Yesterday morning to afternoon, High Speed Productions' publisher, Gwynn Vitello and I were invited to participate in the SFMoMA's 75th Anniversary show press preview. 

Living in the Bay Area my entire life, and since the mid-1990s, going to the SFMOMA's new home on 3rd Street in the heart of SOMA, the museum has become, more and more as the years go, an attraction: a beautiful Mario Botta designed showcase of a major museum's collection. As UK artist, Ewan Gibbs, so accurately said yesterday while presenting his work at the museum, "Like the Tate Modern, the SFMOMA's building has become a tourist attraction unto itself." He is very much on point. 

How do you celebrate an institution's 75th birthday? From the founding in 1935, the museum gave Jackson Pollack and Matthew Barney their first museum shows, respectively, and were pioneering in accumulating a major photography  collection, a Mission School collection, and Clyfford Still, which the latters are covered extensively at the show. The entire show was quite impressive, and when it opens this weekend, it should get rave reviews. 

There was a general theme at the entire event: 17 different galleries, 17 different stories. I think that is the perfect explanation to the entire show.  

Pardon these initial photos for being dark, but this is what happens when you are given a camera that is not yours. It took me a few minutes to adjust.

That said, the first thing you walk up to our a bunch of San Francisco-centric images, either photographs, drawings, or paintings. It sets the stage, SF from 1935 to now, through the artist's filter. Some beautiful work here. 

Diego Rivera in person. Hard to beat. 

Alfredo Ramos Martinez is an artist I'm not incredibly familiar with, but have seen a few of his pieces in galleries and museums before, and I just really love the work. 

This is a sort of bad photo, but I was trying to show the work that was coming out of the Roosevelt era, New Deal and WPA era work that positioned artists to create work to encourage job growth and commitment to rebuilding the foundation of America. Works like this, an abstract bridge, had a small room at the museum. A very big fan of these works, because I have always been fascinated by this era's output. 

Cool piece. 

Paul Klee. First piece ever bought by the SFMoMA. 

Matisse, I like him like this, simple drawings. 

Moving into more contemporary rooms. 

Jeff Koons. This piece is creepy/beautiful in person. 

Whoa, he is staring at you. 

Rigo 23. Big follower of his work. 

The Barry McGee/Twist wall. I took a lot of pictures here, because let's face it, Barry is one the greatest, most original artists to come out of the SF area in a long, long time. His piece is massive, and it bulges and pulsates off the wall like its a living, moving, breathing collection of stories, photos, drawings, paintings, and patterns.  THIS THING WAS ALIVE! I felt like if you were to sit and look at it all day long, it would continue to grow and accumulate more and more pieces and artifacts. 

Chris Johanson. One of my favorite features we have had in the magazine was Chris' feature that Joey Garfield did last year. And to see Chris' work here was a validation of sorts, if that makes sense... 

Richard Prince. 

Bruce Conner. Wow. This room was incredible. Three screes blazing black and white images, film clips, found clips, with loud music playing. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" at extremely loud volumes is an art piece unto itself, and that is what you get with the images. One of my favorite rooms in the entire museum. 

 Close up of some abstraction.

 I can't remember who did this, but I really enjoyed it.

 Stella, fantastic.

Ewan Gibbs gave a really cool presentation about his work, which he does with pencil, one little grid at a time... he was a very colorful guy, and it was nice to have one artist of the contemporary world there to explain his craft. 

One of Ewan's pieces. A fitting end to the day...