My Date with Fauvism

One of our local museums, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is home to one of French artist Matisse’s most famous works, La femme au chapeau (Woman with a hat). I’ve had occasion to visit and enjoy this beautiful painting many times over the years, so when they dedicated an exhibit around the painting, I thought, huh. Do I want to spend $40 to see this, a painting I have seen many times and can see for less when it is not in a special exhibition? The answer was, probably not. However, a few months ago, I did a thing.

I have been bitching recently about how few local friends I have. One might not believe this when I post on my blog about recent get togethers, with friends from my hotel days, with friends from my 26 years ago job, with my BFF from HS, with my friend from 6th grade, with visiting blog friends. But most of these folks have moved far away, and those that are local are still not ‘local’. Not, ‘let’s go for a walk together on our lunch break’ local, not ‘want to spend 1/2 hour together soon’ local. I have one friend I see sometimes and like, but again, we don’t get together often. I don’t see my local and semi-local friends that often, maybe quarterly at best. And the far away friends I see much less. (I also have no local family – my siblings are in Oregon and Alaska, my parents are dead, my step-mom is in Oregon.) Sometimes, I feel lonely for female friends. How does one make friends at 60? When Maya was in school, we were friendly with some of her friends parents, with other Girl Scout moms, that kind of thing. But none of those really stuck once she graduated from High School. I was thinking about this a while ago, and wondering if I should join some online friend dating thing, which seemed weird to me. When my Facebook feed fed me a local group of women over 50 that get together and do things together, I decided to join. I lurk, and a couple of times I have RSVP’d to meet up at a local restaurant or bar, but then I chickened out and changed my reply and didn’t go. I’m not sure this is for me, but I’m still thinking about it.

Anyway, several weeks ago, one of the women posted that she wanted to go to this exhibit before it closes, and I had a day off of work on a Tuesday, so I thought, ‘What the hell.’ So we messaged and we met up at the museum, we looked at art, we had lunch in the cafe, and then I came home. Will I meet up with her again? Maybe? She was very nice, but what I’m looking for is someone really local, and she lives on the Peninsula, meaning closer to an hour without traffic, and there’s almost always traffic.

BUT! The exhibit was lovely. It was designed to show part of the exhibit at the Salon d’Automne, at the Grande Palais in Paris in 1905. La femme au chapeau was quite the scandal, due to Matisse’s use of bold color and his departure from realism. One critic, after seeing the works included in this particular room of the exhibit, declared the artists to be ‘Wild Beasts’, or ‘Fauves’, thus giving birth to the short lived but influential movement. I had never heard of Fauvism before, but I now count it as a favorite style of painting, along with Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

Of course, there was a lot of information about Woman with a hat, which was more interesting than I thought it would be. There’s the scandal of the exhibition, of course. Also, that it was purchased by Gertrud Stein and her brother, Harold Stein, and was later sold to an heiress of Levi Strauss, which is when it was brought to San Francisco. It was eventually bequeathed to the museum, where it lives today.

Maisons à Chatou ~ Maurice de Vlamint – I love the vibrant brush strokes and the textures of the bold colors.

Tulipes et Vitrail ~ Pierre Girieud. Stunning – I love the stained glass of John the Baptist behind the vase of flowers.

Legende de Saint Nicolas ~ Pierre Girieud. Again, the vase and fruit, common themes, in the foreground, then St. Nicolas in the background, perhaps a painting on the wall or a page from a book, I’m not sure.

Jeanne sur le balconade ~ Henri Manguin This one isn’t quite as vibrant or striking, it reminds me more of artists from a bit later. I love her bright orange sash.

I had never heard of any of these artists, and it was a wonderful exhibit. I’m so thankful that we have some top notch museums in our area. And I’m glad that I got just a bit out of my comfort zone and met a member of the group, even if we don’t end up becoming friends and doing things together in the future. It was a good day.