Photo by forte

Happy Wednesday to everyone. Here’s some local links to go with the sunshine.

• Brewster Kahle, head of the Internet Archive on Clement at Funston, was profiled in People magazine recently. “Internet entrepreneur Brewster Kahle has made it his mission to collect – and preserve – one copy of every book published”. View article
• The Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park kicked off their extended spring/summer hours. They open at 9am and last entry is at 6pm, with the garden closing at 7pm. In other news, their huge annual plant sale is coming up on May 4th and 5th.
• Looking for good kosher food? CBS News says Israel Kosher Meat, Poultry and Deli (5621 Geary) is among the best in the city. “While it has built its reputation on offering a wide selection of kosher foods, it is the matzo ball soup that has people of all religious persuasions coming to the store.”
• In a totally unrelated list, CBS News also named Purple Skunk Board Shop (5820 Geary) as one of the best skateboard shops in the city. “Come on Purple Sundays wearing a Purple Skunk tee or hoodie and get 10 percent off your purchase.”
• Get a parking ticket for not curbing your wheels properly? Think it was bogus? This article from 7×7 explains how a little math and a city map of the street grades may help you get out of it.
• The de Young Museum has contributed images of 31 works of art from its permanent collection of American Paintings to the Google Art Project. “Thanks to Google, art lovers are able—with a few simple clicks of their fingers—to discover not just paintings, but also sculpture, street art and photographs.” View the de Young Collection in the Goodle Art Project
• Summer camp registration at the Richmond District Neighborhood Center has begun. Early bird signups save $200 when they register by this Thursday, April 5. There are camps for all ages that include activities related to history, art, cooking, exploring San Francisco, outdoor education and more.

Sarah B.

Anzfer Farms was started by Jonathan Anzalone and Joseph Ferriso in 2009 as a place to create unique objects and installations. Our backgrounds in the arts encompass a diversity of practices, which influence our furniture and object design. Working primarily with reclaimed wood Anzfer Farms seeks to create strong and elegant pieces exploring timeless ideas of color and form.

The Park Life show, opening April 6, is entitled “Holz” which is the German word for wood or timber. “Holz” draws inspiration from the art and design history of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements.

The exhibition ties together recent and past collaborative furniture pieces from anzer Farms while incorporating the painting and relief works the designers have made in private. View some of Anzfer Farms’ work

Park Life will host an opening reception for “Holz” on Friday, April 6 from 7pm until 10pm. The exhibition will be on display until May 6 during normal store hours.

Sarah B.

Jonathan Anzalone and Joseph Ferriso of Anzfer Farms. Photo by Jen Siska. Courtesy of 7×7.com

RichmondSFBlog reader Derek sent in a pic of this sidewalk drawing that he found outside his house at 6th and Anza recently. Looks like his artistic neighbors are into the children’s book Bread and Jam for Frances.

Sarah B.

To see the sand drawing in person, come down to the north end of Ocean Beach near the Cliff House on Saturday. He’ll be starting around 11am and finished by 3:30pm.

Since it’s up to Mother Nature how long it lasts, don’t wait to long to feast your eyes on it. It could be washed away very quickly!

Sarah B.

It’s that time of year again when the de Young fills up with dozens of fresh flower installations, designed as accompaniments to pieces from the museum’s permanent collection. It’s known as Bouquets to Art and features creations from over 150 innovative floral designers.

The photos above are from last year’s show which included a fabulous Superman, a flowing Niagara Falls, and even a flower-studded Balenciaga dress. I imagine that there will be some designs in this year’s Bouquets to Art that are inspired by the upcoming Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition.

The show runs only from Tuesday through Saturday next week, and we have two pairs of passes to give away.
To enter, fill out this entry form. We’ll pick two winners at random and mail off your passes by the weekend so you’re all set to attend next week.

Entries are due by 5pm on Thursday, March 8. Good luck!

Sarah B.

Arthur Tress, Untitled (Powell Street), 1964.

In 1964, Arthur Tress was 23, just out of college and traveling through Mexico. He took a 3 day bus ride to come to San Francisco and stay with his sister, Madeleine.

It was an interesting time to be visiting liberal San Francisco. The Republican National Convention was taking place, the Beatles were on their first tour of the states, and civil rights demonstrations were taking place on Auto Row. The entire country was on the verge of social change.

Tress had graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from Bard College, and photography was something he just picked up afterwards. Armed with a Hasselblad camera, Tress criss-crossed the city, capturing candid portraits of city life and happenings, staging shots at other times.

He managed to convince a small gallery in Sausalito to display his photos in 1964, which he printed at a communal darkroom in the Castro. After his sister passed away after living for 40 years San Francisco, Tress rediscovered some prints in her basement from his gallery showing.

He then casually mentioned to the de Young curators that he had some local photos that they might be interested in seeing. Little did they know how compelling the photos would be, offering an insightful snapshot of that time period that makes up the latest photography exhibition at the de Young, Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964.

Tress’ 70+ photos include a few typical city landmarks in them like Coit Tower, Ocean Beach, cable cars. But it’s the people that he was more interested in capturing at the time. He thought of himself as an “activist photographer”, and that the photographs he was taking would “become an element of social change”. But he also admits, “I was just an enthusiastic kid, taking lots of pictures.”

He talked his way into the Republican National Convention that took place at the Cow Palace in July 1964, taking photos of delegates, propaganda and demonstrators, some holding signs that screamed “Ringo for President!”

Tress remembers it “required a certain aggressiveness” to capture the shots, and as a result felt himself becoming a participant. “I was part of the crowd, not outside the crowd… I’m very intense as a person and as a photographer, and in shooting these rallies I worked at a very high speed, trying to capture that significant moment or gesture.”

The show also features an odd, distorted photograph of a candidate’s poster which the museum later discovered is actually George Romney, father to current Republican Presidential candidate Mit Romney. Romney went up against Goldwater for President that year, but did not secure the party nomination.

Arthur Tress, Untitled (Union Square), 1964.

The exhibition features several shots that Tress took in the Castro in 1964, which must have been a source of intrigue and amusement for him as a young gay man. His sister Madeleine had moved to the city and secured a high level position with the Fireman’s Fund, unusual for a liberal lesbian in the mid-1960s. She lived in the city with her life partner, Jan Sibley until her death. Tress dedicated the exhibition and its accompanying book to his sister “for all the years of unlimited support and careful guidance that helped make me the artist I am today.”

Tress is a self-taught photographer, saying during last week’s press preview that he doesn’t think “cameras and darkroom techniques are very important”. Nevertheless, the de Young had new prints made for all of the photos in the show and they do great justice to Tress’ compositions, which capture the distinctive fashions, expressions and body language of the era.

Tress isn’t modest about his photos in the exhibition, which has sent him on a journey of rediscovering his early photography. After seeing the photos professionally produced as gelatin silver prints and hung in the de Young gallery, he remarked, “I’m taken aback at how good the composition is.”

It’s hard to argue with him. In the photos he juxtaposes interesting patterns, captures striking portraits of men and women, and succeeds in painting a picture of a society that is both embracing and resisting deep social change.

Old men grimace at the camera, a black man glares while he smokes a cigarette at the cable car turnaround, a woman with cat eye glasses clutches an envelope outside City Hall, her head cocked curiously. In other staged photos, he places a children’s tricycle alongside a mounted police officer on Ocean Beach, and another features figures – one a very anorexic woman – lying face down in the sand of Aquatic Park.

Which is all to say that Tress has a quirky, somewhat dark side to which he freely admits. He showed some recent work of macabre, dark photos to author Maurice Sendak, who admitted to being alarmed by them.

In the exhibition you can see Tress’ early efforts at bringing darkness to his compositions, looking for the ugly sometimes more than artistic beauty. In one unsettling image, he poses a woman inside the colonnade of the Legion of Honor courtyard. A long overcoat covers her and Tress’ composition makes her look as though she’s been cut off at the knees.

In another photo, a mustached man in the Castro clutches a cat and looks somewhat menacingly at the lens. In another series taken at a diner, Tress manages to separately photograph a man and a woman, both looking despondent. In the same diner, he captures a pretty woman reaching for paper cups of Coca-Cola, her arms encased in long, white leather gloves, while a man in the background looks at the camera with a raised eyebrow.

As a native San Franciscan, I really enjoyed Tress’ show, which takes up just one small gallery in the de Young. But it packs a powerful visual experience as you travel back to a tumultuous time period when a shift was taking place in the country’s political consciousness. It’s interesting simply to see photos of old San Francisco, but you’ll be drawn in by the subtle power of Tress’ images that deserve deeper examination.

The Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964 exhibition is at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park through June 3.

Sarah B.

Arthur Tress, Untitled (Legion of Honor Museum), 1964.

Arthur Tress, Untitled (Van Ness at Geary Boulevard), 1964.

Thanks to a reader, @theradiantbaby, for sending us this short documentary on Tress and his work. It even includes some footage of his late sister, Madeleine.

The new “Richmond District” print from the designers at The GRQP

A few months ago, The GRQP created original prints depicting several San Francisco neighborhoods. For each one they chose a specific animal to represent the area.

They chose pigeons for the Tenderloin (“A band of back alley pigeons. In real life they’re dirty, but on your wall they’re so fresh and so clean”), a burro for the Mission (“This guy here just filled up on one too many from the Tamale Lady, and is heading to Dolores Park for a siesta.”), and fittingly, a peacock for the Castro (“a fabulous peacock struts its stuff in front of the Castro Theater”).

They’ve designed original prints for twenty different San Francisco neighborhoods so far, including Golden Gate Park (a bison of course!) and the Presidio. Each one is $30 for a 13×16 inch print, or $15 for 8×10 inch.

So naturally, I asked when they would be coming out with a Richmond District print. I was curious what animal they would choose to represent this western edge of town. A raccoon? Nope, that was used for the Presidio. A Chinese lion dancer? Hmm, probably better left to Chinatown.

The answer is… a bear. “You guys have Little Russia in your neighborhood and a bear is a national personification of Russia,” GRQP told me over Twitter.

It’s not your typical, fierce bear. Ours is relaxing against a lamp post on Geary near 36th Avenue. Maybe he’s waiting for drivers or MUNI riders to throw him a snack. Or he’s slowly making his way to Ocean Beach or Lands End. Either way, he looks chill enough to make it in this foggy neighborhood.

I’m not sure a bear is THE animal I would have picked to represent the Richmond District. Maybe a seal, in homage to the Cliff House and Seal Rock, would have been a better choice. But I still like him and his friendly demeanor.

What do you think? Do you think the bear is a good choice or is there another animal you think better represents the Richmond District?

Sarah B.

John Spencer Stanhope, Love and the Maiden, 1877

It took museum curator Dr. Lynn Federle Orr nearly ten years to pull together the “Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900″ exhibition that opened last weekend at the Legion of Honor.

It’s no wonder – the show is a hand-picked, exquisite collection of 180 paintings, furnishings, textiles and other decorative pieces that represent the breadth of the British Aesthetic Movement.

While Britain was in the midst of an Industrial Revolution, its artists and designers began a movement in aesthetic beauty, aimed at redefining the relationship between art, the artist and everyday society. Why should beautiful things and artistry be confined to museum and gallery walls? The movement’s rallying cry of “Art for Art’s Sake” was avant-garde in and of itself.

“Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900″ showcases many different types of art from the period, featuring artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Thomas Jeckyll and American ex-pat James McNeill Whistler.

One section of the show is dedicated to London’s influential Grosvenor Gallery, founded in 1877 and heralded for housing work by artists – like Whistler, Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones – who were shunned by the more classical and conservative Royal Academy.

The artists of the period were multi-faceted, more like designers that worked in painting one day, home decor the next. While Whistler is best known for his paintings, the exhibition highlights his other contributions to the movement.

Spotlighted in the show is a replica of Whistler’s decadent, yet tastefully elegant “Peacock Room”, which he designed for a client in 1908. The “re-construction” of the room for the show is innovative – created entirely from one-dimensional, lifesize photographs that line the walls. Akin to walking into a three dimensional picture of the room (Whistler’s original “Peacock Room” is housed in the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian – view a panorama).

Whistler’s “Peacock Room” is recreated using photographic overlays on the walls

The show also displays some beautiful wallpapers, which are representative of the emerging trend in home decor of the period. Artists created rich wallpapers and furnishings to decorate their own living spaces, inspiring a trend towards House Beautiful, showcased in the “Aesthetic Houses for Beautiful People, 1870s–1880s” section of the show.

Home decor became more affordable and accessible during the period, driving commercial manufacturers to market signature wallpapers, fabrics and other decorator items at affordable price points. Suddenly, beauty within one’s own home was achievable by more than just the wealthy upper class.

Curator Dr. Lynn Federle Orr describes the movement well in her essay in the exhibition’s catalogue, writing, “Like a fine Victorian novel, the story of the Aesthetic Movement is one centered around serious social debates—shifting class structures, the confrontation between science and religion, art’s place in society, the impact of new market forces and a unique emphasis on the middle-class home.”

A later room in the show, entitled “Late-Flowering Beauty: 1880s–1890s”, displays rich paintings and sculptures from artists of the period like Rosetti, alongside examples of fine book design and poetry.

In contrast to the austere, cold and sometimes harsh representations we often encounter in Victorian era culture, the “Cult of Beauty” highlights the opposing forces and colors that shone through during the Aesthetic movement. Soft blues, colorful peacocks, rich blues, reds and golds – these are the colors of the art from this avant-garde period that opened the doors for later movements like Art Nouveau.

What’s unique about the “Cult of Beauty” show is that it showcases a movement that rarely is given its own exhibition. Normally you’d see these pieces are parts of other exhibitions dedicated to single mediums or decorative arts. But here is assembled the beauty of the British Aesthetic Movement in its entirety – from modern tea sets to home decor, to richly expressive paintings and sculptures. Art for art’s sake, and it couldn’t be more beautiful.

The Legion of Honor is the sole U.S. venue for the “Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900″ exhibition, which runs until June 17.

Sarah B.

Edward William Godwin, Sideboard, 1865–75

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Chair, ca. 1884-6

The Y2Y Gallery, located on Balboa at 4th Avenue

Turns out that tucked inside the offices of Jeff King & Co – General Building Contractors at 251 Balboa Street, there is a small art gallery.

It’s called the Y2Y Gallery and “has been developed by Jeff King for the support and promotion of fine art and design,” according to their website.

This Thursday, the gallery is hosting an opening for Cymaglyph Vizwrap: Visual Alchemy of Matthew E. Jones, an exhibit that combines 2D media and digital projections that activate the interior of Y2Y Gallery with moving color and texture.

Cymaglyph Vizwrap opens this Thursday and will run for one month.

Thursday night’s opening event runs from 6pm until 8pm and is open to the public. The gallery will be serving beverages and light fare.

Sarah B.

A rendering of the projections that will be part of Cymaglyph Vizwrap

A shot from testing on Monday night

The class is designed for beginner and intermediate artists, and focuses on developing visual skills by using many materials to explore personal ideas and to develop creativity. Students will work with both wet and dry materials including acrylic, ink, graphite and charcoal.

The class is taught by local artist Eun Hee Lee. No pre-registraton is required, just show up on the first day of class to enroll.

Sarah B.