de Young Museum

What does this painting make you think of? ☔️

"Walking in rainbow rain" (2021) is by San Francisco-based contemporary artist Clare Rojas. It shows a figure walking through rain, wearing a somber gray raincoat that almost blends into the equally gray background. This is contrasted with the rainbow streaks of pelting rain that create subtle pops of color. The painting will be featured in "About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift," our second in this series highlighting contemporary Bay Area artists, opening August 10, 2024.

Read more about Clare Rojas's painting, her inspirations, and what she loves about San Francisco in 's interview with her at the link in our bio.

[Clare Rojas, Walking in rainbow rain, 2021, © Clare Rojas]

Mentally, we're here 🤪

[William James Glackens, May Day, Central Park, ca. 1904]

Curious about Irving Penn or any of the 175 photographs in our Penn exhibition?

The Met's Jeff Rosenheim, curator of the exhibition, is ready for all of your questions! Pop them in the comments below and check back later for answers 💭

Come visit Irving Penn's work, on view until July 21 📸

Jack Dumbacher ( curatorial superstar) recently paid us a visit and took us on a unique wildlife tour of our collection to spot the animals hiding in our artworks. AND, in return, our very own curatorial superstar Emma Acker took an art walk through the tunnels and rainforests of the Cal Academy to see if life really does imitate art…

(life imitating art?...our vote is yes, what’s yours? 🦋)

Read more about Jack’s journey and see what he spotted by following the link in our bio. AND, learn more about why some fish really do look like abstract paintings by visiting the Cal Academy’s website 🐠

[Jack Dumbacher with “Penguins” by Albert Laessle, 1917]
[Emma Acker in with a blue morpho butterfly in the Cal Academy rainforest]

Portrait gallery, but make it virtual 💁

de Young x Legion of Honor, the collab you didn't know you need on

Join us in uploading your best portraits or selfies ✨ and take part in building a global digital gallery. Don't forget to use the hashtag . We can't wait to see what you post.

"Leilah Babirye: We Have a History," opens at the de Young this Saturday, June 22!

It's not every day you see an artist sculpting with a chainsaw. By combining wood-carving traditions from western and central Africa with found or discarded materials, Babirye creates sculptures honoring her LGBTQ+ community.

Don't miss her debut solo museum show!

[Portrait of the artist (2022), Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York. Photo by Mark Hartman]

Can we get a round of applause for the technicians behind Lee Mingwei's "Guernica in Sand"? 👏

Imagine paint-by-numbers but with an 800-square-foot canvas and sand instead of paint 😳 The technicians filled large metal templates with sand according to a color-coded map, then went over the entire piece again to make the lines crisp and add detail. Museum technician Renee Goree said it was a long process, which she (eventually) grew to enjoy.

"Although nearly all of my coworkers are some kind of artist, we were all completely new to working in sand. The learning curve was steep! It required us to essentially try and try until we came to a technique that worked for us individually. I spent an entire day on a tiny little corner before getting it down. Once that happened, I was able to relax and enjoy swishing sand around.

"It was interesting to work on something of that scale. The piece itself is so large, but in practice so minute. Pouring little particles — often a handful at a time — to create something that amassed to nearly six tons of sand makes for quite a contrast."

Photo by Linda Lin, featuring: Paul Palacios, Adalberto Castrillon, Renee Goree, Andrew Peuler, Mauricio Velasco, Bryce Griffith, Paul Tavian.

Care to ask questions about "Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care"?

Our curators Claudia Schmuckli and Janna Keegan want to answer your questions about Lee Mingwei and his exhibition, "Rituals of Care." Ask away in the comments below, and check back soon for answers 💬

Experience "Rituals of Care," before it closes on July 7!

Painting "en plein air" = painting outside 🖼️

Post your best plein air paintings, drawings, and photographs, and we'll repost some of our favorites to our story!

While studying in France, American artists like Thomas Moran were introduced to painting en plein air. They brought this technique back to the US and encouraged other artists to do the same.

But why paint outside when artists had been painting indoors successfully for centuries? Advocates for plein air painting said that painting outdoors allowed them to better capture the light and the feeling of being outside.

[Thomas Moran, "Near Cuernavaca, Mexico," 1907, Promised gift of Bernard and Barbro Osher]

"When history and tradition are dismissed as not relevant, I return to both to discover elements that are recognizable and relatable to our lives today." —Rupy C. Tut, Oakland-based artist

Tut's work takes the Indian miniature painting, a traditional style made on incredibly small canvases, and adds her own twist. She incorporates themes such as motherhood, femininity, and, as with this painting, the climate crisis. The three-paneled painting, titled "New Normal," shows two women looking at a tree surrounded by fire, representing those ignored during the climate catastrophe.

How would you reimagine tradition into something new?

[Rupy C. Tut, "New Normal," 2022, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco purchase, a gift from The Svane Family Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco.]

Can you spot in this artwork? 🔎

Mathias Kauage, the best-known artist in the contemporary arts movement in Papua New Guinea, painted this autobiographical piece. He shows himself (well, two of him, actually: one on the bottom right and one next to the pilot) on a plane flying to GoMA - Glasgow Museums, where his paintings were exhibited in 1996. It was at the museum opening where Kauage met Queen Elizabeth II, who later awarded him an Order of the British Empire for his services to art.

Kauage's body of work illustrates the societal changes in Papua New Guinea that occurred both before and after achieving independence in 1975. You can see his work in "Contemporary Painting in Papua New Guinea: Mathias Kauage and His Family," on view until March 2026!

[Mathias Kauage, "Kauage Flies to Scotland For Opening of New Museum of Contemporary Art," 1999, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco purchase, Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for Major Accessions. Courtesy of Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.]

Did you know that Lisa Fonssagrives is widely considered to be the world's first supermodel? 💃📸

A former dancer known for her finesse with draping and posing, Fonssagrives frequently modeled for Irving Penn, and the two were married just weeks after Penn made this photograph of her.

Penn contrasted the ornate Rochas Mermaid Dress with a neutral backdrop to emphasize Fonssagrives's gestures and expressions in this couture photoshoot for "Vogue." His use of a neutral background was revolutionary in the world of fashion photography, since most models were previously posed in elaborate sets.

Want to learn more about Irving Penn? Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the legendary photographer this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The talk will feature Jeff Rosenheim, exhibition curator of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York's "Irving Penn: Centennial."

[Irving Penn, "Rochas Mermaid Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris," 1950, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation © Condé Nast]

Want to hear captivating stories about the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, and more?

Come to our Book Launch + Curator Talk on the Osher Collection of American Art! Happening this Saturday at 1 p.m., this talk will be led by the exhibition's curator and associate curator of American art, Lauren Palmor.

See these amazing works of art at the "Osher Collection of American Art," now open.

Book Launch + Curator Talk on the Osher Collection of American Art Join us as we celebrate the launch of the new exhibition catalogue American Beauty: The Osher Collection of American Art. Including work by artists such as John Singer Sargent and Georgia O’Keeffe, the catalogue highlights the transformative promised gift of Bernard and Barbro Osher. Curator and c...

Join us this weekend for a behind-the-scenes look at "Irving Penn" 📷

This talk, Saturday at 2:30 p.m., features The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York's Jeff Rosenheim on Penn's photography and legacy. Rosenheim is the exhibition curator of "Irving Penn: Centennial" (2017) and Joyce Frank Menschel Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Want more of this legendary photographer? Be sure to visit "Irving Penn," open now until July 21!

[Installation view of "Irving Penn." Photograph by Gary Sexton © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]

A Talk with Irving Penn Curator Jeff Rosenheim Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at Irving Penn, featuring Jeff Rosenheim, exhibition curator of Irving Penn: Centennial (2017) and Joyce Frank Menschel Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.About the speaker A co-organizer of Irving Penn: Centennia...

We're Californians, of course we love paintings of the coast (even if it's the East Coast...)

The ocean was a powerful source of creativity for many 20th-century artists, who retreated to the coast for inspiration and isolation. The eastern shores not only provided a restful place to paint but also an expressive subject: the sea.

Sometimes the sea was calm, like in Childe Hassam's "Along the Coast," other times dramatic, like in George Wesley Bellows's "Blue and Gold," or melancholy, like in John Sloan's "Somber Coast, Gloucester, Massachusetts."

See these sublime landscapes and many more at the "Osher Collection of American Art," opening May 18 🖼️

[John Sloan, "Somber Coast, Gloucester, Massachusetts," ca. 1915, Promised gift of Bernard and Barbro Osher]
[Childe Hassam, "Along the Coast," ca. 1890–1893, Promised gift of Bernard and Barbro Osher]
[George Bellows, "Blue and Gold," 1913, Promised gift of Bernard and Barbro Osher]

"I am inspired by what I see and how I feel. I chase my own happiness and paint what brings me joy." —Chelsea Ryoko Wong, SF-based artist

Wong celebrates everyday joy in her work, combining memory and imagination to create scenes set around Northern California. This painting, "Mint Tea in the Sauna During Sunset," shows a moment of human connection between two people as they talk over tea.

Fun fact: the mountain you see outside the window is actually in Marin County! 🌄

What do you do that brings you joy? Tell us in the comments!

[Chelsea Ryoko Wong, "Mint Tea in the Sauna During Sunset," 2022, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco purchase, a gift from The Svane Family Foundation © Chelsea Ryoko Wong]

Irving Penn and Issey Miyake shared a friendship we all aspire to have 🥰

Penn and Miyake collaborated together for 13 years, building a relationship based on trust. Penn — known affectionately as Penn-san to Miyake — allowed Miyake's clothes to speak for themselves in his photographs. Miyake realized this and entrusted Penn with total creative control over the photographs he made. When Miyake and Penn did meet in person, it was never to talk about their work; instead, they talked art and philosophy.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the relationship between these two creatives through the lens of Midori Kitamura, Miyake's right hand for over four decades, at the link below 🔗

https://www.famsf.org/stories/irving-penn-issey-miyake-design-photography

[Irving Penn, "Issey Miyake, New York," 1988, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York © The Irving Penn Foundation]

Irving Penn + Issey Miyake: Design Meets Photography An interview on the photographer and designer’s collaboration over 13 years and 250+ garments.

"What you see is what you see." —Frank Stella (1936-2024)

Frank Stella coined the above phrase, which became the unofficial motto of the Minimalist movement. He was a trailblazer in both Minimalism and Maximalism, leaving his undeniable mark on the art world.

Stella told stories through shapes and geometry, and today, we celebrate his story. Over an art career that spanned more than six decades, Stella shifted from commanding Minimalist paintings he described as nothing more "a flat surface with paint on it" to striking and geometric sculptures full of dynamic energy.

[Frank Stella, "Lettre sur les aveugles II," 1974, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Foundation purchase, Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for Major Accessions © Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York]

Feeling cornered?

While creating a series of portraits for "Vogue" in the late 1940s, Irving Penn found that cornering his subjects controlled the interaction and heightened the impact of their poses and gestures. This decision helped him create expressive and emotive portraits, like this one of professional boxer Joe Louis.

Alexander Liberman, the magazine's art director at the time, asked Penn to make this series of portraits to infuse "Vogue" with culture and boost Penn's budding career. Once his prowess in portraiture was established, Penn—with Liberman's help—ventured away from the still lifes he had been used to and into a career of fashion photography. 📷

[Irving Penn, "Joe Louis, New York," 1948. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation © Condé Nast]

If only Earth Day wasn't on a Monday 🙃

Everybody makes mistakes, right...?

There's not too much room for error in conservation, but of course, mistakes do happen. In fact, the American Institute for Conservation now holds a mistakes session at the annual conference to make everyone more comfortable with sharing mistakes and learning from each other’s experiences. Still, conservators go through in-depth training before handling art.

"Our training involves understanding the history and chemistry of art materials in our area of specialization, so we have a good grounding on what to expect for an artwork and how to obtain information needed for any future treatment. Close study of the object is vital before any action is performed, and we begin any treatment with small tests and in incremental steps. And, if something cannot be safely treated, then it is always OK to do nothing!" — Elise Effmann Clifford, head of paintings conservation

Even if everything doesn't always go as planned, we think our conservation team is just perfect ✨ Learn more from the people who keep our artworks in tip-top shape at the link below.

https://www.famsf.org/stories/ask-a-conservator



[Conservator Jena Hirschbein treating Tudor-period oak panels from "Paneled Room from Boughton Place, Boughton Malherbe, Kent" (ca. 1520–1530). Photo by Jane Williams]