Alexander Calder
I am an art history groupie. The one topic that competes for my attention with writing and literature is art. A member of a die hard Laker family (in case you weren’t aware, they won in Game 7 because (1) my daughter was banned to the other side of the house since every time she walked into the room during a game Ray Allen would shoot a 3 pointer, and (2) my husband was standing in his ‘spot’), I watched the first 5 minutes of Game 7, dashed to the Getty for a lecture by the curators of the Gerome exhibit, then dashed back for the last 6 minutes. I love the Lakers, but a curator lecture is missed only for medical emergencies. I combine my two passions on this blog by participating in the Art History Challenge. I’ve considered writing about museum bookstores, they are frequently listed on Indiebound, but I wondered would anyone go to a museum just for it’s bookstore? Well, maybe. So, today starts an occasional and erratic series about museum bookstores.
Philip Guston
I spent a day last week with the Fisher exhibit, officially called Calder to Warhol, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Loved the exhibit (it’s going to be weird talking about the bookstore more than the art). For the first time ever on a museum tour, a docent recommended a book, Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by Musa Mayer (the artist’s daughter). I was unfamiliar with Philip Guston and fell in love with his work. At the end of the day, I stopped by MuseumStore to look at the book. The bookstore has a section called “exhibit hall” which displays books and items related to the current shows. I was impressed with the offerings for the Fisher show. There were several books related to the artists, plus the usual catalogue and t-shirts. I enjoyed the variety of offerings about contemporary art (there are more than a dozen), but I was deeply disappointed by the catalogue. I’m a pushover for exhibition catalogues, but I guess I’m starting to get a little picky. This catalogue included an introduction and and interview with the Fishers, then photographs of the artwork. All this information is readily available on the Internet, or if it isn’t now, it soon will be soon since the collection is open to the public. I skipped the catalogue, but I did pick up Night Studio.
Beyond “exhibit hall,” the MuseumStore has a nice selection of books: numerous shelves of monographs, a travel section (a rarity in museum bookstores, I looked through the Eyewitness Top Ten guide for every city I will be in this summer, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London, which made me wonder, does anyone actually buy those books?), non-fiction art books, and several of the ‘how to be creative’ genre books. Like every museum bookstore, this one has a children’s section full of artist DVDs, craft books, how to look at art books, and a selection of toys that I’ve always felt interest the parents more often than the kids.
As it should be for a modern art museum, the gift section included a variety of unique items. My favorite was a plastic trash can with a harder plastic and loudly colored pitcher attached. What is the pitcher for? I like it when the items in the gift store make me stop and look just as the art in the museum did. I’m guessing it is for compost. I should have taken a picture of it and sent it to Claire, as the environmentalist, she would have known.
Is this store worth stopping by even if you don’t have time for the museum? I’d vote yes, if you were in the neighborhood, or if you stopped by Cafe Musee which may be the best museum cafe ever.
151 Third St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
T: 888.357.0037
Tags: art bookstore, California, California bookstore, museum bookstore, Museum of Modern Art, museum store, San Francisco, San Francisco bookstore
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