Wayne Thiebaud: Artist's Choice

The show of Wayne Thiebaud's paintings and drawings that I talked about last week is accompanies at SFMOMA by a larger show, called Artist's Choice, curated by Theibaud himself. Given free reign in the museum's permanent collection, he pulled out all the things he loves, and the result is quite astonishing. There are of course old favorites -- like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's pensive portrait, Elmer Bischoff's girl in the library, and Andre Derain's fauvist forest -- that regular visitors to the museum will recognize fondly. But there are also a great many things I swear to god I've never seen on display there ever before, and I've been going to the museum at least semi-regularly for the better part of three decades. That tiny Matisse teacup! That Joan Brown bowl! Adelie Landis Bischoff's Berkeley coffee house! So great. Let's see:

Above: Richard Diebenkorn

 Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Georgia O'Keeffe

Henri Matisse

James Weeks

Katherine Porter

Joan Brown

Richard Diebenkorn

Andre Derain

Elmer Bischoff

Henri Matisse

Willem de Kooning

Adelie Landis Bischoff

David Park

George C. Ault

Andre Derain

Giorgio Morandi

John Marin

Color Poem #71

I had to choose between the green
and the blue and the purple and the
pink and the yellow unicorn eraser
I picked the blue one
a turquoise that’s a little melancholy
but also somehow a little bit perky

Kunst Maakt Gelukkig

My book How Art Can Make You Happy has been translated into Dutch! It's always such a kick to see the words you wrote transformed into other words, that are still sort of the same words, just in a language you don't speak. Perhaps my favorite detail from this particular translation is the Dutch word for "acknowledgements": Dankwoord. I love that.

Here's the book in Russian and in Chinese, if you'd like to see those too.

Happy Holidays 2018

The holidays are upon us and they're just as wonderful and bonkers as ever.
In the past two weeks we've:

thrown Grandma's annual tree-trimming party;

shopped for,

and picked out,

and brought home,

and decorated,

and delighted in

our own tree;

gone to the theater

to see Dear Evan Hansen

and wept copiously;

attended the Chronicle Books holiday party at the Great American Music Hall;

gotten all dressed up,

and gone up to the Top of the Mark,

not just for the view,

and not just for the tea,

but for the face painting,

and cookie decorating,

and all the magic of the Children's Tea;

and sat rapt in the audience of Mabel's school concert,

where she sang, and also played the recorder while marching -- a sight I was simply too enchanted by to remember to photograph, alas.

This is not to mention all the gift buying and wrapping that's been ongoing, nor the food making and eating and festive outings that are yet to come. But it gives you a glimpse. Merry merrry, people.

Bill Watson Payne

I made a drawing of Bill. While it's not a fantastic likeness (indeed, part of the reason I drew it was because I want to work on my accurate people-drawing skills, which are not currently stellar) I like to think I did capture something of his own true self here. The nose is too wide and the shoulders way too narrow, the ear is a giant Abraham Lincoln excrescence -- but the kindness in the eyes is spot on, and of this I am very proud.

Wayne Thiebaud: Paintings and Drawings at SFMOMA

I quite enjoyed the Wayne Thiebaud: Paintings and Drawings show which I went to go see at SFMOMA the other day with a group of my coworker pals. Here are a few of the things I liked best. Another Friday I'll tell you about his other adjacent Artist's Choice show.