Hasta La Ideas

Following the death of GAP founder and art collector Donald Fisher late last year, the SFMOMA has been scrambling to sort through his collection (which was given to them, much to their relief), raise boatloads of money for a new wing to house it all in, and figure out what famous architect they’d like to have design the new building. While still in the thick of it all, the museum recently opened the exhibition “Calder to Warhol: Introducing the Fisher Collection,” which shows off a massive 160 pieces out of the more than a thousand given/loaned in the completely collection (now understand why they need a new wing for it?). The exhibition runs until mid-September, but save for a trip to see it yourself, the Wall Street Journal‘s David Littlejohn has just filed this great run-through of what all there is to see in this 1/10th slice of the Fisher collection, as well as a nice overview of the history of SFMOMA’s collecting. Here’s a bit:

On the fourth floor, five artists each get a room (or rooms) to themselves — notably in very impressive displays of Warhol and Close, and a lineup of five good Lichtensteins. If these — together with a great Claes Oldenburg “Apple Core” — provide evidence of the Fishers’ commitment to figurative art, their simultaneous interest in eye-pleasing abstraction is clear from powerful canvases by two local heroes, Diebenkorn and Francis; two heroines of the New York School, Lee Krasner and Joan Mitchell; the late, looping oils of Brice Marden and the bright, off-the-canvas fantasies of Frank Stella; and a calming chamber devoted to seven near-monochrome works by Agnes Martin (a favorite of Doris Fisher’s), all meriting the closest inspection.

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