Luc Tuymans

The Tuyman’s show on the top floor of San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art is a good one if you have never seen a Tuyman’s show before. Fortunately, I had seen one previously at the Tate Modern which was excellent and so I was a bit underwhelmed by this one. The exhibition is broken into sections: works based on polaroids that have no real connecting theme; a group of works he made based on medical photographs; works based on Holocaust events; works related to his home country’s colonization of the Belgian Congo; and works he created in 2005 related to the Bush administration. I really like that there was not a lot of wall text. With some of his work the background information is helpful, but so much of what I like about Tuyman’s paintings are the spaces he creates for the viewer to enter and contemplate without the “noise” of too much extraneous information. His muted palette and minimalistic compositions are a wonder to behold.

Ewan Gibbs, San Francisco, 2009; graphite on paper; commissioned by SFMOMA; © Ewan Gibbs; photo: courtesy the artist and Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

It is necessary to get up close to a suite of drawings of San Francisco by Bristish artist Ewan Gibbs. Made up of thousands of pencil marks in lines, dots, and dashes, he creates drawings of the most famous landmarks of the city including the Golden Gate Bridge and Coit Tower. Up close they simply appear as abstracted marks (similar to the way Chuck Close creates works but on a miniscule scale); however, from afar they are subtle works of beauty reminiscent  of the landscape one sees in the foggy atmosphere of the City by the Bay.

Ewan Gibbs, San Francisco, 2009; graphite on paper; commissioned by SFMOMA; © Ewan Gibbs; photo: courtesy the artist and Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Andy Warhol, A Set of Six Self-Portraits, 1967; oil and silkscreen ink on canvas; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Michael D. Abrams; © Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“The Anniversary Show” celebrates 75 years as a formidable institution and displays more than 400 works from the permanent collection. It is a lot to take in. I preferred the exhibition called “Focus on Artists.” This show highlights the work of 18 modern and contemporary artists whose work the museum has amassed over the years. Each room includes multiple works by these artists and is a joy to meander through without becoming overwhelmed. “The first half of the exhibition includes eight American artists whose practice fundamentally impacted the development of abstract art in the United States: Richard Diebenkorn, Philip Guston, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, and Clyfford Still. The second section showcases an international selection of artists — Diane Arbus, Matthew Barney, Robert Gober, Dan Graham, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Kara Walker, Jeff Wall, and Andy Warhol — whose work has signaled a shift toward more psychological, social, and historical content in art.” (www.sfmoma.org) In an afternoon you can see the Tuymans, the “Focus on Artists,” and the Ewan Gibbs show and still have energy to hit the rest of the SF sights.