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Historic art on parade for Rose Hotel guests

Culture is one of the chief reasons people migrate and travel to cities. And one of the leading components of meaningful culture is a meaningful art scene.

On that count, the San Francisco Bay Area takes a back seat to no one. To give you some idea, the masterworks of Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Rembrandt, Toulouse-Lautrec and others are in town right now.

For the benefit of our current and soon-to-be-arriving guests, this week’s blog post serves as an overview of the artistic riches now on exhibition and within easy striking distance of The Rose Hotel.

Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau
(Woman with a Hat), oil on canvas

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, showing June 11 through Oct. 10 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. On exhibition are more than 100 masterpieces by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) from the permanent collection of Paris’s world-renowned Musée National Picasso. The once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, made possible only because of the temporary closure of the Musée Picasso until 2012 for extensive renovations, comprises paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints drawn from every phase of the artist’s career.

The Steins Collection: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde at the San Franicsco Museum of Modern Art, May 21 through September 6. American expatriates in bohemian Paris when the 20th century was young, the Steins – writer Gertrude, her brothers Leo and Michael, and Michael’s wife, Sarah – were among the first to recognize the talents of avant-garde painters like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Through their friendship and patronage, they helped spark an artistic revolution. This landmark exhibition draws on collections around the world to reunite the Steins’ unparalleled holdings of modern art, bringing together, for the first time in a generation, dozens of works by Matisse, Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and many others. Artworks on view include Matisse’s Blue Nude (Baltimore Museum of Art) and Self-Portrait (Statens Museum, Copenhagen), and Picasso’s famous portrait Gertrude Stein (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Together with its accompanying mobile tour, The Steins Collection offers a rare, in-depth encounter with the artworks and the extraordinary people behind the birth of modern art.

Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection at the Legion of Honor, July 9 through Oct. 2. One of the finest collections of 17th-century Dutch Old Masters belongs not to a museum, but to Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, who have been called “the most important collectors you’ve never heard of.” Masterworks from this collection are constantly sought-after for American and international exhibitions. The selection of paintings includes premier examples of quintessentially Dutch subjects – from portraits and still lifes to landscapes and charming scenes of everyday life. Collectively these works chronicle a 17th-century Holland that served as a model for early American society and culture. Consummate examples of the craft of painting, the works in the Van Otterloo collection are extraordinary in their beauty and in excellent condition. Famous artists such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Hendrick Avercamp are featured, as are genre specialists Frans van Mieris and Gerrit Dou.

Bali Art, Ritual, Performance at the Asian Art Museum, Feb. 25 through September 11. Bali has long held a special place in the Western imagination, not only for its reputation as a tropical paradise, but for its artistic culture. Here, art, performance, and ritual are a part of the everyday. While Bali is widely appreciated as a vibrant center of visual and performing arts, there has never been an in-depth exploration of its artistic traditions in the United States until now. Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance brings the art and artists of this special Indonesian island to San Francisco so that you can experience firsthand its culture, beliefs, and practices. See not only artworks but explore the context in which they were made and used, as the museum comes alive with the kinds of music and performance that fill Balinese ritual life. The 131 artworks on view – many borrowed from international collections and never before seen in the U.S. – range from simple, yet deftly woven images of the rice goddess to elaborately carved and gilded chairs. Shadow puppetry, gamelan performances, masked dances, and more provide a museum experience as unique and mesmerizing as Bali itself.

A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir’s Journey at the Oakland Museum of California, Aug. 6 through Jan. 22. Explore the legacy of John Muir’s life and how he continues to influence our relationship with the natural world in this special exhibition presenting both a historical and a contemporary lens on the natural environment of California. Spotlighting the life of the radical environmentalist as well as eight Modern Day Muirs, A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir’s Journey highlights Californians currently involved in environmental research and activism – including a Yosemite National Park geologist, a bighorn-sheep biologist, and an Oakland tree-planter/activist. Through interactive, multisensory displays and digital mash-ups, visitors will experience a simulation of Muir’s exploration behind Yosemite Falls, his trek from Yosemite to Mount Whitney, and even his night spent in a hollow giant sequoia observing the forest burning around him. Told through the museum’s collections of art, history, and natural science, interactive digital technology, and select loans – journals manuscripts, and original drawings – the exhibition is a tribute to Muir’s legacy and to the importance of continued environmental stewardship.

The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis at the San Jose Museum of Art, June 23 through September 25. Thousands of comic aficionados know Robert Crumb as the grandfather of the groundbreaking underground “commix” movement in San Francisco and as a legendary 60s counterculture character. Crumb’s influence as an artist and an illustrator has spread far beyond the world of comics and graphic novels: many of his images are now icons of our visual culture. Perhaps surprisingly for an artist known for his subversive streak, Crumb recently turned his attention to illustrating one of the fundamental texts of Western civilization: the Book of Genesis. From Adam and Eve, to Noah’s Ark, to Sodom and Gomorrah, Crumb pictures these familiar narratives in his instantly recognizable style and reinterprets Genesis for contemporary times. Rife with stories of love, lust, betrayal, intrigue, and violence, the Book of Genesis comes newly alive under R. Crumb’s hand.

There’s much more. But the above exhibitions represent some of the region’s current highlights that art aficionados and dilatants alike will find visual feasts and historic points of reference.

We invite you to enjoy.

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