The screenprinting nun

Some cool screenprints by Sister Mary Corita Kent are now on display at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco. (Thanks to Henrik for the tip, and for doing pro bono screenprinting work at the opening!)
Sister Corta studied under Charles Eames and later taught in (and eventually chaired) the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She's best known for creating the "Love" stamp for the US Postal Service in 1985, but the earlier work on display here is even better at showing her strong graphic style as well as her sense of social justice.

SF: The murals of Rincon Annex

Three of the 27 murals painted for the walls of the Rincon Postal Annex by Anton Refregier in 1946, all of which depict the history of California and San Francisco. Refregier was born in Moscow in 1905 and came to the US for the first time in 1920. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and won the competition to paint these murals in 194, beating 83 other artists and earning $26,000 for his efforts, paid by the Works Progress Administration. Refregier's treatment of his subject matter made the murals controversial in their day—naturally, a conservative politician wanted to have them destroyed—but they remained in place throughout the Rincon Annex's functional life as a post office. They were nearly destroyed again in 1978 along with the building itself, but both were saved thanks to the lobbying of artist Emmie Lou Packard. In 1979, the same year that Refregier died in Moscow, the building and its contents were declared a San Francisco landmark.

San Francisco: The Embarcadero

Here's a piece of sculpture that makes me really happy, not least because it resembles both that iconic Alessi juicer and a 1950s toy rocket. And as a bonus, it's really big!

New York City: The High Line

This is a small portion of Spencer Finch's The River That Flows Both Ways, 700 panes of colored glass installed in existing window frames in a tunnel along the High Line. Finch travelled the Hudson River on a tugboat and photographed the river once per minute for 700 minutes. A single pixel from each image provided the color for each pane, which is arranged chronologically to document the journey.

New York City: The Art Students League

Designed by an unknown architect in 1875, the Art Students League is as noteworthy for the artists it nurtured as for its architecture. The list includes Thomas Hart Benton, Alexander Calder, George Grosz, Hans Hofmann, Roy Lichtenstein, Reginald Marsh, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. (Correction: As I've just been informed by an anonymous commenter, the building was designed by H.J. (Henry Janeway) Hardenbergh, not by an unknown architect.)

Ai WeiWei at Haus der Kunst, Munich

Munich's Haus der Kunst is quite likely the best-curated exhibit space in the world right now, and they've demonstrated it yet again with an outstanding show by Ai WeiWei called "So sorry."
Ai is really one of the more interesting artists working right now, producing work that's both visually challenging as well as politically charged. Not surprisingly, he's run afoul of the Chinese government on more than a few occasions, being harassed, beaten and arrested for the challenge he presents to the ruling order in that country. His work makes a strong statement about the value of culture and community, and about the destruction of both by the state. While it's specific to the Chinese situation, its real power comes from the fact that it could be applied with equal validity in other countries — like the U.S., of course, which is equally culpable when it comes to allowing culture (and collective memory/experience) to be sacrificed, though in our case the sacrifice is usually made to market forces rather that state power. That said, those two are becoming increasingly indivisible, as the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC demonstrates...

Mission San Miguel

Apologies for the graininess of these photos; they were taken in very low light, and the camera pushes to 1600 ASA under those conditions. Nonetheless, I wanted to show the frescoes inside the Mission San Miguel, which just reopened after a restoration to repair earthquake damage. The mission was established in 1797; the church itself was completed in 1821, at around which time these frescoes were designed by Esteban Munras of Monterey and painted by the local Salinan people. The frescoes are unrestored and original, and although the building itself has been made safe for occupation there's still plenty of earthquake damage in evidence.

Brazil in SF

Although I wasn't totally blown away by the latest exhibit at Yerba Buena, "When Lives Become Form: Contemporary Brazilian Art, 1960s to the Present," I did see a few things that made me smile. From top, Beatriz Milhazes' window treatment, osgemeos' "Untitled," and Rogerio Degaki's "Vicky," oil on canvas that looks like it's been knit instead of painted.

It's not just the color

With the opening of the Brandhorst just around the corner, the Pinakothek der Moderne looks more alienating than ever. Worse, the galleries aren't laid out well, and the light is relentlessly cold no matter what the weather. On a grey day like the one on which this photo was taken, this Pinakothek is downright gloomy. Designed by Stephan Braunfels, the museum opened in 2002 — startlingly recent, considering how remote and aloof it seems. I'd have thought those qualities a thing of the past by then, especially in a civic building.
The collection, however, is outstanding, and the exhibitions change frequently. Notable on this visit: three rooms of Dan Flavin light sculptures, and quite a few galleries filled with the work of Joseph Beuys, which I generally don't like but found somewhat compelling on this occasion. Maybe they just suited the gloomy weather…

Cy Twombly at Museum Brandhorst, Munich

I've never been a big fan of Cy Twombly's work — the crudity of its execution has never really appealed to me — but the effect of being surrounded by five of his supersize canvases in this enormous gallery at the Museum Brandhorst is magnificent.

Anselm Kiefer at Museum Brandhorst, Munich

"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité"

Nick Cave at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

From "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth," a collection of 40 of Nick Cave's soundsuits, audible costumes for performance art. Witty, wonderful work -- those bear suits are made from sweaters, and some of the others look like they were made from purloined vestments from the Vatican Museum.