Dear Husband and I have been making efforts to see the major new exhibits at SF museums recently. And when I saw the reviews for the new exhibit of art from Joan Brown, I immediately bought our tickets and made plans for a morning in San Francisco.
SF MOMA is largely back to normal- meaning, it almost feels like pre-pandemic days when you visit. (Other than a few people here and there wearing masks. This is San Francisco, after all!)
Joan Brown died before she could realize her Instagramability 🙂
Joan Brown used a lot of animals in her paintings, as you’ll see, and the MOMA leans heavily into this theme. There were 2 therapy dogs in the lobby for petting, and free pet portraits were offered by local artists. I really wish I’d planned for that!
And don’t confuse Joan Brown with Joan Mitchell! (my initial mistake!) If asked to choose, I’d go with Joan Brown. I really loved her use of animals throughout her paintings and her references to swimming.
And wow, the colors and visuals! This exhibit of art from Joan Brown is made for Instagram! I was not alone in this assessment; there were groups of younger women taking lots of photos with some of the more striking photos.
I took a few close-ups with the plans to try to duplicate them with my modest painting abilities. We’ll see how that goes.
And you know I love a reference to memento more, so I lingered on this one for a while.
Followed by a sad (and expensive!) lunch at the Four Seasons
After a lovely wander through the exhibit, Dear Husband and I headed over to the “new” Four Seasons at the Embarcadero. It’s not really “new”- it’s the old Mandarin Oriental hotel. I’d never been in the hotel before; it’s clearly designed for business travelers. So I can’t imagine they are doing much business these days.
The restaurant was completely deserted when we arrived at 11:30am on a Saturday. And it went downhill from there. Despite being the only customers, we waited almost an hour for lunch to be served- and then Dear Husband’s order was wrong. The staff was perfectly lovely, but clearly seemed off their game. We left the hotel rather disappointed and headed back home to walk Cheddar.
I’d give an A for the art from Joan Brown and a C- for the Four Seasons. The bathrooms were nice at the hotel- so there’s that!
Joan Brown exhibit, through March 12, 2023
SF MOMA, 151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103
