Little Monsters Love to Read

As part of the current exhibit Monsters in the Bookshelf at the Thacher Gallery (located on the campus of USF in San Francisco) there has been a contest to create a poster of original artwork featuring a monster (or monsters) and a book.  The idea was to simultaneously promote creativity and reading.

 Above you can see my entry for the contest (the results will be announced October 30th...)

My little monsters love to read... How about yours?

An Arthur Szyk Exhibit at the Palace of Legion of Honor

One of my favorite books as a child was this volume of Andersen's Fairy Tales with illustrations by Arthur Szyk. I love the stories of Hans Christian Andersen and was intrigued Szyk's eerie illustrations. I recently learned that his art was not confined to illustrating children's books. He's famous for anti-Axis political illustrations during WWII as well as illustrations on Jewish religious subjects in the style of illuminated manuscripts.

When I heard there was an exhibit of Szyk's work at The Palace of Legion of Honor, I jumped at the opportunity to see it.

I cannot begin to describe how beautiful & complex Szyk's illustrations are.  Szyk was also passionate about unmasking social injustice; many of his illustrations speak directly of atrocities which occurred during WWII, and the manner in which he spoke out against unnecessary human suffering still holds current relevance.

And, exciting news: A new publication of Szyk's Haggadah will be available in April. Szyk created these Haggadah illustrations in Poland during the time of Hitler's rise to power. Through his illustrations, he drew parallels between the Nazis and the ancient Egyptians of the book of Exodus. Not only will this be a usable Haggadah, it will also contain information and commentary explaining Passover traditions.

A Visit to the Museum: Part 3 (and the Mondrian Cake!)

My husband trained as a commercial photographer, and up until 12 years ago, when he transitioned to another career, he worked as a photographer. So, he was very interested in seeing the exhibit Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera since 1870 at SFMOMA in San Francisco.

We set off to visit SFMOMA a few days before the start of the new year. When we arrived at the museum, we went right up to the third floor and were greeted by signs stating clearly: This exhibit contains photographs which some people might find offensive and which may not be appropriate for children. oops... I wish this statement about the exhibit had been featured on the SFMOMA website. Among other things, the exhibit contained photos taken by journalists of famous assassinations & executions, photos taken of celebrities by paparazzi and photos which could be considered pornographic by artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe. No, definitely not appropriate, so the children and I were exiled to the third floor foyer (along with other small groups of parents & children...)

We did have a nice time as a family looking at a large exhibit of photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson, but the best part of the day was when we visited the new Rooftop Coffee Bar and Sculpture Garden.

At the cafe, we shared a slice of Mondrian cake. Also on the dessert menu: Wayne Thiebaud Cake, Katharina Fritsch Ice Cream Sandwiches, Jeff Koons White Hot Chocolate, Frida Kahlo Mexican Wedding Cookies and Diebenkorn Trifle (I'm not joking -- you can see the SFMOMA dessert gallery here...)

Except for the pesky Robert Mapplethorpe photos, we had a lovely time, and that Mondrian cake made it all worthwhile.

A Visit to the Museum: Part 2 -- Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay

In early December a friend and I decided we would take our children (an eight year old, a seven year old, a six year old, a two year old and a 5 month old, collectively) on an excursion to see an exhibit at the DeYoung Museum -- The exhibit was titled Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. In addition to paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin & Cezanne, there were paintings by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, the Nabis Pierre Bonnard,Vuillard & Rousseau. This is the only time these paintings will be shown as a collection in the United States.

Bold intrepid mamas! It was quite an adventure. In we trooped, a happy little parade, skipping through the endless security barriers... and out we trooped again three (3!) times for restroom visits. We sorely tested the patience of the security guards (but secretly, inside, I'm sure they were amused.)

My friend and her daughters loved the joyful paintings by Renoir...

My seven year old son loved the mysterious paintings by Rousseau...

And seeing this little painting by Degas called Dancers Climbing the Stairs made me cry... It was hard for me to understand, at the time, why I had such a strong emotional response. I think it was the experience of seeing these original works of art, hanging on the walls only 2 or 3 feet in front of me. The paintings, in person, were so very different from viewing photographs of them in books. The photos in books and reproduction posters are flat. It's impossible to see the textures and layers of paint, and the textures and layers are what brings them to life. I felt like I could sense the breath & brush strokes of the artist... it felt that close and intimate...

We made it about 3/4 of the way through the exhibit when the children themselves were inspired to create art, so out came the paper and pencils I keep stashed in my bag. Sprawled across the elegant, shining parquet floors of the exhibit hall, the children set themselves to work while the well-heeled museum patrons stepped lightly over and around them. I expected a museum guard to march over and grump at us, but the guards only nodded and smiled indulgently. The museum goers, themselves, paused between viewing paintings by Vuillard and Rousseau to admire the work of the children and offer compliments.

After we were done in the museum, we went out into the cold, dusky twilight to play in the fallen leaves...

And run around...

and around...

And around...


And around, once again, the big fountain in the center of the beautiful Golden Gate Park Music Concourse...

It was a wonderful day.

A Visit to the Museum: Part 1

Here I am again, playing catch-up... Between Thanksgiving and New Years we visited not one, and not two, but three museums. All three experiences were so interesting that I feel compelled to post about them.

The weekend of Thanksgiving, we made our way to the Contemporary Jewish Museum. It was our chosen destination because we wanted to see an exhibit displaying original artwork by the author & illustrator of the Curious George books -- Margret & H.A. Rey. Not only were the drawings and illustrations lovely to look at, the story of Margret & H.A. Rey was amazing. Hours before the Nazis marched into Paris in June 1940, the Reys fled on bicycles, carrying drawings for their children’s stories, including one about a mischievous monkey. Not only were they able to save the drawings, but the Reys themselves were saved by their illustrations when authorities found them in their belongings. After their escape from Paris and a four-month journey across France, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, the couple reached New York in the fall of 1940. In all, the Reys wrote and illustrated over 30 books, seven of them starring Curious George.

After immersing ourselves in the world of Curious George for an hour, we trundled upstairs to see what we would see... And what we saw sent me reeling back to a wonderful book I read several months ago called Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling. The book follows the story of a family of Jewish art dealers through World War II and the aftermath. Although the book is fiction, it's well researched and chronicles the history of how millions of pieces of art work were methodically stolen by the Nazis. Some of the artwork was destroyed, but most of it was warehoused against grandiose plans Hitler had for displaying the art. After the war, very little of the artwork was returned to the owners; Governments absorbed the artwork into their own national collections, and even now, families are still trying to recover their lost collections.

The paintings in this exhibit are from one of the largest collections to be returned to the family from which it had been stolen. The collection was primarily made up of Dutch Masters, which were lovely. However, for me, the artwork paled next to the terrible, sad story of all the artwork which was stolen, much of it, still missing.

Wednesday: Part 2 -- Our adventures at the De Young Museum (Hooray for the Impressionists!)