de Young Museum Calendar, May 2008

de Young Museum Calendar of Events: May 2008

The de Young Museum showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international textile arts and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

DE YOUNG VISITOR INFORMATION

Hours:       
Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: 9:30 am–5:15 pm
Friday: 9:30 am–8:45 pm
Closed on Monday

Admission:   
$10 adults
$7 seniors
$6 youths 13–17 and students with a college I.D.
$5 surcharge for the special exhibition Gilbert & George
Members and children under 12 are free.
The first Tuesday of every month is free. $5 surcharge for special exhibition still applies.
Muni visitors (with fast pass or transfer) receive a $2 discount.

Information:   
www.deyoungmuseum.org

Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
415.750.3600
www.deyoungmuseum.org
The de Young is accessible to wheelchair users. For information, contact the ADA Coordinator: 415.750.7645 (voice) or 415.750.3509 (TTY).

CLOSING
Gilbert & George
February 16–May 18, 2008
The first major retrospective in more than 25 years of the art of Gilbert & George makes its American debut at the de Young Museum after a European tour.  With more than 50 pictures, from 1971 to the present, tracing the stylistic and emotional development of the artists, the exhibition is the largest ever to be mounted of their art.  Since their meeting at St. Martin’s School of Art in 1967, Gilbert & George have presented themselves as a single artist and as living sculptures.  They began their career together with a tabletop vaudeville performance piece called The Singing Sculpture.  Eventually, they began photographing their performance work to extend its reach and range. Gilbert & George provides an overview of the dynamic career of the acclaimed duo, whose continuously innovative and challenging art has gained them wide recognition as two of the most important living artists on the international scene. While Gilbert & George makes a thorough presentation of the artists’ pictures, it also expands greatly into the other artistic media in which the artists have created since the late 1960s. Gilbert & George is a Tate Modern, London exhibition in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

OPENING
Jane Hammond: Paper Work
May 3–August 31, 2008
For nearly two decades, New York artist Jane Hammond has been using a fixed lexicon of 276 borrowed images, ranging from butterflies to medical diagrams, to create paintings and works on paper, both flat and three-dimensional, that layer prints, photocopies, and photographs with collage and handwork. This rooted visual vocabulary allows Hammond to explore context combinations of images that enhance the sculptural quality of the work. This exhibition features works on paper, many of which are unique and culled from private collections.

ONGOING
Lynn Hershman Leeson: No Body Special
February 2–June 1, 2008
San Francisco-based artist Lynn Hershman Leeson is a pioneer in new media, and her Internet-based works have won her much acclaim. For No Body Special, part of the Collection Connections program, Hershman Leeson uses a Jean Patou pantsuit from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s extensive costume collection as the vehicle to investigate the nexus of fashion, art, and display.  Images of the pantsuit are featured in performances around the city, and the exhibition will exist in the galleries and on the Internet, where it will inhabit a “second life.”

For Tent and Trade: Masterpieces of Turkmen Weaving
December 15, 2007–September 7, 2008
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco present a selection of premier examples from their world-class holdings of Turkmen rugs and textiles in For Tent and Trade: Masterpieces of Turkmen Weaving.  During the past 25 years, FAMSF has developed the finest public collection of Turkmen carpets and other pile textiles outside Russia.  This exhibition includes approximately 40 of the finest rugs, bags, and tent and animal trappings from these extensive holdings. The textiles included come from the deserts and oases of Turkmenistan, northwest Iran, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan.  Many are woven from the superb wool of Saryja sheep, which are bred solely in this region.  This exhibition provides the opportunity to contrast objects a woman traditionally wove for her dowry or domestic use with those made for the market or a prosperous khan or city dweller.  In spite of the fact that most of the weaving is done on simple horizontal looms staked to the ground, the work of the Turkmen is of consummate skill, artistic expression, and design.  Although theirs is a region marked by centuries of political instability, carpet weaving endures as a vital part of the Turkmen culture.

Wildflowers of New England: Photographs by Edwin Hale Lincoln (1848–1938)
March 8–September 21, 2008
A photographer associated with the American Arts and Crafts movement, Edwin Hale Lincoln self-published an extensive photographic study of New England wildflowers, a 20-year project that culminated in 1914 with 400 plates in 8 volumes.  This exhibition of nearly 50 photographs features floral subjects from the volumes entitled Lily, Violet, and Morning Glory Families and Aquatic Plants, Pink and Crowfoot Families, all from the Museums’ permanent collections.

5/1 Thursday 10 am
Koret Auditorium
Art History Film: Revolutions of the Wheel: The Emergence of Clay Art, Part 3: Peter Voulkos and the Otis Group. Info: 415.750.3638 or aolson@famsf.org

5/2 Friday 5–8:45 pm
Friday Nights at the de Young: Cultural Encounters
Opening celebration and artist lecture for Jane Hammond: Paper Work at 6:30 pm in the Koret Auditorium. The evening also features live performances by Velocity Circus. A Jane Hammond inspired film will be projected in the Piazzoni Murals room along with an onstage performance by a ringmaster on rollerskates leading a show of acrobats, contortionists, musical characters, physical comedy and spoken word, 6:30–8:30 pm. Regular gallery admission applies. All galleries open. Info: 415.750.7694 or nschach@famsf.org

5/3 Saturday
10:30 am–noon (public)
1:30–3 pm (Members)
Kimball Education Gallery
Children’s Workshops: Doing and Viewing Art and Big Kids/Little Kids
Family tour and art activity for ages 4 to 12.  Activities relate to the collection of contemporary paintings. Programs begin promptly. Info: 415.750.3658 or elewmorris@famsf.org

5/6 Tuesday 1 pm
Koret Auditorium
Docent Lecture: Gilbert & George, Marsha Holm.  No museum admission required. Info: 415.750.3638 or aolson@famsf.org

5/8 Thursday 10 am
Koret Auditorium
Art History Lecture: Art and Ideas in Europe: The French Academy and the Impressionist Alternative, Jeannene Pryzblyski, PhD, director, Program in History and Theory of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Art Institute; chair, Visual Arts Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission. $4 ($3 Members). No museum admission required. Info: 415.750.3638 or aolson@famsf.org

5/9 Friday 5–8:45 pm
Friday Nights at the de Young: Cultural Encounters
Celebrating Gilbert & George and Fauxnique
The evening features the art of Gilbert & George and a performance by Fauxnique the Urban Fairy and Friends in Wilsey Court, 6–8:30 pm. Regular gallery admission applies. All galleries open. Info: 415.750.7694 or nschach@famsf.org

5/9 Friday 7–8:30 pm
Koret Auditorium
The de Young Poetry Series
The evening features a walking poetry tour of the American galleries led by former poet laureate Robert Hass, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Time and Materials, and poets Brenda Hillman, Bill Berkson, and Maxine Chernoff. Tickets are $12 ($8 Members). Museum admission is not included or required. Info: 415.750.7634 or rbaldocchi@famsf.org. Tickets: 866.912.6326 or www.museumtix.com

5/10 Saturday 10 am–noon
Koret Auditorium
Textile Arts Council (TAC) Slide Lecture: Yao/Mien Chinese Embroidery, Sandra Cate. $10 ($5 Members and students); free to TAC members. No museum admission required. Info: 415.750.3627, www.textileartscouncil.org

5/10 Saturday
10:30 am–noon (public)
1:30–3 pm (Members)
Kimball Education Gallery
Children’s Workshops: Doing and Viewing Art and Big Kids/Little Kids
Family tour and art activity for ages 4 to 12.  Activities relate to the collection of still-life paintings. Programs begin promptly. Info: 415.750.3658 or elewmorris@famsf.org

5/10 Saturday 3 pm
Koret Auditorium
Ancient Arts Council (AAC) Lecture: Singing the lliad: A New Translation of Homer, Rodney Merrill, poet and translator. With his translation of the lliad, Merrill has completed his work on the two great works attributed to Homer. Through discussion and selected readings, the translator will show why the oral and musical aspects of the lliad are integral to an understanding of the epic. $5, free to AAC members. No museum admission required. Info: 415.750.3627, www.textileartscouncil.org

5/13 Tuesday 8 pm
Koret Auditorium
American Decorative Arts Foundation (ADAF) Lecture: Timothy Pflueger: San Francisco’s Art-Deco Renaissance Man, by authors Michael Crowe and There
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