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Will Work for Art: Rose Burke

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on October 11, 2011

"Will Work for Art" takes you behind the scenes to meet the people who make the Fine Arts Museums work. This week we step into the storeroom to meet Rose Burke, a buyer for the Museum Stores. Originally from right here in San Francisco, Burke has been with the Museums for six years.

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When Paper is More than a Surface

Posted by Colleen Terry on October 6, 2011

Paper is fundamental to traditional printmaking, but paper as a medium can be as diverse as the images printed on its surface. Surface Tension: Contemporary Prints from the Anderson Collection (on view at the de Young through January 15, 2012) puts paper front and center, exploring the ways in which artists from the late 1960s to today engage paper as more than just a surface.

Though no ink touched the paper in Josef Albers's Embossed Linear Construction series (1969),  he used embossing, a traditional printmaking process, to transform ordinary sheets of watercolor paper into subtle bas-relief constructions that extend into the viewer’s space.

Josef Albers (American, 1888–1976). Embossed Linear Construction 2-D, from a portfolio of 8 inkless embossings, 1969. Inkless embossing on 300-gram Arches watercolor paper. Anderson Graphic Arts Collection, gift of the Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson Charitable Foundation. 1996.74.17.8

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More Real than Real: The Photography of Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on October 6, 2011

Photographs, a ubiquitous component of contemporary life, serve as an ever-evolving record of our lives and those of our friends and family. Children provide an immediate source of inspiration, and many new parents quickly adopt the role of amateur photographer. But few become as skilled and engaged in the medium as Ralph Eugene Meatyard, whose haunting photography is presented in the exhibition Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks, opening at the de Young this Saturday, October 8.

Untitled, ca. 1960–1962, gelatin silver print, museum purchase, John Pritzker Fund, 2011.4.1

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When is a Hals a Hals?

Posted by Andrew Fox on October 5, 2011

Frans Hals Gentleman in White

Frans Hals, Dutch, 1580–1666
Portrait of a Gentleman in White, ca. 1637
Oil on canvas
Legion of Honor, Gallery 15

This week, the Los Angeles Times reported on the authentication of a Frans Hals painting that was once owned by Elizabeth Taylor. Long attributed the “School of Hals,” the painting was re-attributed to the artist himself by a team of scholars brought together by Christie’s auction house.

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FRAME|WORK: An Etruscan reclining banqueter

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on October 5, 2011

FRAME|WORK is a weekly blog series that highlights an artwork in the Museums' permanent collections. This week, we feature a lively lush from ancient Etruria, currently on display in the Hall of Antiquities on the lower level of the Legion of Honor.

Statuette of a Reclining Banqueter, 6th century BC. Italy, Etruria, Etruscan. Cast and incised bronze on marble base. Gift of Arthur Sachs. 1952.26

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FRAME|WORK: Magnolia Blossom by Imogen Cunningham

Posted by Sarah Bailey Hogarty on September 28, 2011

FRAME|WORK is a weekly blog series that highlights an artwork in the Museums' permanent collections. This week, we feature an iconic photograph by renowned Bay Area photographer Imogen Cunningham. Magnolia Blossom is currently not on view, so take some time to stop and smell the flowers (virtually)!

Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976). Magnolia Blossom, 1925 (printed 1930). Gelatin silver print. Museum purchase, M.H. deYoung Memorial Museum. 54042

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