Three exhibits at the de Young Museum testify that the collective unconscious is alive and well in San Francisco.
Installation view of 'Revelations: Art from the African American South' at the de Young museum. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
On until 1 April 2018, 'Revelations: Art from the African American South' blends the Fine Arts Museums collection of southern African American art with the sensational acquisition of 62 sculptures, paintings, drawings and quilts from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation’s William S. Arnett collection. Photographs documenting critical events in the civil rights movement, stunning and masterful Gee's Bend quilts, and dynamic sculptures, paintings and drawings address a seriously under-represented area of museum collecting: the culture and experience of Southern African Americans. This exhibition deeply and evocatively explores this history of slavery, generational tensions, class and gender, Jim Crow racism, white supremacy, daily life, HIV/AIDS and spirituality.
Jessie T. Pettway, Bars and String-Pieced Columns, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1950s. Cotton, 76' x 95' © 2017 Jessie T. Pettway / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Also ending on 1 April 2018, 'Maori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand' is the first major exhibit in the U.S. focusing on Maori leaders, elders, warriors and politicians. Gottfried Lindauer was a Czech citizen who trained in Europe, before permanently emigrating to Australia, and his powerful and spiritual works superbly capture the turbulent history, social and political change between 1874 and 1903. To open the exhibit, which is accompanied by a BBC documentary, Maori elders and leaders travelled to San Francisco to share their history, culture, stories and knowledge.
