After spending the day at SFMOMA, I walked around a couple of corners and down a flight of stairs to quiet art gallery and bookstore, Crown Point Press. The store is perfect for this neighborhood of galleries, a modern art museum, and the Academy of Arts. With just under half the space devoted to books, the offerings are used (as in ‘like new’ or ‘not newly published’) art books. I found a Lichtenstein at SFMOMA that interested me, so I pulled out the catalogue from an exhibit of his work that occurred years ago and looked for similar paintings. Once I noticed the price, $225, and the excellent condition of the book, I flipped through carefully. The price made me wonder about whether or not I should take another look at the catalogues of art exhibits that I have shoved on bookshelves, maybe they are worth more than I thought. More importantly, it reminded me that the exhibit catalogues are full of information, good ones aren’t just expensive picture books. Crown Point Press has a wall full of luscious monographs and exhibit catalogues.
The bookseller was incredibly helpful. While a good museum bookstore has a concentration of art books, what I have yet to find is a bookseller at a museum store. Don’t take me wrong, people are often helpful at the stores, but they aren’t booksellers. This woman was a bookseller who specialized in art. I asked about an artist I heard about at the Getty Research Institute, Malvina Hoffman. Actually, what I said was ‘there is an interesting artist that I’d love to find more information about and for the life of me, I can’t remember her name, but I’m sure her initials are MG.” (Note, the initials are MH, good grief.) I apologized and said my memory has a new tendency to fail me, she replied “it’s only going to get worse” and then started pulling down books about women artists. She went through several books while I told her Hoffman’s story trying to find something about my sculptor. Coming up empty, I took her card to contact her the next time I start looking for books about Hoffman. This is the store to contact if you need someone to keep an eye out for unique art books.
The art criticism and essay shelves were full of out of print gems. Unfortunately, most of the books were pricey and I was too tired to evaluate if I should spend that much money. In the end, I left empty handed, but of all of the stores I visited in San Francisco, it’s this little corner bookstore that I remember the most.
20 Hawthorne St.
San Francisco, CA
Tel: 415.974.6273
Claire
Kim
