Announcing 2018 Exhibitions at the de Young
Dec 4, 2017
Judy Dater: Only Human
April 7–September 16, 2018
Spanning five decades of the artist’s work, Judy Dater: Only Human is the first exhibition in over twenty years to explore the career of Bay Area photographer Judy Dater. This exhibition will provide a survey of Dater’s work, celebrating her achievement as a pioneering figure in 1970s feminist art and her subsequent creative evolution.
A lifetime California resident, Dater grew up in Hollywood before moving to Northern California. Dater’s talent was defined early, showing influences from cinema as well as early encouragement by several prominent photographers from the West Coast’s Group f/64 and its followers, including Imogen Cunningham, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Edward Weston. The political and geographic landscape of California also shaped Dater’s photography, and the growing momentum of the feminist movement informed her early work while she was living in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the late 1960s. During this time, she refined her critique of the constraints imposed on men and women, on their societal roles and their bodies. Dater’s subsequent portraits from the 1970s and beyond focus on the unique qualities of the sitters’ individualities, celebrate their humanity, and navigate personality and gender stereotypes in subtle ways.
“The nude body—women, men, and myself—became an important vehicle for me to express ideas about sexuality, gender politics, freedom, vulnerability, strength, and character.” — Judy Dater
Though the theme of feminism remains present throughout Dater’s work, over time her compositions increased in narrative depth and implication. Her haunting self-portraits incorporate the Southwestern landscape using geographic features as allusions to the weight of social constructs.
Judy Dater: Only Human is organized by Janna Keegan, curatorial assistant of contemporary art and programming, with significant contributions by Julian Cox, former chief curator of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. A 200-page catalogue recently published by Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, will accompany the exhibition.
Contemporary Muslim Fashions
September 22, 2018–January 6, 2019
Organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Contemporary Muslim Fashions is the first major museum exhibition to explore the complex and diverse nature of Muslim dress codes worldwide. This pioneering exhibition will examine how Muslim women - those who choose to cover their heads and those who do not - have become arbiters of style within and beyond their communities, and in so doing, have drawn mass-media attention to contemporary Muslim life.
Spotlighting places, garments, and styles from around the world, the exhibition will consider how Muslims define themselves – and are defined – by their dress, and how these sartorial choices can be interpreted as reflections of the multifaceted nature of their identities. The exhibition will traverse different religious interpretations and cultures, ranging from commissioned couture and high-end fashions, such as those by United Arab Emirates-based Faiza Bouguessa and Malaysian-based Blancheur; to street wear, from the Brooklyn-based Slow Factory to the London-based Sarah Elenany; to sportswear, such as the burkini.
Social media and personal narratives will also be included as primary material, framed by runway footage, news clips, as well as documentary and fashion photography.
Contemporary Muslim Fashions is curated by Jill D’Alessandro, curator of costume and textile arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with Laura Camerlengo, assistant curator of costume and textiles arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Reina Lewis, professor of cultural studies at the London College of Fashion, University of Art London serves as consulting curator.
Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey
November 11, 2018–April 7, 2019
An exceptional display of more than fifty paintings, wood carvings and ceramics by the French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) from the renowned collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, will be on view for the first time in San Francisco at the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park.
These pieces will be presented alongside Oceanic art from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s permanent collection and with works on paper by Gauguin from the Museums’ Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. The exhibition will explore Gauguin’s inner quests and imaginings—his spiritual journey—and how his intimate relationships with his wife, other artists, and people he encountered during his sojourns shaped his experiences, his work, and his development as an artist.
Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey is co-curated by Christina Hellmich, curator in charge of art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and Line Clausen Pedersen, curator of modern art at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.
Additional Exhibitions:
Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire
On view through February 11, 2018
Beyond the Surface: Worldwide Embroidery Traditions
On view through March 25, 2018
Revelations: Art from the African American South
On view through April 1, 2018
Māori Portaits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand
On view through April 1, 2018
Genre-Nonconforming: The DIS Edutainment Network
On view through June 10, 2018
The Propeller Group: The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music
Ongoing
Gallery Rotation: Art of the America Galleries
Ongoing
Lynn Hershman Leeson: VertiGhost
December 16, 2017–March 25, 2018
Bouquets to Art 2018
March 13–18, 2018
Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art
March 24–August 12, 2018
Fans of the Eighteenth Century
March 31, 2018–Ongoing