This is one of the original paintings in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (or SFMOMA, as it is more commonly known). I had not been back to the museum since it moved from it's original location, on the the fourth floor of the War Memorial Veterans Building. Not what you would call luxurious digs for a museum. Where they are now, on Third St., just south of Market, is a gorgeous alternative to where they started. When you enter the buidling, you arein an atrium, and you can see each level of the museum--it is an inviting space to view art, and the exhibits that were there on my most recent visit were interesting and well displayed. I know absolutely nothing about the sdesign of museums, but this one has a great openness to it. You feel like you can enter on any floor, and the way each exhibit space opens up upon entering it is quite excellent.
The traveling exhibits that we saw were both photography related. I really love photograpy--I think that will be one of the new skills that I work on as soon as I have an actually empty nest--and I love to see exhibits done by people for whom this is their art form. One exhibit was of a Dutch photographer, Rineke Dijkstra. She has done some very interesting photographic projects that chronicle modern life. She has done photoessays of Israeli soldiers, beginning before they ender military service and then at various intervals thereafter, showing how they change.
She also did a series on immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, following one girl in particular from Bosnia from the time she entered Western Europe as a 6 year old, and up through the birth of her first child. She girl changed, but also her settings changed--from the barest poverty to a middle class flat, and her eyes change some and stay the same some. It is an interesting way to view world events through the eyes--literally--of people who have lived it.
The permanent collection at SFMOMA has much to be proud of as well, so a trip there will not disappoint.
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