swam to Alcatraz. Her paintings are frequently about swimming.

Joan Brown, 1938-1990
After the Alcatraz Swim 1, (1975)

Vija Celmins was born in Latvia, but immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was 10 years old. She is known for photorealistic paintings of natural environments.

Vija Celmins, b. 1938
Night Sky #16, 2001

Hung Liu was born in China during the Maoist regime, and came to the U.S. in her mid-30s to attend UC San Diego. She currently lives in Oakland, and her works may often be seen in Bay Area museums. Her paintings are generally based on historical Chinese photographs and treat the loss of a way of life of everyday people.

Hung Liu, b. 1948
The Botanist, 2013 

Dana Schutz is a young American who uses an audacious palette and tension-filled humor to create unique images loaded with symbolic possibilities.

Dana Schutz, b. 1976
Ear on Fire, 2012

Modern and Contemporary Sculpture

The Fisher collection also includes several masterpieces of 20th-century sculpture. Combined with SFMOMA's regular collection, the museum is now able to show a fairly complete survey of sculpture in that century. The following examples come from both collections, as noted.

Sculptors adopted abstraction more readily than painters. It seemed natural to create whole new forms instead of laboring to imitate reality.

Women sculptors of the 20th century were so bold and ingenious that the art world was less concerned with their gender than in painting.

The first important abstract sculptor was Englishman Henry Moore. In the first half of the century his works dominated the museum landscape.

Henry Moore, 1898-1986
Working Model for ‘Oval with Points,’ 1969
Fisher Collection

His close contemporary, Barbara Hepworth, also an English artist, explored some of the same problems with her work. It has taken her work a longer time to build a reputation, but it is now common to see at least one example in important collections of modern art.

Barbara Hepworh, 1903-1975
Sphere with Inner Form, 1963
Fisher Collection

In America, the most recognizable name in 20th century sculpture is Isamu Noguchi, who was born in Los Angeles, but whose father was Japanese. He was working in a similar abstract tradition to Moore and Hepworth, with more respect for natural materials and more spontaneity.

Isamu Noguchi, 1904-1988
Shodo Flowing, 1959
Fisher Collection

Isamu Noguchi, 1904-1988
Cronos, 1947-1964
SFMOMA Collection

Isamu Noguchi, 1904-1988
Samothrace, 1984
Fisher Collection

American sculptor Beverly Pepper has used so many different styles and materials that it is difficult to recognize her style, which is one reason her name is not better known. In the past few decades most important collections of modern sculpture have at least one of her works. The Fishers collected one that developed in Noguchi's direction.

Beverly Pepper, b. 1924
Tarquinia Cone Column, 1981
Fisher Collection

West Coast icon Ruth Asawa turned sculpture on its head. Instead of carving, modeling, or using a mold to make a form, she built shapes from wire. Her forms continued in the same abstract tradition, but she arranged them so as to include their shadows in the whole.

Ruth Asawa, 1926-2013
Untitled (S.046abcd), c. 1960
Collection of SFMOMA

Ruth Asawa, 1926-2013
Untitled (S.114, Hanging, Six-Lobed Continuous Form with a Form), c. 1960
Collection of SFMOMA

Minimalism hit sculpture with terrific impact, and it dominates the Fisher Collection. Minimalism in sculpture has to do with simple, geometric shapes, often in repeated patterns. The materials are usually interesting in themselves, and the manufacture is usually very refined. The perfect example of this is the work of American sculptor Donald Judd. This one is made of copper and plexiglas. It's hard to keep your hands off it.

Donald Judd, 1928-1994
Untitled, 1988
Fisher Collection

Dan Flavin, an American sculptor, added two radical ideas to minimalist sculpture. By working exclusively with regular fluorescent bulbs, he introduced the idea of using standardized industrial units as well as using light to create form.

Dan Flavin, 1933-1996
the diagonal of May 25, 1963
Collection of SFMOMA

Dan Flavin, 1933-1996
“monument” for V. Tatlin, 1969
Fisher Collection

Dan Flavin, 1933-1996
untitled (to Barnett Newman) two, 1971
Collection of SFMOMA

American minimalist sculptor Carl Andre is easy to overlook because his work might lie right on the floor or hide in a corner. It doesn't offer color to make a splash; it doesn't use luxury materials. The forms it takes are abstract ways of defining space. The Fishers collected several of his pieces.

Carl Andre, b. 1935
Copper-Zinc Plain, 1969
Fisher Collection

Carl Andre, b. 1935
Belgica Blue Tin Raster, 1990
Fisher Collection

Carl Andre, b. 1935
13th PbFe Triangle, 1987
Fisher Collection

Carl Andre, b. 1935
9th Cedar Corner, 2007
Fisher Collection

Carl Andre, b. 1935
Furrow, 1981
Fisher Collection

Minimalism is way too rigid for artists like American sculptor Mark di Suvero. He is interested in applying the wild freedom of abstract expressionism to sculpture. He complicated the problem by using rough materials, like left-overs from a construction project. This in turn created some tricky problems in balance.

Mark di Suvero, b. 1933
Che farò senza Eurydice, 1959
Collection of SFMOMA

Balance was also a major interest of American sculptor Richard Serra. Early in his career he produced exercises in balancing heavy materials, without apparent concern for aesthetic effect. This is a type of Minimalism.

Richard Serra, b. 1938
Floor Pole Prop, 1969
Fisher Collection

Richard Serra, b. 1938
House of Cards, 1969/1978
Fisher Collection

Richard Serra, b. 1938
1-1-1-1, 1969/1986
Fisher Collection

In the 21st century Serra began working with curved forms on a huge scale. Balance is still important because these rolled steel structures are free-standing; only certain geometrical shapes can maintain stability. The totally new factor is that the shapes are so large you can walk in them, and experience space in a whole new way. Serra is as concerned with shaping space as with shaping steel.

Richard Serra, b. 1938
Sequence, 2006
Fisher Collection

Another artist who plays with balance is American sculptor Joel Shapiro. He composes forms out of rigid beams, but somehow they playfully evoke the humanoid.

Joel Shapiro, b. 1941
Untitled, 1989
Collection of SFMOMA

English sculptor Richard Long represents a whole new way of thinking about sculpture, generally known as 'land art.' In general these artists use materials directly from nature, selected and arranged in an aesthetic form. Although Long's art takes various forms, in museums, it is generally shown as circles composed of similar natural stones. Sometimes a museum will commission a work from stone that is local to the area.

Richard Long, born 1945
Autumn Circle, 1990
Fisher Collection

The only work by a black artist that was shown in the opening exhibit of the Fisher Collection  was a sculpture by Martin Puryear. However, SFMOMA has a long-standing commitment to Puryear, so they complemented the Fisher piece with two from their regular collection. The unique element about his style is his concern for hand craftsmanship Notice that these works are from the 21st century.

Martin Puryear, b. 1941
Two Plus Seven, 2004
Collection of SFMOMA

Martin Puryear, b. 1941
Title unrecorded
Collection of SFMOMA

Martin Puryear, b. 1941
Malediction, 2007
Fisher Collection

One of the most extraordinary contemporary sculptors is Anish Kapoor, who was born in Bombay but has lived and worked in London since his twenties. His works frequently feature distorted reflections and perceptual illusions. When you look at the next piece straight on it appears flat; from an angle you see a black hole.

Anish Kapoor, b. 1954
Vortex, 2004
Collection of SFMOMA

Anish Kapoor, b. 1954
Vortex, 2004 (detail)

But where are all the people? Some sculptors stubbornly pursued the figure in the 20th century despite the dominant trend toward abstraction, but instead of carving or modeling free-hand, they tended to use some complicated technique to apply a mold directly to the subject. George Segal deliberately left his figures crude and artificial, while giving them 'real' settings.

George Segal, 1924-2000
Woman Shaving Her Leg, 1963
Fisher Collection

By contrast, Duane Hanson finished his figures with such detail that museum visitors sometimes assume they are real people, and stroll right by them. This model for the next example was the artist's own son.

Duane Hanson, 1925-1996
Policeman, 1994
Fisher Collection

Duane Hanson, 1925-1996
Policeman, 1994
Fisher Collection

Los Angeles-based artist Charles Ray used ultra-realistic modeling for the next work, but he elevated the subject by rendering it in polished stainless steel. The homeless sleeper may be a permanent fixture, but she has a kind of dignity of her own.

Charles Ray, b. 1953
Sleeping woman, 2012
Collection of SFMOMA

Charles Ray, b. 1953
Sleeping woman, 2012
Collection of SFMOMA

One of the biggest names among women sculptors is Kiki Smith, an American artist whose work tends to treat the roles women play. Her forms vary, but she typically uses real figures in symbolic situations. This example is benignly realistic except for the outsize head and slightly compressed modeling.

Kiki Smith, b. 1954
Guard, 2005
Collection of SFMOMA

English sculptor Marc Quinn is interested in the contemporary practice of people creating their own look and using their skin as a canvas for a personal statement. This example is molded from concrete.

Marc Quinn, b. 1964
Zombie Boy (City), 2011
Collection of SFMOMA

Marc Quinn, b. 1964
Zombie Boy (City), 2011 (detail)
Collection of SFMOMA

Another British sculptor, Antony Gormley, used metal bars to create a human figure that expresses the way sub-atomic particles and energy that make up our bodies is integrated with those that compose the universe around us.

Antony Gormley, b. 1950
Quantum Cloud VIII, 1999
Fisher Collection

Another group of sculptors re-created or re-used real objects with some sort of symbolic distortion. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen generally recreated common objects on a massive scale.

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Inverted Collar and Tie — Third Version, 1993
Fisher Collection

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Geometric Apple Core, 1991
Fisher Collection

Sherrie Levine, an American artist who is better known for photography, created a urinal from bronze. This is a reference to a famous Dada art trick in which Marcel Duchamp exhibited an ordinary urinal as a work of art, as a sort of snub to the art world establishment.

Sherrie Levine, b. 1947
Fountain, After Marcel Duchamp, 1991
Collection of SFMOMA

American artist Jeff Koons—infamous for his massive chrome-plated balloon-dogs—created a perfect bouquet of wooden flowers. Koons' work is generally about realizing popular dreams and raising ordinary pleasures to high art.

Jeff Koons, b. 1955
Large Vase of Flowers, 1991
Collection of SFMOMA

Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei made an aesthetic statement by dipping ancient Chinese clay vessels in modern house paints. Is it a shame to mar these old pots, or has he re-purposed them for the modern market?

Ai Weiwei, b. 1957
Colored Vases, 2007
Collection of SFMOMA

The New Building

The new wing of SFMOMA— essentially a whole new building—works quite well, especially considering the architectural challenges. The Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta crammed a huge structure that triples the museum's exhibition area into a long, improbably-shaped space that didn't even seem to exist before they started. The galleries have abundant, even light and a layout that is fairly easy to figure out. Wide halls and gathering places will facilitate the flow of crowds when it opens May 14.

Aesthetically, the new structure is a little disappointing. The exterior is an off-white cloak of fiberglass-reinforced polymer panels that are rippled to suggest the waves in the bay, or perhaps a layer of fog. It sticks out like a sore thumb above the classy original building by Mario Botta. This awkward choice is justified by the fact that stone or brick cladding would have made the building too heavy. It is also noteworthy that artificial cladding with an arbitrary pattern seems to be part of a contemporary pattern, as the new Broad Museum in Los Angeles has a similar facing with a net-like pattern.

The interior is a good example of Minimalism. The galleries do nothing to call attention to themselves. The flooring is bland, compared to the rich black stonework in the Botta building, and the woodwork is pale birch, compared to the warm teak-colored woodwork in the original building. These decisions were probably economic, but they also create a very modest, disappearing sort of atmosphere. The aesthetic touches are exterior balconies for sculpture and views, long hallways with well-placed stairways, and plenty of windows to connect the museum with the city.

The expanded SFMOMA, with its spacious new building and its impressive new Fisher Collection, is a great asset to the city and is bound to be a major tourist draw.