The restrictions on gatherings in the Bay Area have started to lift! And the first thing Dear Husband and I did (after heading to Marin for dinner!) was plan a museum trip. We’ve dropped by SFMOMA and the Legion of Honor during the pandemic, and the visits have been such a welcome relief. A touch of normalcy! So during this latest break, visiting the Calder Picasso exhibit at the de Young museum was a priority.
Our first stop in San Francisco was The Mill, home of the infamous toast, for a little breakfast. I ordered a loaf of the country bread and a piece of cinnamon sugar toast. It was delicious! I guess it was worth $5? Living in the Bay Area distorts a person’s perception of a fair price! Clearly others felt comfortable with the pricing; there was a line of ~8 people when we arrived.
It was a grey, overcast day in the city. The woman ahead of me in line was in her 20s and ordered coffee and toast for two. I saw her walking down the block with her breakfasts, potentially to her apartment? I was struck with deja vu; memories of being young and living in the city on similarly grey days came flooding back.
No time for nostalgia- we had reservations at the de Young for the Calder Picasso exhibit at 9:30am sharp. One of the things that I love about COVID times is what some might hate- the limited capacity of places like the de Young. It makes visiting the Calder Picasso exhibit feel like you have the museum to yourself, as you can see from the photos. Although by the end of our museum visit, it was getting a bit more crowded…many people were in line to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit which is also open.
I had no idea that Calder and Picasso had a relationship, but as I made my way through the exhibit, it was clear that they had quite an influence on each other.
As described on the website:
The de Young museum is the first American venue for the exhibition Calder-Picasso, which features more than 100 sculptures, paintings, drawings, and graphics by Alexander Calder (1898–1976) and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), two of the most innovative and influential artists of the twentieth century…
Conceived and curated by Alexander Calder’s grandson Alexander S. C. Rower and Pablo Picasso’s grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, this exhibition juxtaposes artworks by the two artists, revealing both the intriguing parallels between these great innovators and the unique visions that make each distinctive.
One of the coolest parts of the exhibit was seeing Calder’s wire sculpture of Josephine Baker. And I realized that I had seen it before- at the Calder Universe exhibit in Dallas in 1977! I remember what a big deal that exhibit was and going on a field trip with my class. Another touch of nostalgia during this trip to San Francisco…
I’d highly recommend visiting the Calder Picasso exhibit. It’s open until May 23, 2021, so don’t delay if you’d like to see it while it’s in San Francisco.
The Mill, 736 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA
The DeYoung Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118
