Friday, January 30, 2009

Nature Calling: A James Turrell Installation

View through the oculus of Three Gems



And right under that, on the floor...

One afternoon, on my lunch break, I wandered into the de Young’s Osher Sculpture Garden next to the museum café. I overheard a visitor describing to another visitor that the nearby “stone hut” was the museum’s heating unit. I knew this was not the case, so I began my investigation. What I found was an intriguing art installation by James Turrell. After asking around, I realized that museum visitors often overlook or misinterpret this unique piece of artwork. I thought it would make a good blog entry to share with you the magical power of this instillation’s ability to direct one’s attention to the sky and alter natural perceptions.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco commissioned this site-specific piece for the opening of the new de Young in 2005 by renowned contemporary artist James Turrell. This “skyspace,” entitled Three Gems, is the first work by Turrell to enter from the museum’s collections. It is a subterranean installation that features a view of the sky that is slightly altered by neon lighting that highlights the changing light and weather conditions outside.

Although Turrell has created other skyspaces, his project for the de Young is his first to adopt the stupa form (mound-like structure). The sculpture is sited in a grass-covered hill in the Sculpture Garden on the museum’s west side. Viewers walk through a short tunnel cut into the hill, and then enter into a cylindrical space carved out of the hill... [more]

Posted by: Cheryl McCain | January 30 at 1:16:07 PM
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Listed under: de Young News | Collections

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Calling All Warhols: Audition for Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1986, acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the father-son duo, Rene and Rio Yañez from SOMArts invite you to audition to be Andy Warhol. This project will be in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, Warhol Live at the de Young Museum and Cultural Encounters: Friday Nights at the de Young.

We are searching for models, actors and performers who would like to become Andy Warhol for a number of public appearances. Auditions will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2009 from noon to 5 pm in the Piazzoni Murals Room at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

We are casting multiple Warhols, each having a special role that may include engaging the public, delivering lines, posing for photography, and demonstrating silk-screening. Performers will be paid for their involvement. Please arrive in your completed costume: wig, makeup, and attitude. Don’t forget to bring your resume and 4x6 or 8x10 photograph of yourself, we will photograph you in your costume.

Warhol Live presents the first comprehensive exploration of Warhol’s work as seen through the lens of music. This exhibition brings together a wide variety of works depicting pop music royalty. The exhibition opens February 14 and runs through May 17. There will be a variety of events and public programming that will supplement this exhibition... [more]

Posted by: Cheryl McCain | January 21 at 10:12:03 AM
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Listed under: de Young News | Public Programs and Events | Exhibitions

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Tweeting with the Museums

The next, or more correctly, the current Big Thing among museums is utilizing Twitter as a communications and community-building tool. In case you've never heard of it, Twitter is a free online service that allows users to "tweet" or "microblog", that is, send short text messages that other Twitter users can follow online or via a mobile phone. You can visit our Twitter stream at www.twitter.com/deyoungmuseum.

A number of other prominent museums and cultural institutions also use Twitter, including the California Academy of Sciences, the Getty, the Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Art Museum, the SF Zoo, and more. We're following many of them, and you can click through to their Twitter streams from the de Young's profile linked above.

We originally conceived our Twitter stream as a tool for communicating real-time visitor services information during the upcoming King Tut exhibition (opening June 29), but started playing around with it in the meantime, and we're finding it fun, useful, and pretty addictive.

Posted by: Andrew Fox | January 14 at 11:30:39 AM
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Listed under: de Young News | Web and Technology