Robert Arneson
Joan Brown
Marcel Duchamp
Donald Judd
Yves Klein
Sol LeWitt
Rene' Magritte
Brice Marden
Gordon Matta-Clark
Piet Mondrian
Robert Motherwell
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Smithson
Peter Voulkos
Andy Warhol
This special exhibition will highlight and celebrate works of art acquired by SFMOMA due to the vision and generosity of devoted trustee and patron, Phyllis Wattis. Thursday, February 06, 2003: Video Screening, Joan Brown Interview.
The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents Treasures of Modern
Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA. This special exhibition will
highlight and celebrate works of art acquired by SFMOMA due to the vision and
generosity of devoted trustee and patron, Phyllis Wattis, who passed away in
June 2002 at the age of 97. The exhibition will feature more than 80 of her
most important gifts -including works by Robert Rauschenberg, Piet Mondrian,
René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Barnett Newman, among others-
offering a unique look at the lasting impact Wattis had on SFMOMA. It will
focus on works acquired between the years 1995 and 2002, the most significant
period of Wattis's philanthropic activity.
Treasures of Modern Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA is an
exclusive SFMOMA presentation; the exhibition is co-organized by Madeleine
Grynsztejn, the Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and
John S. Weber, the Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public
Programs.
Wattis received national recognition late in life as her gifts of major works
of contemporary and modern art helped transform the Museum's permanent
collection. Leading the way for SFMOMA's unprecedented acquisition campaign of
the late 1990s, Wattis worked closely with SFMOMA's curatorial staff to
acquire works that would have an immediate impact on the collection and its
significance in the art world. Wattis keyed her donations to the collection's
gaps and needs, always asking the SFMOMA curatorial staff whether a proposed
acquisition was of such importance that it could, in and of itself, spark a
museum visit. In Wattis's words, taking a cue from the Michelin travel guides,
she wanted to bring artworks to SFMOMA that would rank as ''Four Stars, Worth
a Detour''.
"SFMOMA owes a great debt to Phyllis Wattis. Her gifts have come to occupy key
places in the art historical narrative the Museum presents, states Grynsztejn.
''The caliber of the more than 80 works in this exhibition speaks to Mrs.
Wattis's belief that the Museum's collection should be built around
masterpieces, and we're excited by the opportunity to see them all together.
Phyllis was one of those rare individuals whose vision made a difference to
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and to the cultural life of San
Francisco''.
The following are among the most significant works featured in the exhibition:
Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, 1917/1964, one of the 20th century's most iconic
and controversial works of art, is a cornerstone of SFMOMA's permanent
collection. An edition produced in 1964 by the artist and the Milanese
scholar/collector Arturo Schwartz after the destroyed 1917 original, Fountain
is the first of Duchamp's ready-made objects to enter the SFMOMA collection.
Red Liz, 1963 (also titled Liz No. 6), by Andy Warhol, is a classic early
portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, painted in lavender, black and turquoise against
a stunning red background. It is among the signature portraits Warhol created
of such celebrities as Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.
Les Valeurs personnelles (Personal Values), 1952, a painting from René
Magritte's mid-career, displays the signature style of the artist in one of
his most extraordinary and refined images. Les valeurs personelles is one of
the artist's seminal works and includes many of the objects we associate with
Magritte: the cloud-filled sky, the goblet, the box-like interior space with a
crack in the ceiling. The painting creates the sensation that we are standing
in an ambiguous space that is both open and confining, creating a sense of
radical change in scale that represents one of the most potent aspects of
Magritte's works.
The donation of 14 iconic works by Robert Rauschenberg, purchased by Wattis
directly from the artist, made SFMOMA a destination point for lovers of
postwar art. Included among those gifted are Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953;
Automobile Tire Print, 1953; and an accompanying group of key early paintings,
sculptures and photographs. These works give SFMOMA an unmatched range and
depth in Rauschenberg's work. Wattis developed a friendship with the artist
during this period and they remained in contact until her death.
''The Patron Saint of San Francisco Arts''
Phyllis Cannon Wattis, a great granddaughter of Brigham Young, was born in
1905 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the daughter of a sugar company
executive and the third of six children. Raised in Salt Lake City, she started
college at the University of Utah and moved in 1927 to attend UC Berkeley,
where she graduated with a degree in economics. Following graduation, she
returned to Salt Lake City and met Paul Wattis, whose father was a founder of
the Utah Construction Company. They were married in 1934 and three years later
moved to San Francisco, where they raised two children. Wattis became
interested in art relatively late in life. Though she first visited SFMOMA in
the 1940s, it wasn't until 1964, while visiting an international art
exhibition called Documenta in Kassel, Germany, that her interest in modern
art developed.
In 1958 the couple established the Paul L. and Phyllis Wattis Foundation to
formalize their philanthropic activities, which were aimed at educational,
artistic and scientific Bay Area institutions. After 30 years, Phyllis Wattis
dissolved the organization and promptly gave $26 million to several Bay Area
institutions, including $5 million to SFMOMA's New Building Campaign.
Wattis served as a Trustee of SFMOMA beginning in 1973 and was elected a
Lifetime Trustee in 1988.
Image: Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, 1935-1942. Oil
on canvas Collection SFMOMA
___________
VIDEO SCREENINGS
On Thursdays at 7 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 3 p.m., videos about
artists whose work is represented in the exhibition will be screened in the
Koret Visitor Education Center.
These screenings feature the following artists:
Robert Arneson
Joan Brown
Marcel Duchamp
Donald Judd
Yves Klein
Sol LeWitt
René Magritte
Brice Marden Gordon Matta-Clark
Piet Mondrian
Robert Motherwell
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Smithson
Peter Voulkos
Andy Warhol
Video screenings are free with Museum admission. For a detailed schedule with
dates and times, please scroll down the page. Or, you may call the Koret
Center at 415.538.2693 on Thursday evenings, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Thursday, February 06, 2003
Video Screening
Joan Brown Interview
1979, 20 minutes
7:00 p.m.
Koret Visitor Education Center
Museum Galleries
Open every day (EXCEPT Wednesdays) 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Summer hours (Memorial Day Labor Day): 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Open late Thursdays until 9 p.m.
The Museum is closed on Wednesdays and on the following public holidays:
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street San Francisco, CA 94103-3159
Telephone: 415/357-4000
Fax: 415/357-4037