de Young Museum

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Bay Area Public Art Part 2

I headed to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to sketch’s some sculptures on a Sunday afternoon.

My first destination was the sculpture garden at the de Young Museum. I was going to do a twofer sketch from my sketching bench perspective.

The two pieces that I added to my sketchbook were the 21 foot tall Corridor Pin, Blue (1999) by Claes Oldenburg and in the foreground, Henry Moore’s Working Model for Sheep Piece (1971).

My next piece of public art was to found along The Golden Mile Project along the JFK Promenade just to the north of the de Young Museum.

This roadway in the park has been closed to auto traffic and the road surface is painted with 12 murals produce by a group called Paint the Void.

Near the Rose Garden a life sized wooden humpback whale tail breached the roadway. This piece is called Street Whale. I perched on a bike rack and sketched the piece on the left side of my spread.

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The de Young Museum

There is one art museum and one art exhibition from my youth that is at the fore of my memory.

I was in third grade when I visited San Francisco’s de Young Museum and the King Tutankhamen exhibit.

In 1979, the King Tut exhibit was a huge deal in the Bay Area. It seemed everyone had King Tut fever and wanted to see the treasures of his exhumed tomb.

The exhibit featured 55 objects including Tut’s golden death mask and sarcophagus. I have memories of marveling at the superb death mask.

The museum was founded in 1895. It moved to its present site in Golden Gate Park in 1919.

The building was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and was demolished. The museum was rebuilt in its current form in 2005.

Looking west from the tower with the galleries of the de Young.

I admit that I wasn’t a fan of the new building. But the view from the top is amazing. The building is slowly growing on me.

On a recent visit I did a western facing sketch from the top of the de Young tower of the Golden Gate and the Marin Headlands (below).