On May 21, 2010, the first international SF Fine Art Fair in nearly a decade opened its doors to the public for three days of art, lectures, and events. It featured 75+ worldwide galleries, and displayed over 6000 modern and contemporary artworks by more than 500 artists.

Gwen, Erin Amber

Attendees to the SF Fine Art Fair viewed and purchased works from collections held by galleries from across the globe, in a 50,000 sq. ft. setting designed to highlight a spectacular selection of modern and contemporary paintings, works on paper, drawings, printed editions, photography, and sculpture (both indoors and outdoors) by the world’s leading artists.

Tracy Boche, Kelly Purcell, Morgan Carey

Notes SF Fine Art Fair Executive Director Rick Friedman, “We’re excited to launch the new SF Fine Art Fair and to create an annual event that brings together hundreds of modern and contemporary artworks from an international array of galleries.  In celebration of the launch of the 2010 SF Fine Art Fair and the fantastic local support we’ve been receiving, we decided to direct a portion of the Fair’s funds towards highlighting the rich culture of arts in the Bay Area.  To that end, we’re hosting a fundraising event to help an internationally renowned San Francisco arts institution; honoring a local long time dedicated supporter of the arts; and providing financial support to an important local arts and technology organization for the installation of a truly magnificent entrance sculpture.”

Kevin Moore, John Wentz

Patricia Araujo, Kimberly Johansson

Susan Collins, Jeremy Stone

Doug Nester, Kirsten Stolle, Marshall Crossman, Julie Nester

Karen Caldwell, Jacques Pantazes, Dana Ziegler

Katherine Clarke, Earl Niendorf

Michael Meier, Laura Hespe

Carlos Saura, Briana Tarantino

Monica Duque, William Rohdes

Ruth Braunstein, Roselyne Swig

SF Fine Art Fair Nikki Brown, Rob Shooter, Christina Gerber

Cassandria Blackmore, Jon Dombrowski

In celebration of her return to the Bay Area, guests were invited to visit her storefront studio at 1906 Fillmore Street, where Blackmore hopes to engage the public in her work. Attendees entered the studio, where lifeless white walls were brought to life by the inspirational creations that have made Cassandria Blackmore so relevant, and enjoyed cocktails as well as the opportunity to converse with the artist herself.

Larry Hitchon, Craig Williams

Tasneem Karimbhai, Zahid Sardar

Katie Kovacich, Susan Howell

David Hansen, Brian Dittmar, Chris Franci

Cassandria Blackmore, Danny Perkins

Jay Singh, Robert Betes, Steve Gordon

Joan Kruckewitt, Danny Perkins, Jay Musler

The ten special guest curators included Apsara DiQuinzio, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA; Rudolf Frieling, Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA; Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA; Betti-Sue Hertz, Director of Visual Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Hou Hanru, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, SFAI; Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Corey Keller, Associate Curator of Photography, SFMOMA; Jeannene Przyblyski, Dean of Academic Affairs, SFAI; Lisa Sutcliffe, Assistant Curator of Photography, SFMOMA; and John Zarobell, Assistant Curator of Collections, Exhibitions, and Commissions, SFMOMA.

The Preview Party was sponsored by Hangar One, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, McCalls Catering, and Trumer Brauerei Berkeley.

Lokelani Devone, Jeanene Przyblyski, Joyce Newstat

Cherie Turner, Cara Storm, Alisa Carroll

Nicole Buffett (SFAI Trustee and Host Committee), Jim Ludwig

Lee Gregory (SFAI Trustee, Host Committee) and Marianna Stark (Host Committee)

Sandy Gerner, Sue Moldaw, Jenny Emerson

Rudolf Frieling (Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA), Penelope Finnie (SFAI Trustee, Host Committee), and Michael Costuros (SFAI Trustee)

Jack Schafer & Betty Schafer (Honorary Committee)

Dalida Maria Benfield, Chris Bratton (SFAI President), and Karen Kubin (SFAI supporter)

Robert Bechtle (artist), Whitney Chadwick (sFAI Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, Host Committee)

Tim Berry (SFAI, Chair of Printmaking Department), Roselyn Swig (SFAI Trustee Emeritus and Honorary Committee), William Wiley (Artist, SFAI Alumnus), Robert Bechtle (Artist)

Kirby Sack, Paul Sack (SFAI Trustee Emeritus, Honorary Committee)

Cara Storm, Roselyne Swig (SFAI Trustee Emeritus and Honorary Committee), and Rudolf Frieling (Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA)

Kate Sanger, John Sanger (SFAI Chair of Board of Trustees), and Nicole Buffett (SFAI Trustee, Host Committee)

Andrew Brown (SFAI Supporter), Adriane Iann (SFAI Supporter), Diane Frankel (SFAI Trustee, Host Committee)

Hou Hanru (SFAI, Director of Exhibitions and Galleries) and Huang Yong Ping (Artist and 2010 SFAI Honorary Doctorate recipient)

In anticipation of the de Young’s “Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay,” which debuts on May 22, 2010, ABC 7 News has produced a fantastic, 46 minute program about the exhibition and the artists who will be featured. ABC’s Spencer Christian went to Paris to interview key players, and did a really first-rate job. It’s rare that such in-depth art coverage makes it to mainstream television. Bravo to ABC, Spencer Christian and of course the Fine Arts Museum for making this all happen!

The de Young is proud to be the only museum in the world to present two consecutive special exhibitions from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The first exhibition, Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, debuts at the de Young on May 22 and runs through September 6, 2010.

Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay presents nearly 100 magnificent works by the famous masters who called France their home during the mid- to late-19th century and from whose midst arose one of the most original and recognizable of all artistic styles, Impressionism. The exhibition begins with paintings by the great academic artist Bouguereau and the arch-Realist Courbet, and includes American expatriate Whistler’s Arrangement in Gray and Black, known to many as “Whistler’s Mother.” Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Sisley are showcased with works dating from the 1860s through 1880s, along with a selection of Degas’ paintings that depict images of the ballet, the racetrack, and life in the Belle Époque.

Notable works in this exhibition include:

The Fife Player by Edouard Manet (1866)
Racehorses Before the Stands by Edgar Degas (1866–1868)
Family Reunion by Frédéric Bazille (1867)
The Magpie by Claude Monet (1868)
The Cradle by Berthe Morisot (1872)
The Dancing Lesson by Edgar Degas (1873–1876)
The Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte (1875)
The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)
Red Roofs, Corner of the Village, Winter Effect by Camille Pissarro (1877)
Saint-Lazare Station by Claude Monet (1877)
Rue Montorgueil, Paris. Festival of June 30, 1878 by Claude Monet (1878)
Snow at Louveciennes by Alfred Sisley (1878)
L’Estaque by Paul Cézanne (1878–1879)
Portraits at the Stock Exchange by Edgar Degas (1878–1879)
The Birth of Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1879)

During this time also visit the Legion of Honor to see a special exhibition that provides context and heightens the understanding of Birth of Impressionism. Impressionist Paris: City of Light, on view from June 5 to September 26, 2010, transports museum visitors to Paris circa 1874 as represented in over 150 prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, and illustrated books from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and several private collectors.

The true identity of the compelling artist remains a mystery to this day, with reports from British and New York media claiming he was born in Bristol in 1974, and that his real name is either Robin Banks, Roberto Banksion, or Robin Gunningham.

The owners of the Chinatown building at Commercial and Grant, on whose wall Banksy stenciled this image of a doctor, didn’t care who the guy was as they accepted his $50 offer for use of the wall.

Other Banksy’s were spotted at Howard and 9th, Mission and Sycamore, Haight and Belvedere, near a Freeway, and above 849 Valencia.

Banksy’s signature rat at Howard and 9th.

Above 849 Valencia Street

Sycamore Street and Mission

This image takes up the full corner of Haight and Belvedere

Empty Parking Lot, Erie and Mission

Photos: Violet Blue [via flickr.com]
Further Information: Baxter and Cook Art Advisors [baxterandcook.com]
Further information: Eddie [eddiecolla.wordpress.com]

Willie Brown Jr. & Sonya Molodetskaya

We were delighted to attend the The Museum of African Diaspora’s (MoAD) recent celebration of its 4th birthday in San Francisco. Committed to connecting all people through the celebration and exploration of art, culture and history of the African Diaspora, the museum recently appointed veteran arts administrator Grace C. Stanislaus as its new Executive Director.

“Love Bush,” by Richard Mayhew

This year’s gala not only served as Ms. Stanislaus’ coming-out-party, it also brought together some of the movers and shakers of San Francisco’s business and financial world in support of the institution. It started with a VIP reception at the MoAD where guests were treated to a private tour of the retrospective of Richard Mayhew’s work, on display at the museum through January 10th, 2010. It then moved to the ballroom at the St. Regis for dinner and the awards presentations, followed by dancing to the sounds of Motown provided by Top Shelf.

Leonard Berry, Richard Mayhew, Grace Stanislaus

The honorees for 2009 were Frankie Jacobs Gilette, founding MoAD board member, Frederick E. Jordan, CEO of F.E. Jordan & Associates, Kenneth P. McNeely, president of AT&T California, and Lloyd Dean, President & CEO of Catholic Healthcare West. Pam Moore and of KRON 4 and Dave Clark of KTVU Channel 2 served as Master and Mistress of Ceremonies, and the awards were presented by MoAD’s president Ernest H. Urquhart and Willie Brown Jr.

Frankie Jacobs-Gillette, Maxwell Gillette

Maija Frisble, Ernie Bates, Marlene Bates

Anna Banks, Gregory Hunter, Christina Anderson, Tarrell Gamble

Martha Gonzales & Manuel Diaz

Frederick E. Jordan

Claudia Juestel & Holly Baxter

Ernest Urquhart

Pam Moore & Harold Jones

Stefano Cassolato, Patty-Jo Rutland, Steve Ike

Nancy Hollis, Les Hollis, Sabrina Brutus, Jacques Brutus

Michele Davis & Gladys Moore

Tarrell Gamble, Kimberly Freeman, Harold Lowe, Tamera Raspberry

Nathan Dean, Nicole Dean, Suzanne Dean, Lloyd Dean

Sophie Maxwell & Brenda Winstead

Dave Clark & Rosalynn Smith-Clark

Kenneth P. McNeely & Fran Streets

Brenda Wright & Steve Bowdr

Photos: Drew Altizer [drewaltizer.com]

1. Raphael’s chalk drawing “Head of a Muse” sold for 29.2 million pounds ($47.6 million at the time) at Christie’s London on Dec. 8, setting an auction record for a work of art on paper. It was bought on the telephone, dealers said, by the U.S.-based collector Leon Black, chief executive of Apollo Global Management LLC and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

2. Henri Matisse’s 1911 still life of cowslips, “Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose” from the collection of late couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge fetched 35.9 million euros ($45.6 million), an artist record, at a Christie’s Paris auction on Feb. 23. The buyer was New York- based dealer Franck Giraud.

3. Andy Warhol’s 1962 silkscreen painting of 200 one-dollar bills sold for $43.8 million at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 11.

4. Constantin Brancusi’s wooden sculpture “Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.),” dated 1914-17, raised 29.2 million euros ($37.1 million) at Christie’s Feb. 23 auction in Paris from the collection of Saint Laurent and Berge.

5. Rembrandt’s 1658 “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo” sold for 20.2 million pounds ($32.9 million) to a telephone bidder, later identified as Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn. The painting was sold by Johnson & Johnson heiress Barbara Piasecka Johnson at Christie’s London on Dec. 8.

6. An Art Deco armchair with lacquered wood arms shaped as dragons, by designer Eileen Gray, raised 21.9 million euros ($28.1 million), more than 10 times its low estimate at Christie’s Paris. The work from the collection of Saint Laurent and Berge established an auction record for 20th-century design.

7. Piet Mondrian’s 1922 abstract “Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir” fetched 21.6 million euros ($27.4 million) at Christie’s Paris sale from the collection of Saint Laurent and Berge.

8. The Eighteen Arhats, A Ming-dynasty scroll by Wu Bin made 170 million yuan ($25 million) at Poly International Auction Co. in Beijing in November. Shanghai-based collector and stock-investor Liu Yiqian bought the work.

9. Alberto Giacometti’s figure of a falling man, “L’Homme Qui Chavire,” sold by Conde Nast chairman S. I. Newhouse Jr., fetched $19.4 million at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 4.

10. Edgar Degas’s bronze sculpture, “Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans” (1922) sold for 13.3 million pounds ($19.2 million) at Sotheby’s London on Feb. 3.

Further Reading: Bloomberg

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Musée d’Orsay have jointly announced two consecutive special exhibitions, Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay and Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay which will be on view at the de Young Museum for a combined eight months beginning in May 2010 and ending in January 2011.

Each exhibition will include approximately 100 paintings from the Musée d’Orsay’s permanent collection and highlights the work of nearly 40 artists including Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Rousseau, Seurat, Sisley, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and Vuillard.

The Musée d’Orsay will loan the exhibitions while it undergoes a partial closure for refurbishment and reinstallation in anticipation of the Musée’s 25th anniversary in 2011. The de Young will be the only museum in the world to host both exhibitions. Tickets for the general public will go on sale on March 15, 2010.

“These two exhibitions present a rare and unique opportunity for Americans to see the evolution and incubation of the Impressionist style from the collection of the most important repository of French 19th and early 20th century art — the Musée d’Orsay,” says John E. Buchanan, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

“These exhibitions give us the opportunity to share with visitors some of the most seminal works of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art that they would only be able to see in Paris or in an art history book as the likelihood of them traveling en masse again is slim.”

Self-portrait with Yellow Christ. Paul Gauguin. 1890-1891.

The first exhibition, Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay opens in the Herbst special exhibition galleries at the de Young on May 22, 2010 and runs through September 6, 2010. This exhibition puts forth nearly 100 works by the famous masters who called France their home during the mid-19th century and from whose midst arose one of the most original and recognizable of all artistic styles, Impressionism.

This exhibition begins with paintings by naturalist artists such as Bougereau and Courbet and presents American expatriate James McNeil Whistler’s Arrangement in Gray and Black, known to many as “Whistler’s Mother.” Early work by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Sisley are on view as well as a selection of Degas’ paintings that depict images of the ballet, the racetrack and life in “la Belle Époque.” Notable works in this exhibition include:

The Fife Player by Edouard Manet (1866)
Family Reunion by Frédéric Bazille (1867)
Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 or Portrait of the Artist’s Mother by James McNeil Whistler (1871)
The Birth of Venus by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1879)
The Cradle by Berthe Morisot (1872)
Saint-Lazare Station by Claude Monet (1877)
The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)
Rue Montorgueil, Paris. Festival of June 30, 1878 by Claude Monet
Racehorses Before the Stands by Edgar Degas (1866-1868)
The Dancing Lesson by Edgar Degas (1873-1876)
Portraits at the Stock Exchange by Edgar Degas (1878-1879)

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1; Portrait of The Artist’s Mother. James Abbott McNeill Whistler. 1871.

The second exhibition, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post- Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay opens on September 25, 2010 and runs through January 18, 2011. This exhibition presents 120 of the Musée d’Orsay’s most famous late Impressionist paintings including those by Monet and Renoir, followed by the more individualistic styles of the early modern masters including Cézanne, Gauguin, Lautrec and van Gogh, and the Nabis painters, Bonnard and Vuillard. The exhibition will also provide a unique look at the Orsay’s spectacular collection of Pointillist painters including work by Seurat and Signac.

Notable works in this exhibition include:

A Dance in the Country by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1883)
The Circus by George Seurat (1891)
Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh (1887)
Starry Night over the Rhone by Vincent van Gogh (1888)
The Artist’s Bedroom at Arles by Vincent van Gogh (1889)
Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin (1889)
Tahitian Women, On the Beach by Paul Gauguin (1891)
Still Life with Onions by Paul Cézanne (1895)
The Snake Charmer by Henri Rousseau (1907)

Tickets for both exhibitions will be timed and dated. Group tickets will be available on October 1, 2009. Member tickets will be available January 31, 2010.

Concurrent Exhibitions at the Legion of Honor

Two special exhibitions that provide context and heighten the understanding of the Musée d’Orsay exhibitions will run concurrently at the Legion of Honor. Impressionist Paris: City of Light (May 22–September 6, 2010) transports visitors to Paris circa 1874 as represented in over 100 paintings, photographs, prints, drawings and illustrated books from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and several private collectors. The Japanese Print in the Era of Impressionism (September 25, 2010 – January 2, 2011) presents a chronological survey of the development of the Japanese print and its influence on the Impressionist painters.

Organization

The Musée d’Orsay exhibitions are organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with gratitude for exceptional loans from the Musée d’Orsay. Stéphane Guégan and Sylvie Patry serve as organizing curators for the Musée d’Orsay and Dr. Lynn Federle Orr serves as organizing curator for the de Young.

About the Musée d’Orsay

The Musée d’Orsay, a train station created for the Paris International Exposition of 1900 and transformed into a museum by renowned architect Gae Aulenti, opened to the public on December 9, 1986 with its goal to highlight the art of the western world from the period 1848 through 1914. Its collection, one of the world’s finest, is comprised of paintings, sculpture, drawings, decorative arts, furniture, photography, and architectural work from this period consolidated from collections of the Louvre, Jeu de Paume and Modern Art Museum in Paris as well as major gifts from private collectors, artists and their heirs. The Musée d’Orsay’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings represent the finest survey of its kind in the world.

About the de Young

The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international textile arts and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

A Better Worlds In Birth, by Hung Liu, 2007

I recently encountered the work of the Chinese-American artist, Hung Liu, who lives in Oakland but has been exhibited and featured internationally.

She is known for paintings drawn from Chinese historical photography, and for focusing on what she calls the “mythic poses” underlaying the photographic surfaces of history. She often paints mundane activities, such as women working at a loom, or someone crossing a river, but gives her scenes a powerful, poetic force, suggesting that there is more going on in ordinary life than we could ever imagine.

Perusing her website, I fell in love with “A Better Worlds In Birth,” from 2007, a painting which shows the bloody, bubbling stew of nature compressed between two bands of gray. The gray seems to have the appearance of clay, the material from which one could make some exquisite object or, in the case of the Biblical story, man himself, derived from the red earth.

The painting is an image of creation, or as the title suggests, the next creation. But it’s also an image that explores the tense interplay between life and death. Are the drippings of red which run down the bottom the spilled blood of the dead, or the new roots of the living?

In evoking these questions, and more, Hung Liu has, in my view, created a painting which speaks honestly to the anxieties of our age. She gives us something primal, powerful and dangerous, but ultimately, she gives us an image of hope, with the promise that our new world will be a better world.

Hung Liu, visiting China in 2008

• Photos: Via Hung Liu [www.hungliu.com]
• Gallery: Rena Bransten, San Francisco [renabranstengallery.com]
• Gallery: Paulson Press Gallery, Berkeley [paulsonpress.com]
• Text: Damion Matthews [sfluxe.com]