Kahlo show on view after 6month wait
SFMOMA, de Young and Asian Art Museum reopening soon
With news that museums in San Francisco can reopen beginning Monday, Sept. 21, with approval of health plans from the city, three major institutions have announced their plan to reopen this fall.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco plans to allow members into the de Young on Tuesday, Sept. 22 — the first day of autumn — with doors to open to the general public starting Sept. 25. The Legion of Honor, which is also a part of the Fine Arts Museums, will reopen in October on a date to be announced.
The Asian Art Museum is scheduled to reopen to members Oct. 1 and to the public Oct. 3.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art also announced that it will reopen to members on Oct. 1 and to the public Oct. 4.
All four museums will operate at 25% visitor capacity.
“We are delighted to be able to reopen our doors and offer a place of inspiration and comfort at this dire time in the Bay Area,” said Thomas Campbell, the director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “The de Young Museum is a lowtouch, airy space, and the firstrate air filtration system will serve our community well in these smoky conditions.”
At the de Young, “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving,” installed since March before the pandemic shut down museum operations, will finally get its Bay Area debut. “Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI,” which explores humanity’s relationship with artificial intelligence, will also reopen but as an expanded exhibition.
New to the de Young, Pierre Huyghe’s bronze sculpture “Exomind” has also been installed in the museum’s Barbro Osher Sculpture Garden for openair viewing.
“Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving,” installed at the de Young just before the coronavirus shutdown, opens to the public Tuesday, Sept. 22.
At the Asian Art Museum, the painting, sculpture and textile show “Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment”; the installation “Jean Shin | Pause”; “Lost at Sea: Art Recovered From Shipwrecks,” featuring 12thcentury stone reliefs and 15thcentury ceramics; and “Chang Daichien: Painting From Heart to Hand” will be on view.
“I was, I am, I will be,” the recently installed 75foot vinyl decal mural by artist Chanel Miller in the newly added Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion, is not yet open for indoor viewing, but it can be seen from Hyde Street.
The Asian Art Museum’s new hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. FridayMonday and 1 to 8 p.m. Thursday, and it will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There will be no extra charge for special exhibitions.
“We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to ensure the upclose art encounters you’ve been missing during quarantine will be ready,” said Jay Xu, the director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum. “Two full floors of refurbished collections galleries reimagine our masterpieces from across Asia, giving longtime members a chance to see an ‘old friend’ in a fresh light, or firsttime visitors a chance to encounter a new favorite.
“Our current program of temporary art exhibitions and special installations speak to this moment’s outsize universal need for mindfulness, togetherness and healing.”
At SFMOMA, two new exhibitions will debut — “David Park: A Retrospective,” the first major study of the Bay Area figurative painter, and its companion exhibition “David Park and His Circle: The Drawing Sessions.” Largescale painting commissions by Muzae Sesay and by Marina PerezWong and Elaine Chu of Twin Walls Mural Company will also be on view for the first
time, part of a series of sitespecific commissions by local contemporary artists titled “Bay Area Walls.”
SFMOMA’s new public hours will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday and to 8 p.m. on Thursdays; closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
To operate in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, the museums plan to implement new safety precautions and visitor protocols.
In addition to 25% capacity limits, tickets will have timed entry. A limited number of tickets will be available for onsite purchase every day, but visitors are encouraged to make advance reservations online.
Museums will also require visitors to wear masks and will have posted directional signs indicating preferred pathways as a way of maintaining social distance.
At the de Young, the Hamon Observation Tower, de Youngsters Studio, coat checks and other areas where proper distancing will be harder to enforce will remain closed until further notice.
Tours at the Asian Art, SFMOMA and Fine Arts Museums will be selfguided via personal electronic devices.
At the de Young and Legion of Honor museums, free general admission through December 2021 will be offered to essential workers, who will also receive a discount on tickets to special exhibitions.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco plans to continue its Free Saturdays program with free admission every Saturday at the de Young and Legion of Honor for all Bay Area residents, while SFMOMA will be offering two weeks of free admission through Oct. 18.
The Asian Art Museum is currently finalizing plans for its own free admission days.