This is the second post of a two-part series on what we saw at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) many months ago.
We think this piece by John Cage goes well with touring a museum.
SFMOMA
In our previous post (click here), three European artists were featured. Here we share our photos of works by three American artists – Alexander Calder, Richard Mayhew and Ellsworth Kelly.
The museum has an outdoor gallery that is located between the original 1995 building by Mario Botta and its 2016 extension by Snøhetta. A perfect place to display outdoor sculpture.
<< Eighteen Numbered Black, Alexander Calder 1953
Alexander Calder
The artist, Alexander Calder (1898-1976) created since 1931 a new type of abstract art: the mobile, particularly hanging mobiles.
The mobiles comprise flat planar abstract shapes connected by wires and move freely with air currents in a space.
Big Crinkly by Alexander Calder, 1969 >>
<< Double Gong, 1953
Before the mobiles, Calder created kinetic sculptures powered by a motor, that integrated the ideas of gesture and transience in the art, and challenged the traditional notion that a “sculpture” is by definition static.
By 1932, he found that motorized artwork can be monotonous, and decided to rely on air current or touch to generate random motion.
The Kite that Never Flew by Alexander Calder, 1967 >>
In the 50’s, as a reaction to the fragility of mobiles when installed outdoors, Calder also created stabiles, or stationary objects. In the 60’s, these objects became monumental in size.
Richard Mayhew
Richard Mayhew (born 1924) is an Afro-Native American landscape painter who studied in New York in 40s and 50s. Mayhew uses color to create space, and likes to make backgrounds pop forward and foregrounds recede.
<< Morning
Overture 2001 >>
His work depicts “land” in a non-traditional manner, employing an unnatural fluorescent palette very different from the style of landscape paintings of the 19th century. For example, the Hudson River School of painters adopted an elevated perspective over expansive vistas with dramatic light casted from above, implying a divine justification for European conquest and Manifest Destiny.
<< Nyack 1975
It has been noted over the years that his native American ancestry may have been reflected in his treatment of “land” in his works.
New York Times ran an article on Mayhew who is 99 in May 2023.
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworthy Kelly “drew on the connection between abstract and nature from which he extrapolated forms and colors.”
In his paintings, he abstracted the world to a form that is neither representational nor geometric, a minimal form that does not have visible brush strokes.
And as you can see, the works do not have a frame, they are somethings that exist between painting and sculpture. To truly explore these aspects of his works, I think each of them should be placed alone in a room. It is however not realistic to expect such placements in this museum.
Like some other artists in his generation, he explored using chance as a compositional technique.
In this one day, we saw lots of modern art accompanied by insightful commentaries. Some are harder to appreciate than others. Yet we thoroughly enjoyed viewing the exhibits as well as the museum spaces that housed them. Thank you SFMOMA.