Kaboom!

Looking Forward for 75 Years:the 75th anniversary Show

at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Looking Forward for 75 Years: the 75th Anniversary Show, 12/19/09 through 1/16/11, and accompanying exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art are superlative. More masterworks from the permanent collection are better displayed than they have ever been. The practicality and elegance with which the low key addition serves the purpose of providing more gallery space to actually see artwork at its best provides a welcome contrast to the generally dark, generally cramped galleries of some of the new or renovated museums in the city. In many of the new exhibit spaces in the city most of the natural light is reserved for the big donor party space, the museum shop and the restaurant. While great party spaces are to be celebrated, spacious well lit galleries that display art are even more delightful as this 75th Anniversary Show exemplifies.

The square white room dedicated to the square white minimalist paintings of Robert Ryman continues in its perfection, curatorial and artistic. Its wooden floor and fittings contrast with the walls as do the various framing devices inherent to, included within, the work’s original conception. For the pursuer of the experience of reified transcendence each work is a masterwork. for the connoisseur and scholar each work illustrates a progression in the artist’s vision.

More masterworks from the permanent collection at once than are normally displayed are present. The curators have not been afraid to show many of the masterworks of the collection at once. The viewer who has visited SFMOMA on an ongoing basis will recognize many of these works. Others may be pleasantly shocked by the strength of the permanent collections. The new extension allows generous spaces for the display of recent acquisitions of new work, for new, current, ongoing San Francisco/Northern California work, and for site specific installations.