Author: Manny Kagan

The Work Behind The Artwork

In the past two stories I wrote about the art world of San Francisco after visiting its two major museums, the SFMOMA and the Legion of Honor. The art theme continues in this week’s story, as we recently attended the opening of the San Francisco Art Fair, an annual event, for which I received VIP passes. When we arrived at Fort Mason on Thursday evening at 6:30pm, the huge parking lot was completely full. Hundreds of people rushed into the exhibition hall. It was packed with artwork and people. Our daughter Alona, who is an art consultant and came with us, made an interesting comment – “How many people can distinguish the good art from the not so good?” There were many exhibitors and hundreds of different art works in different forms and shapes, it was definitely challenging to distinguish the good from the less than good art.

After all, the appreciation of art is in the eyes of the beholder. But regardless if you like the art or do not, or even how much it is selling for, a lot of effort and work goes into creating it. From the idea or the vision to the execution, to the marketing and even the displaying of the art; not to mention the time commitment to studying, the trials and errors, and cost of the materials. One of the well-known photographers pointed out that his success depends on the size of his waste basket. I recognize this sentiment very well. When you visit our new office, you’ll be able to see my personal photo exhibition. Some people have asked to purchase some of my images. But how do I determine the price? What people see today is the result of many years of practice, which no one can see or appreciate. When next time you see any work of art, just be aware that the artist created it for your appreciation.

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P.S. When you will come to my office you will see my photography based on three subjects: Light, flowers and sunsets. If you want to see images of the people I photographed on the streets of San Francisco, ask me to show them to you or you can purchase “42 Encounters in San Francisco” on Amazon.com. The definition of art is the application of human creativity, which some people use on their appearances, as you can see from the four images of people I encountered at the SF Art Fair.

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Are You A Museum Goer?

Last week, after visiting SFMOMA, I wrote about color. On Sunday, we decided to visit another museum – the Legion of Honor. I looked online to see how many art museums there are in San Francisco, and to my surprise, the Legion of Honor was not on the list. Subsequently, I learned that it is one of the two museums that belong to the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco; the other one is the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Both are considered the largest art museums in California. The reason for our visit this time, was to see the new exhibition “The Public and the Private”, with works of the irreverent Swiss artist, Urs Fischer. In the article which appeared on Saturday, April 22, 2017, in the Datebook of the SF Chronicle, titled “At Legion Exhibition, Times are Changing”, Max Hollein, the new director of both museums, pointed out that “In the 100 year history of the Legion of Honor this is the first exhibition to bring works by a contemporary artist into dialogue with a wide range of the Museum’s permanent holdings.” It was organized by a new contemporary curator, Claudia Schmukli, who did a marvelous job selecting 30 substantial works for the exhibit. Just entering into the familiar Court of Honor with the Auguste Rodin statue, the Thinker, which has been there since the opening of The California Palace of Legion of Honor (as the museum was formerly known) in 1921, I was greatly surprised to see the sculptures, which looked like unfinished works made of clay. I learned that they were actually cast in bronze. After going inside and seeing more sculptures and huge art works on the walls which were positioned within the old conservative art, and the effect was stunning. If this exhibit would be in the SFMOMA, the reaction could be different. For me it was a bold decision to show the works of an artistic genius.

The neoclassical building that overlooks Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge was a gift from Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, the wife of the sugar magnate and thoroughbred race horse owner/breeder Adolf B. Spreckels.

The museum is also known for concerts, which are performed on Saturdays and Sundays at 4 pm on the Symphonic Organ. This can be the reason in itself to visit the museum and to become a member. Just plan to come early enough to enjoy the incredible art collection, as well. There is another current exhibition –“Monet. The Early Years.” If you will get there before May 29th, you might be able to enjoy both exhibits. And do not forget about De Young Museum, one of their current shows is called “Summer of Love Experience”.

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P.S. My four images (as before) were focused on the visitors wearing red, including the self-portrait in the “sculpture of the eye”. The museum courtyard is also an attractive spot for photographing special events, where I met this young woman in red to add to my collection.

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What Is You Favorite Color?

We recently had a visitor from Dallas stay with us. We took her to the SFMOMA to see the Matisse Diebenkorn exhibit, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. Viewing the remarkable work side by side of both of these artists again, my wife who is an artist as well pointed out that the paintings have similar colors. Color theory, which is taught in art school, is a practical guide to color mixing and the visual effects of specific color combinations. One of the common tools used for color theory, is the color wheel, which consists of primary, secondary and tertiary colors. A color circle is based on red, yellow and blue hues.

Some studies demonstrate how colors can have deep psychological effects on our perception and feelings. They may even alter our mood. My favorite color is blue. Online I found out that I am not alone. Apparently banks are usually blue in color, because the color blue is associated with trust. Meanwhile, there is also the expression “feeling blue”, which essentially means to be sad. I also found online that the color yellow, is the color of sunshine, hope and happiness, freshness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, remembrance, intellect, honor, loyalty and joy (I was surprised to find out such a long list). But at the same time it has the opposite meaning; yellow also represents cowardice and deceit.

The color red is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. There are some theories that the color red enhances the human metabolism, increases the respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. If colors play such an important role in peoples’ lives, is there a way to find out what is the right color for you? I found out quite a few sites online which can help choose the right colors either for the design of your home, clothing, and even your hair. If you would like to discover what colors best suit you, you can hire a consultant.

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P.S. During our visit to the museum, as always, I was photographing people. After a few clicks I notice how many visitors that day were wearing red clothing. This led me to write this story. Hope you will find the four images interesting.

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From Pesach to Easter

The last two weeks marked two major events, which signify death and rebirth. The Jewish holiday Pesach, which is known as Passover in English, and which started on the 11th of April this year, commemorates events that are estimated to take place around 1450 B.C. years ago, when the Hebrew slaves left Egypt, guided by Moses. It happened after God inflicted ten plagues on the Egyptians. Before the last plague – the death of the firstborns, God instructed the Hebrews to mark the doorposts with the blood of a lamb. When the angel of death was on his way to do his job, he saw the markings and passed over (“pasach” in Hebrew) the Hebrews’ marked dwellings. As a result of the death of the Egyptians’ firstborns, the Hebrew slaves were reborn in the desert as a Jewish nation, but even there, after forty years of travelling, the old generation with a slavery mentality had to die, to be reborn as fighters, whose task was to capture the Promised Land. During the next generations this story was retold again and again every year during the celebration of Pesach for the Jews living in Palestine.

One of those events took place in Jerusalem probably between the years 30 A.D. and 33 A.D. After having the Passover meal (the last supper) with his friends, a Jewish teacher by the name Yehoshua (which means in Hebrew Savior), who was teaching about the end of the world and salvation, was arrested, tried and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged and finally crucified by the Romans, who attached sign on top of his cross stating “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The name Jesus Christ is the Greek translation of the Jewish name Yehoshua or Yeshua, and is equivalent, where Christ is Greek for anointed, mashiach or messiah in Hebrew. Many years later his teachings and stories were recorded in the four canonical gospels, referred in the New Testament Epistasis. It was claimed that three days after Jesus’s crucifixion, his body disappeared from the tomb and he had been seen alive. For almost two thousand years the death of the “Jewish King” led to the birth of a new religious tradition for non-Jews, followed by 2, 18 billion Christians in over 200 countries.

On April 16th was Easter Sunday, which commemorated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and was widely celebrated all over the world. There is a controversy about the name Easter that has its origin with the goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre. In French, Easter is Paques, in Italian it’s Pasqua, in many other languages the transliteration of the Greek word for Easter, Pascha. I found out about this in the story by R.R. Reno, which appeared in the April 15-16 Review of The Wall Street, titled “The Christian Passover”. Regardless of the name and how you celebrate, both holidays signify “death” of the winter and the “birth” of a new life – spring.

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P.S. In San Francisco one of the places to celebrate Easter is on the top of Mt. Davidson, the highest elevation, with incredible views on the city. I was there at 6 AM on Sunday morning. I wanted to share with you images of the gathering of hundreds of worshippers in front of the huge cross, which belongs to the Armenian Church and to witness death of the night and the birth of the new day (thankfully rain started after the festivities were over). Hope my four images will tell some story.

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Life is a Game

“Life is a game, all you have to do is to know how to play it.” I thought about this quotation, by an unknown author while driving to Golden Gate Park with Leo, an eleven years young boy, and his mom. During our short acquaintance I found out that he is a straight A student, plays the drum, likes sports, has a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, plays hockey and basketball and wants to be an architect, when he grows up. I was really looking forward to spending time with him. His mother expressed concern that Leo was spending too much time playing basketball on his cell phone. I had no idea what she was talking about until they arrived. Knowing his interest in basketball, I showed him photos of the basketball game I was invited to two years ago. When I opened my computer and showed him the images, he got excited. Leo knew about this particular game, recognized the players and shared a lot of trivia information, and about basketball in general. After lunch, Leo asked to use my computer to play a new game on the internet. This kept him busy for awhile. Any attempts to interrupt his game and to talk about anything else didn’t work.

It was a very pleasant afternoon and we decided to drive to Golden Gate Park to take a walk around the Stow Lake. This is a very beautiful area any time of the year, and Elfa and I often come here. Leo constantly held his cell phone with yet another basketball game and was not interested about the lake, since, he said, “it is dirty”. Jokingly, I told him that the fish are playing basketball there. “No, they are not”, he replied, since “there are no scores”. “Is playing the game not enough?” I asked. “No, he responded, you need to score”.

When we arrived at the lake, he wanted to stay in the car to keep playing. His mom encouraged him to get out because outside he can play yet another game – Pokemon on his cell phone. As we walked, It was showing every trail in the virtual reality and a person moving along. From time to time, he encounted spots which added to the scoring system. I pointed out a poodle on the road to him, and asked where it is on his phone. “It was not there when the game was designed”, he replied. How about those trees with the cluster of pine cones? The view of Downtown and the Golden Gate? How about the owl’s cooing at the top of the tree?” The game was not reflecting real life, regardless of how exact the GPS was showing the details on his cell phone. When we were back in the car, I mentioned that I am planning to write a story about life as a game, and Leo’s mother responded that it is not a game, since any game needs rules and there are no rules in real life. I think that there are rules, and we just need to learn them. After all, it was Mother Theresa who said, “Life’s a game, play it.”

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P.S. The basketball game I attended on March 11, 2015 was between the San Francisco Patriots and the Detroit Pistons. I was invited to the VIP section by Chase Bank and was allowed to bring in a small camera though the security guard did not realize that it had a very long zoom lens. You can see four images from that experience. I made prints from three of them, and framed them as a present for Leo’s birthday. I am sure he will grow up as a very accomplished human being (perhaps an inventor of yet another game), and together with other kids from his generation, might even create new rules for the game we call life.

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Cheers,