a day out

I had a day out, out of the house and out of town.  With the help of a friend and Grandad the kids were taken care of and I spent the day having fun with the women of the family.  We had lunch at the Rotunda restaurant on the top floor of Neiman Marcus on Union Square.  The stained glass rotunda as beautiful and the food was delicious.  We then stopped in at Britex fabrics.  There were lots of gorgeous silks and wool fabrics, but the prices were definitely luxurious as well.  It was fun to shop, but I didn't bring anything home.  I've had some good luck with the remnant selection on the top floor in the past, but there wasn't anything very interesting today.

Then on to the SFMOMA.  Their main exhibit  (reviewed here) features the collection from the Stein family which includes a lot of work by Matisse, Picasso and their contemporaries.  It is always interesting to go to a museum and see what makes it in to the exhibit and what catches your eye.  Even work by celebrated artists isn't always that interesting.  This piece by Matisse was very popular and was quite interesting, and I generally like his work, but not everything was that great.  There were some that I really liked, but it seemed like this exhibit could have used a little bit more careful editing, but who am I to critique their curatorial eye.  One thing that I really liked was the blown up photographs showing the paintings in the exhibit on display in the various homes of the Stein family.

 Matisse - Woman with hat (31" x 23")

Some of my favorite pieces of the day were in a different exhibit that was selected from the museum's permanant collection.  I've seen prints of Mark Rothko's work on posters and in books and it seems a little muddy and dull, so simple, not at all interesting.  It is completely different in person.  Part of that could be the scale.  This piece is HUGE and the layering of the colors is so interesting, rich warm purple, bright tomato red and vibrant blue.

Rothko - No. 14 1960 (114" x 105")

There were several pieces by Clyfford Still which I really liked.  This one was my favorite.  Yellow has always been my favorite color.  Once again, HUGE.

Clyfford Still - untitled (113" x 148")

I like the way Andy Warhol uses color in his portraits.  It is pretty interesting to see him use the same image with different color schemes and see how it affects the overall look and feel of the work.

Andy Warhol - self portrait (72" x 72")

There was also a portrait by Chuck Close, whose work I've really liked for quite awhile.  This isn't the portrait that was on display, but I wanted to show what his work is like.  Once again it is really big.  The images are pixilated and each pixel is a carefully chosen swirl of color.  I watched an interview of him once and he said that doing a portrait of this size is too overwhelming so he just does a square at a time.  So interesting.  Each little square is it's own work of art.  He talked about how he decides on the orientation of the grid, diagonal or straight, and how that influences the end result.  I'd like to hear more about his process.

Chuck Close - Robert (102" x 84")

I did have favorites that weren't enormous.   There are just too many good thing to talk about them all.  In the end it was a great day.  When we got back home Grandad was painting in the back yard with My Girl and Buddy Boy was contentedly reading comics.  Everyone was happy and I hadn't been missed at all, or so they said.

images from http://www.sfmoma.org/