San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
CHARLES DESMARAIS’ ART PICKS
Doug Hall: “Song of Ourselves (After Walt Whitman)”: In this touching, compact video installation, Hall — a stalwart of the Bay Area art scene — offers a balm for the inflamed nerves of the American body politic. Closes June 16. Free. Rena Bransten Gallery, 1275 Minnesota St., S.F. 415-982-3292. http://rena branstengallery.com
“René Magritte: The Fifth Season”:
A well-chosen, carefully researched, beautifully designed reconsideration of a beloved artist whose enigmatic works taught us, as beginners, to look more deeply. Through Oct. 28. $19-$25; ages 18 and younger free. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., S.F. 415-357-4000. www.sfmoma.org
“Louise Bourgeois Spiders”:
The French American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) left behind a remarkably diverse body of significant work, but none of it was more popular with the public than her extended series of sculptures and drawings of spiders. She spoke of those works as “an ode to my mother” and implied that she meant that in the nicest way. Through Sept. 4. $19-$25; ages 18 and younger free. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., S.F. (415) 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org
“Ragnar Kjartansson: Scenes From Western Culture”:
Those who wandered, mesmerized, through Ragnar Kjartansson’s nine-screen video installation “The Visitors” at SFMOMA last year will want more from this quite different 2015 effort than it delivers. But if not every work by an artist can be a masterpiece, this strong follow-up is rewarding on its own terms. Through Sept. 1. Free. McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, 1150 25th St., Building B, S.F. 415-580-7605. www.mcevoyarts.org
“Judy Dater: Only Human”:
Since the early 1970s, certain pictures by Judy Dater have retained an unshakable status in the evolving history of photography. If never quite taken for granted, the greatest of these works — mostly portraits, generally of women — seem to have always been a part of the contemporary American image lexicon. The Bay Area artist’s first survey in two decades makes the pictures exhilaratingly new again. (There is also a smaller, free exhibition of Dater’s works on view at Modernism Gallery. 415-541-0461; www.modern isminc.com.) Through Sept. 16. $6-$15, under 18 free. De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. 415-750-3600. http://deyoung.famsf.org