Hiroshi Sugimoto at the de Young

I finally got out to see the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibit last night at the de Young since they are open to 8:45 pm on Friday nights. The new de Young museum itself I wasn't very impressed with at first, since it looks like the painted backdrop of a Star Trek: The Next Generation city from afar, but it grew on me as I went throughout the museum. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an example of such a backdrop from TNG so my google-fu must be weak today. I don't think the metal cladding on the building was a particularly felicitous choice. It seemed too sterile, and the texture was off putting. Perhaps as it ages and acquires more of a patina it will soften.

Whoever funded the entry court should get their money back. It's cold and uninviting and does not welcome lingering. However, the built-in fern court was a nice touch, and there could have been more warm touches such as that to lessen the monolithic dread of the rest of the building.

The view of San Francisco, however, from the Harmon Tower is magnificent and truly itself worth a visit to the museum. There is a small Ruth Asawa exhibit at the entrance to the elevator to visit the top of the tower, and that was nice to see since I missed the big exhibition they had early this year or last.

The Sugimoto exhibit itself was very dimly lit with the photos lit from behind. I suppose I enjoyed it, although it struck me that anything tastefully photographed and reproduced in monumental size would be impressive. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I found his compositional skills somewhat too frontal and centered. There were a number of series, and of course the seascape series was my favorite. That must've been anticipated by the curators since that's where they put the benches for folks to linger. I wasn't impressed at all by the temple photo, since it was stitched together from many photos and the joins were not seamless. That seems just careless in this day and age.

His abstract forms were good, but again, they would fall prey to the criticism of being interesting simply due to their size. I wasn't and haven't been very interested in his photos of dioramas and wax statues, but they are also compelling in an odd removed from reality twice sort of way. The series of drive-in theaters is very good and more complex visually due to jet-trails flying overhead than the similar set from theaters. I also liked his architectural photos, blurry yet still preserving some of the abstract majesty of the famous buildings that he photographed.

I also enjoyed the landscapes by Shi Guorui, a photographer in residence who is from Beijing. I found them terrifying in a nightmarish way, reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone black and white episodes. The series of photos of the 19th-century hand tools I found much less compelling. They are simply Ray-o-graphs, or photograms if you like, and disappointing compositionally, presented in a highly formal and flat way. I think they are to be linked with 19th-century Chinese immigrant labor, and if so, they did not serve that notion well.

The rest of the collection I zipped through, sparing a glance here and there since I suffer eye-fatigue at a museum fairly quickly. The Friday Nights at the de Young series is an excellent idea, and there seemed to be a crowd of people enjoying that under a massive Gerhard Richter.

Harry Callahan

Magnificent. I don't like all of his stuff, but he comes the closest to the aesthetic I've been lazily striving for in his photos of buildings. I love that he focused on the daily life of where he lived in his early work, photographing the mundane and making it beautiful, like this, the last photo that is of a building wall in Chicago. He experimented like mad, but his abstract photos were so tasteful.

Look at the composition of this. So fortuitous, but apparently he worked hard to get a handful of photos a year, photographing more in a weekend than others did in a year.

I love the barrenness of this. Mies Van Der Rohe was a big influence on him, great portrait.

Look how it abstracted and simplified this through contrast. Lovely.

Another beautiful winter scene from Chicago. Inspiring. I'll have to look for more books on him. It's becoming obvious that I need to take a history of photography class.

Unknotting Knoxville

A few farewell photos of Knoxville, mainly of the part of town called the Old City. The Old City is a few square blocks that consist of very old buildings under heavy development. Unfortunately it's penned in by a highway and the railroad, but it is rapidly gentrifying with design and architects' offices. Great bit of graffiti. My sister tell me that this local artist is well known and that people will pry off the plywood at building sites to keep she often sketches on. Summer thunderstorm sky over downtown Knoxville.

The old JFG Coffee building where they roasted coffee since 1926. It's been recently closed and operations moved elsewhere. Repurposed bowling alley as car lot. Doesn't get any more post-modern than that, does it? Bricolage amongst the suburban detritus.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, how do you do it?

Experiment at the Quarry Lake in Knoxville. I need to figure out how to do a long exposure with this new camera without everything washing out. I had borrowed my sister's tripod to do this since I could tell from Google Maps that this pond was a cerulean blue.

Well, 'magine my surprise. Sugimoto-san had an exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. when I was there last week. Somehow I missed that in my trip planning.

Dang.

And his exhibition at the Asian Art Museum isn't 'til this fall. When I'm not likely to be in the Bay Area.

Dang.

Nevermind, his show at the Hirschorn was last year. Still won't get to see his show at the Asian Art Museum.

Dang.

Here's a photo to calm down with.

The Road Goes On Forever...

Dunno 'bout the party ending though.