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5/2/2003

Treasures of Modern Art

SFMoMA, San Francisco

The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents Treasures of Modern Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA. This special exhibition will highlight and celebrate works of art acquired by SFMOMA due to the vision and generosity of devoted trustee and patron, Phyllis Wattis, who passed away in June 2002 at the age of 97. The exhibition will feature more than 80 of her most important gifts -including works by Robert Rauschenberg, Piet Mondrian, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Barnett Newman, among others- offering a unique look at the lasting impact Wattis had on SFMOMA. It will focus on works acquired between the years 1995 and 2002, the most significant period of Wattis's philanthropic activity.

Treasures of Modern Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA is an exclusive SFMOMA presentation; the exhibition is co-organized by Madeleine Grynsztejn, the Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and John S. Weber, the Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Programs.

Wattis received national recognition late in life as her gifts of major works of contemporary and modern art helped transform the Museum's permanent collection. Leading the way for SFMOMA's unprecedented acquisition campaign of the late 1990s, Wattis worked closely with SFMOMA's curatorial staff to acquire works that would have an immediate impact on the collection and its significance in the art world. Wattis keyed her donations to the collection's gaps and needs, always asking the SFMOMA curatorial staff whether a proposed acquisition was of such importance that it could, in and of itself, spark a museum visit. In Wattis's words, taking a cue from the Michelin travel guides, she wanted to bring artworks to SFMOMA that would rank as ''Four Stars, Worth a Detour''.

"SFMOMA owes a great debt to Phyllis Wattis. Her gifts have come to occupy key places in the art historical narrative the Museum presents, states Grynsztejn. ''The caliber of the more than 80 works in this exhibition speaks to Mrs. Wattis's belief that the Museum's collection should be built around masterpieces, and we're excited by the opportunity to see them all together.
Phyllis was one of those rare individuals whose vision made a difference to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and to the cultural life of San Francisco''.

The following are among the most significant works featured in the exhibition:

Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, 1917/1964, one of the 20th century's most iconic and controversial works of art, is a cornerstone of SFMOMA's permanent collection. An edition produced in 1964 by the artist and the Milanese scholar/collector Arturo Schwartz after the destroyed 1917 original, Fountain is the first of Duchamp's ready-made objects to enter the SFMOMA collection.
Red Liz, 1963 (also titled Liz No. 6), by Andy Warhol, is a classic early portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, painted in lavender, black and turquoise against a stunning red background. It is among the signature portraits Warhol created of such celebrities as Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.

Les Valeurs personnelles (Personal Values), 1952, a painting from René Magritte's mid-career, displays the signature style of the artist in one of his most extraordinary and refined images. Les valeurs personelles is one of the artist's seminal works and includes many of the objects we associate with Magritte: the cloud-filled sky, the goblet, the box-like interior space with a crack in the ceiling. The painting creates the sensation that we are standing in an ambiguous space that is both open and confining, creating a sense of radical change in scale that represents one of the most potent aspects of Magritte's works.

The donation of 14 iconic works by Robert Rauschenberg, purchased by Wattis directly from the artist, made SFMOMA a destination point for lovers of postwar art. Included among those gifted are Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953; Automobile Tire Print, 1953; and an accompanying group of key early paintings, sculptures and photographs. These works give SFMOMA an unmatched range and depth in Rauschenberg's work. Wattis developed a friendship with the artist during this period and they remained in contact until her death.

''The Patron Saint of San Francisco Arts''
Phyllis Cannon Wattis, a great granddaughter of Brigham Young, was born in 1905 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was the daughter of a sugar company executive and the third of six children. Raised in Salt Lake City, she started college at the University of Utah and moved in 1927 to attend UC Berkeley, where she graduated with a degree in economics. Following graduation, she returned to Salt Lake City and met Paul Wattis, whose father was a founder of the Utah Construction Company. They were married in 1934 and three years later moved to San Francisco, where they raised two children. Wattis became interested in art relatively late in life. Though she first visited SFMOMA in the 1940s, it wasn't until 1964, while visiting an international art exhibition called Documenta in Kassel, Germany, that her interest in modern art developed.

In 1958 the couple established the Paul L. and Phyllis Wattis Foundation to formalize their philanthropic activities, which were aimed at educational, artistic and scientific Bay Area institutions. After 30 years, Phyllis Wattis dissolved the organization and promptly gave $26 million to several Bay Area institutions, including $5 million to SFMOMA's New Building Campaign.

Wattis served as a Trustee of SFMOMA beginning in 1973 and was elected a Lifetime Trustee in 1988.

Image: Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, 1935-1942. Oil on canvas Collection SFMOMA

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VIDEO SCREENINGS
On Thursdays at 7 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 3 p.m., videos about artists whose work is represented in the exhibition will be screened in the Koret Visitor Education Center.

These screenings feature the following artists:
Robert Arneson
Joan Brown
Marcel Duchamp
Donald Judd
Yves Klein
Sol LeWitt
René Magritte
Brice Marden Gordon Matta-Clark
Piet Mondrian
Robert Motherwell
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Smithson
Peter Voulkos
Andy Warhol

Video screenings are free with Museum admission. For a detailed schedule with dates and times, please scroll down the page. Or, you may call the Koret Center at 415.538.2693 on Thursday evenings, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Thursday, February 06, 2003
Video Screening
Joan Brown Interview
1979, 20 minutes
7:00 p.m.
Koret Visitor Education Center

Museum Galleries
Open every day (EXCEPT Wednesdays) 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Summer hours (Memorial Day Labor Day): 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Open late Thursdays until 9 p.m.
The Museum is closed on Wednesdays and on the following public holidays:
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street San Francisco, CA 94103-3159
Telephone: 415/357-4000
Fax: 415/357-4037

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