San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Where Gumbo was #233

Congratulations to George G. and Port Moresby, who both figured out that Gumbo was visiting the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this week.

 IMG_0148-001Looking out a window at downtown SF

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Founded in 1935, SFMOMA has an excellent collection of modern and contemporary art, on par in quality with both LACMA, in Los Angeles and MOMA in New York City. Today it sits on the edge of downtown San Francisco, across 3rd street from both the Moscone Conference Center and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

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The stairways in the new addition look into each other.

Its current building was designed by Mario Botta, a Swedish architect, and opened in 1995. Botta’s design has galleries surrounding an open column that is topped by a glass ceiling called The Oculus.

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Interior of The Oculus

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The Oculus skylight

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The Oculus interior

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Exterior of SFMOMA with The Oculus above and the 2009 expansion behind

In 2009 the museum was expanded from 50 thousand square feet to almost 300 thousand square feet. The expansion included a rooftop garden and an exterior statue garden with a 30 foot tall living wall.

IMG_0165Exterior of the original 1995 building

IMG_0176The Living Wall

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It is worth a trip to SFMOMA to enjoy both the art in its collection and the architecture of its building.

 

Come back tomorrow to find the first clue to Gumbo’s next destination.

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7 years ago

My local Museum of Modern Art is always worth a visit. Some thought provoking art – and some just leaves me cold.

I may have walked past this building ten times – I would never have guessed it had a connection with Art !

7 years ago

Every time I see a Calder I remember sitting at a concert, his sister immediately in front of me with mini-Calder mobiles hanging from her ears.

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