M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
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The M.H. de Young Museum (commonly called simply The de Young) is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It is named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young.
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[edit] History
The museum originally opened in 1895 as an outgrowth of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 (a fair modeled on the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of the previous year). The building was originally decorated with cast-concrete ornaments on the façade. The ornaments were removed in 1949 as they began to fall and had become a hazard. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake severely damaged the building.
Architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and engineers Arup designed the newly rebuilt structure, which reopened on October 15, 2005. Copper plating, which will change colors through exposure to the elements, surrounds the present building. A 144 ft. observation tower allows visitors to see much of Golden Gate Park's Music Concourse. (See Below)
As part of the agreement that created the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 1972, the de Young's collection of European art was sent to the Legion of Honor. In compensation, the de Young received the right to display the bulk of the organization's anthropological holdings. These include significant pre-Hispanic works from Teotihuacan and Peru, as well as indigenous tribal art from sub-Saharan Africa.
[edit] Collections
The courtyard of the de Young features a sculptural installation by Andy Goldsworthy named Drawn Stone.
The de Young also exhibits American decorative pieces, textiles, and paintings from the Rockefeller Collection of American Art. It is home to the annual floral exhibition Bouquets to Art. Other permanent collections include the African and Oceanic collections which, along with the 'Art of the America's' collection, were curated by Kathleen Berrin.
[edit] Architecture
The new M.H. De Young Museum is a very interesting and clever design. It was completed in October 2005 and stands near the San Andreas fault, where the original De Young had been severely damaged in 1989 by the Loma Prieta earthquake. This was a difficult problem for architects Fong & Chan to devise an answer for. Together with the Swiss architectural team Herzog & de Meuron, the design also had to fit in its location, which is within Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. After 16 years, a stunning example of problem-solving, engineering, and innovative design was finally unveiled, with some criticism.
The building was comprised of a copper and brass “sheathing” surrounding the outside structure complete with perforations and 1,500,000 bumps. Lisa Ashmore describes it as, “a quilt of about 7,200 panels manipulated and pierced to suggest light filtering through a native tree canopy.” No matter how you see it, it is an amazing feat. The twisting 144 foot tall tower gives it a particularly interesting look and the idea for the structure is stunning. Since the problem of the fault was still apparent, “[the building] can move up to three feet (91 centimeters) due to a unique system of ball-bearing sliding plates and viscous fluid dampers that absorb kinetic energy and convert it to heat” (Ashmore). With such a groundbreaking design, there were a fair share of critics who called the twisting tower "a huge shed," an "Internet start-up company," an "aircraft carrier," a "Howard Johnson's of the future," "atrocious" and "ugly" (Guthrie).
The building’s function is to house art, so as in most museums, the edifice is an art form in itself. The only detail that made the design more difficult, was the site’s surroundings. It is in the middle of an urban park, so the designers wanted the building to look natural in its surroundings. The entire exterior is clad in 163,118 ft2 of copper. Copper will quickly oxide, take on a greenish tone and a distinct texture to mimick the natural setting. John King wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, “the relationship of the de Young to nature is subtle and remarkably deft, for copper records the ebb and flow of the seasons like no other metal.” In order to homogenize with the surroundings a bit more, shapes were cut into the top to reveal gardens and courtyards where 48 trees had been planted. 5.12 acres of new landscaping had been planted as well, with 344 transplanted trees and 69 historic boulders. (Source- “De Young By The Numbers.” San Francisco Chronicle). Zahid Sardar wrote, “Not since Frank Lloyd Wright's futuristic Marin Civic Center was completed in 1970 has the Bay Area seen a significant new civic structure that does not affect a classical or postmodern pose.”
[edit] Works Cited
Web: Ashmore, Lisa. “San Francisco's New de Young.” Architecture Week. http://www.architectureweek.com/2006/0301/design_1-1.html
Guthrie, Julian. “De Young's Rebirth.” 15 October 2005. San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/15/MNGEAF8V7N1.DTL&type=art.
King, John. “Into The Modern Age.” 9 October 2005. San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/09/CMG62EL98I1.DTL.
Sardar, Zahid. “Painting A New Landscape.” 9 October 2005. San Francisco Chronicle. 22 September 2006. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/09/CMG65ELAS11.DTL.
Images: DeFeo, Mark. An aerial view of the new museum. 26 September 2006. http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/10/15/MNGEAF8V7N1.DTL&o=1&type=art.
McCullagh, Declan. 26 September 2006. www.mccullagh.org/photo/1ds-4/de-young-museum.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- de Young Museum
- View a segment on the de Young Museum after its re-opening at KQED's Spark
