Look again
Cam emailed me earlier this week and asked if I was interested in perhaps hearing Andreas Gursky speak at SFMOMA, to which I replied in the emphatic. After returning from an exhibit of Gursky's ultra-sized photographs at the Pompidou in Paris last spring, I had mentioned it to Cam, whereupon I discovered he was familiar with Gursky's work thanks to a catalog from the successful MOMA showing. After enquiring as to Steve's own interest in attending, we made plans to see the exhibit and lecture this weekend.
After some minor confusion as to our time of departure, we arrived just in time to discover that not only was the show vastly more popular than SFMOMA had themselves expected, but also that we should have called ahead since the lecture was sold out. Instead we took a docent-guided overview tour of the museum while waiting for Alex and Alicia to arrive. The tour was was fairly decent although somewhat simplistic for my tastes, which were also disturbed by a gentleman who was overly eager to demonstrate his own artistic knowledge, which was woefully inadequate. Shortly thereafter A&A arrived and we were off.
The Gursky exhibition was oddly unsatisfactory, if only because I was hoping to see a repeat of the Pompidou showing, which it was not. I don't remember the Pompidou gallery to be any bigger than the SFMOMA space, but some rather interesting prints were missing, including several smaller works, an interesting shot of a French shipyard replete with containers, and a fascinating portrait of what I took to be some sort of economic forum whose participants sat in vertically-arranged skyboxes. The floor plan was also constrained by a long cul-de-sac at the northern end. Plus, there was the ignominy of the book store: it didn't even stock any posters, like the one I had previously purchased of my favorite Gursky work, Chicago Board of Trade II. Phooey.
Afterwards we schlepped across town to House on 9th Avenue for a scrumptious dinner. I had the duck breast with a blackberry reduction, and it was to die for. Normally the word "reduction" causes my Francophobia to kick into high gear, but after one taste it had subsided nicely. After dropping A&A off again, it was back home for the three of us South Bay dwellers. While it wasn't my best San Francisco excursion ever, it was an interesting day and worth the trip.
Posted by ned at February 16, 2003 01:57 PM