As part of the next phase of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s expansion project, the museum announced plans to go beyond its walls and directly into the community through an array of collaborative and traveling museum exhibitions, site-specific installations and neighborhood festivals that will unfold throughout the Bay Area and beyond during construction of its new building.
Man Ray’s “Indestructible Object”
By Paul Duclos
Published: July, 2012
As part of the next phase of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s expansion project, the museum announced plans to go beyond its walls and directly into the community through an array of collaborative and traveling museum exhibitions, site-specific installations and neighborhood festivals that will unfold throughout the Bay Area and beyond during construction of its new building.
The expansion project breaks ground roughly a year from now, in summer 2013, and is slated for completion in early 2016. Instead of relocating to a temporary home during the construction, SFMOMA will use this period to experiment with new ideas, engage in dialogue with a range of cultural partners and create innovative ways for audiences to experience the museum’s collection.
Beginning in June 2013, SFMOMA will co-present major exhibitions at partner museums featuring works drawn either entirely or in part from SFMOMA’s holdings. Projects are still in development, but highlights include an exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum considering connections between art and spirituality; a presentation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that takes SFMOMA’s growing collection of South African photography as a starting point; and an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum that taps the collections of both SFMOMA and the Asian to spark intriguing dialogues about beauty in Asian and Western art.
Additional projects include a multi-location exhibition of Doug Aitken’s Empire trilogy, which will present all three video installations simultaneously for the first time; and a commissioned outdoor pavilion showcasing work by Los Angeles-based architect Greg Lynn, which will serve as a floating venue for museum programming along San Francisco’s waterfront during the America’s Cup races in 2013. SFMOMA will also present Live Art festivals and neighborhood-based initiatives; bring touring presentations of its renowned photography collection to communities throughout California; and create new partnerships with local schools. www.sfmoma.org
One of the art world’s most notorious relationships comes alive with Man Ray / Lee Miller, Partners in Surrealism, on view July 14 through October 14 in the Rosekrans Galleries at the Legion of Honor. The exhibition consists of approximately 115 photographs, paintings, drawings and manuscripts that explore the creative interaction between Man Ray and Lee Miller, two giants of European surrealism. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, this is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the pair’s artistic relationship.
The works in the exhibition are drawn primarily from the Lee Miller Archives and Penrose Collection in Sussex, England, augmented for the San Francisco presentation by loans from important public and private collections in the United States. Included are selected works by artists in Ray and Miller’s circle in Paris, including paintings by Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Roland Penrose and Dora Maar and a small sculpture by Alexander Calder.
Man Ray and Lee Miller lived together in Paris from 1929 through 1932, first as teacher and student, and later as lovers. Their mercurial relationship resulted in some of the most powerful works of each artist’s career, and helped shape the course of modern art. The two artists inspired each other equally, collaborating on several projects. Though they lived together for only three years, Man Ray / Lee Miller, Partners in Surrealism examines the lingering effect each had on the other’s art.
Connecting photography with other media, and combining rare vintage photographs, paintings, sculpture and drawings, the exhibition reveals how the surrealists combined imagery in playful and unexpected ways, creating extraordinary feats of imagination. It also offers a window into the maelstrom of artistic and social experimentation that animated Paris in the 1930s and gave inspiration to writers, poets, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists of all stripes. www.legionofhonor.famsf.org
Finally, for those shutterbugs who would rather shoot than simply observe, there is the Harvey Milk Photography Center. Formerly known as the San Francisco Photo Center, it has been a cornerstone of arts programming in the community almost since the building’s inception in the 1940s.
It offers a wide range of weekly classes, Saturday workshops and orientations in both film and digital photography for beginners and professionals. It also offers six-month and annual members full access to its large darkroom, film processing areas and digital lab. Members also have the opportunity to take part in four photography exhibits per year in its large studio space. www.arveymilkphotocenter.org
