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Museums
A Photographer’s Life
Since Demi Moore graced the cover of Vanity Fair back in 1991 nude and pregnant, exuding the immaculate, perfectly glossed sex appeal of a Hollywood screen goddess not in spite of but because of her distended belly, Annie Leibovitz has been heralded as the nation’s foremost celebrity photographer. More
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Museums
A Gorgeous Retrospective at the de Young
Gilbert & George are two people -- and one artist. Since they met at St. Martin’s School of Art in England in 1967, they’ve rarely produced work as individuals. In fact, they almost never appear alone, choosing instead to present themselves as a single “living sculpture.” In their signature business suits -- celebrating the opening of their exhibition at the de Young on Valentine’s Day, these suits were khaki, shot through with tasteful blue and green threading -- they’ve made a name for themselves as a pair of polite, provocative eccentrics. More
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Museums
The Tragedy of Style
The Legion of Honor plays host to "Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles", an exhibition that gives visitors a rare opportunity to see a stunning display of objects and decorations -- many of which have never left French soil -- from the infamous queen's private retreat, one of the few places that she truly expressed her personal taste. More
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Museums
The Grand Dame of Sculpture at the de Young
Inhabiting a museum building that is itself a sort of sculpture -- the de Young’s angled walls, jutting towers, and twisting, broad steps are considered by many to be works of art -- Louis Nevelson’s creations have found a fitting stopping place, resting for the moment at Golden Gate Park in their monochromatic glory. Nevelson, sometimes referred to by critics as “the grand dame of sculpture, joined the party (at least publicly) late in her life. More
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Museums
Take Your Time and Your Tempo
Housed in an 800-square-foot custom made cooling unit in the Museum of Modern Art’s architecture and design gallery, Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s exhibit features, among other sleek and alarming artifacts and structures, a frozen BMW. Called the "BMW H2R", the stripped-down car frame is fitted with Eliasson’s specially made steel-mesh and reflective skin and has been doused in 260 gallons of water, static now as a patterned hunk of ice allowing a few glimpses of the vehicle here and there to show through. More
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Museums
Through a Glass, Very Darkly
New technology always generates new art forms, mediums, and modes of exhibition. The rapid digitization of our globe -- with its accompanying technologies of hyper-communication, intimate surveillance and documentation -- stands as no exception. “Dark Matters” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts addresses the information-technology drenched society we reside in head-on, uniting a range of artists, each one using a dramatically different medium to reveal the invisible and the shrouded. More
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Museums
A Glimpse into an Icon’s Closet
Coquettes and style mavens, take note -- 2007 has been a most fitting time for exhibitions that feature clothing. The de Young Museum recently enjoyed a popular exhibition on the legacy of the doyenne of hipness herself, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Now, the museum dovetails on the success of the Westwood event with an exhibition celebrating the very impressive wardrobe of another aesthetic arbiter: Nan Kempner. More
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Museums
Frolicking in the Fertile Fountain of Fabulousness
So what are you wearing right now? Wait, let me guess: jeans, t- shirt, hoody, sneakers, mostly in dark shades. I know I’m right. That’s what we all wear in this country, the only difference in San Francisco is that everything’s usually in shades of gray or black. For a city that the rest of the country thinks is hip and cool (well, they used to think that at least) our collective fashion sense now seems to be located somewhere between Nihilistic Schlump and Generic Gap. What happened to our flamboyance, joie de vivre, and iconoclastic freedom? Vivienne Westwood wants to help. More
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Museums
It Can’t Happen Here
Slavery in California? I’m reminded of the Frank Zappa and the Mothers song "It Can’t Happen Here", which, in its 60's impressionistic way, is about our innate ability to block certain concepts from our image of everyday reality. One of the big shockers (and there are many shockers) about Slavery: InHuman History, currently at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, is that it did indeed happen here. Slavery in California was not widespread as in other states, but documents recently located by scholars give definite proof of its existence. Two of these rare documents comprise part of the exhibition. More
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Museums
Magnificently Mounted Masquerades of Metaphor
I don’t remember exactly when or where I first encountered Carrie Mae Weems’ work, but she left me with a distinct impression. It was like the first undiluted moment of recognition you have when you meet someone who will eventually change your life -- a teacher, a friend, a lover, or an enemy. I don’t have much use for most art or most artists these days. I’m so over piles of dirt in corners, post-religious art object worship, and the narcissistic, academic, post-structuralist prattle about “gendering” that’s been inflicted upon us for the last generation or so. More
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