San Francisco — San Francisco’s art world thrives in a city that has long been a vibrant center of experimentation and tradition, and a platform for literature, music, social action, and intellectual excitement.
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo lived here twice during their tumultuous relationship. Ansel Adams Born here, he used this city as his starting point. first photo expedition at Yosemite National Park. Kehinde Wiley, who painted the official presidential portrait of Barack Obama, studied at the San Francisco Art Institute.
But the region is losing two top-class galleries whose openings were celebrated as a testament to the region’s status as an international arts destination: Gagosian Gallery closed last year, and Pace will open in Palo next month. The Alto gallery is closing. Working artists have had to leave their Bay Area studios and move to cheaper areas. And last month, after 150 years, the San Francisco Art Institute, which has produced many notable artists among its alumni and faculty for decades, closed.
Karen Jenkins-Johnson, an up-and-coming curator and gallerist who shines a light on artists of color, said in an interview that she would be moving her flagship gallery to Los Angeles, saying that the city would be free of visitors and potential buyers. expressed dissatisfaction with She has been working for almost 30 years.
“When I opened my gallery in the ’90s, San Francisco was a destination for art,” she said. “But then when dotcoms started coming in, they pushed up rents and kicked out artists. People started shutting down and moving out. I started to lose the position I held.”
The Bay Area continues to be an important arts destination. It’s home to some of the country’s most famous museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the de Young Museum, the Legion of Honor, and the Asian Art Museum. A small gallery owner said he was still looking for buyers. It still attracts young artists. Also, the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art is moving forward with plans to open his 11,000-square-foot museum in San Francisco. dog patch Neighborhood here this October.
But when homelessness, rising housing costs and the coronavirus pandemic challenge San Francisco’s economy and shatter its image, the city’s arts community is suffering. I thought, some of the big names in the art market are leaving. And the area is increasingly overshadowed by Los Angeles’ vibrant scene filled with artists, galleries, new museums, and enthusiastic collectors.
Jon Bergruen, who opened the first gallery here in 1970, said, “People who don’t know much about the art world say, ‘Oh my god, you’re the only one left in San Francisco.'” The exhibition space next door, which was Gagosian. “I say, ‘I wish it hadn’t been.’ I wish we had all the galleries that inspire business, inspire interest, and inspire press the way Los Angeles does.”
San Francisco has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Early March 2020, 6 counties in the Bay Area A shelter-in-place order has been issued, and signs of vacant homes are still visible in offices, restaurants, and sidewalks around San Francisco. Claudia, who has owned the gallery here since 2009, said his Altman Siegel said, “We were the first city to lock down and also the last to be liberated from lockdown.”
The city’s struggle has gained national attention, spotlighting homeless camps and scenes of drug use in some of its most famous neighborhoods.
“Many media outlets, especially some on the right, have repeatedly talked about their preference to see San Francisco as a failed liberal city,” he said in 2018. De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor“San Francisco is one of the hottest places in the country. Now is the time for the city to be more proactive in spreading the word.”
But the demoralizing art news continues. Gagosian Gallery — his 4,500-square-foot exhibition space in the South of Market district — will open in early 2021 closed 4 years after opening.Last month, Pace Gallery announced It was scheduled to close the Palo Alto outpost in September. Then the San Francisco Museum of Art closed in August.
Pace president Mark Grimcher said the success of the Los Angeles gallery made the Palo Alto outpost unnecessary. “Most employees can easily see it as they see it here, so a decision has to be made: whether to keep everything open or not,” Glimcher said. “You are limited in what you can do.”
Larry Gagosian said his San Francisco gallery was “not popular at all” and was “a little redundant” given his location in Beverly Hills.
“You don’t have to be in San Francisco. There was absolutely no reason to be there,” he said. “I never felt like I had energy.”
“I don’t like closing things,” added Gagosian. “But if you’re losing money and not having fun, it’s not a good combination.”
California’s Oakland Museum Completed During Pandemic Shutdown $17.8 million renovation To campus and sculpture garden. Also, a new contemporary art museum focused on the work of local artists has taken root and he has raised $5 million out of a $10 million budget, said founding director Alison Gass.
“San Francisco is a risk-tolerant city, and ICA only worked in places like San Francisco,” Gass said. “There is a thirst for new ideas and new directions. We want to provide more incentives for artists to stay in the Bay Area. is difficult.”
Young artists fled to Los Angeles in search of more affordable spaces and a dynamic gallery scene. And with Bay Area museum executives and gallery owners struggling to make connections with Silicon Valley execs and tech billionaires, this new generation of wealth is embracing the San Francisco community when it comes to art philanthropy and collecting. This has led to concerns that we are not keeping up with the aging rich establishments.
“Being a collector requires a special education and upbringing,” said dealer Wendy Norris.
Kelly Huang, former co-director of Gagosian Galleries, who now runs her own advisory business, says these new collectors “are not interested in building a trophy collection.”
Dealers say it’s more difficult for collectors to learn about the Bay Area art market. And San Francisco’s wealthiest collectors can easily fly to the art hubs of New York, Los Angeles, and London to add to their collections.
“It’s not that collectors don’t buy from Gagosian, Pace, Zwirner, Hauser and Wirth,” Silberman said, naming Mega Galleries. “But they don’t have to buy here. They hop on the plane.”
Silberman says there’s a direct relationship between what tech executives have focused on in their careers and how they get their hands on art. “It’s not a hedge fund mentality where you buy things and flip them,” Silverman said. “The new collectors I work with seem to invest in artists the same way they trust entrepreneurs.”
Some dealers say they wish they could do better about local collectors and local museums supporting local gallerists. For example, when SF MoMA recently purchased a piece by artist Dorothea Tanning, Norris said the museum purchased it through a London gallery that had just inherited the artist’s fortune, rather than Norris, who had represented Tanning for 20 years. said.
“I’m right around the corner from them,” said Norris. “It’s a big dagger for me.”
Arts leaders are debating how to balance the need to foster the vibrant local arts scene that has long distinguished the Bay Area with the city’s desire for international distinction. Christopher Bedford, the new director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, said the museum can do both. “You can be local and global at the same time to achieve some degree of local relevance,” he said.
and the San Francisco Museum of Art announced Last month, it revealed it was acquiring 42 artworks by contemporary Bay Area artists funded by a $1 million donation from the Svane Family Foundation.
“San Francisco’s artistic community is very strong and, in fact, deserves far more attention and attention than it’s actually been given in the last few years,” Campbell said.
Jenkins Johnson said it would keep a small showroom here, but had to move its main showroom Jenkins Johnson Gallery to Los Angeles.
“I don’t want to leave the San Francisco market, but I have to go where there are collectors who support our program,” she said. “That’s why we go to Los Angeles. San Francisco has lost its luster in the art world. It’s lost its place. And it’s sad.””