Cliff Notes
Each week, our regional Cliff Notes columnists Jaydra Johnson, Brittney Frantece, Blessing Greer Mathurin, and Quintessa Matranga pick the most exciting events and exhibitions on the West Coast.
Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art
de Young / Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
March 22 – August 17, 2025
This week I am doing it a little differently. I am just coming off a 10 day work trip to Beijing and Hong Kong, and while I was gone it seems like the city has opened a ton of shows I actually want to see. Apologizes for not going myself before recommending them. The first show I want to endorse is Wayne Thiebaud at the Legion of Honor, or as my friend calls it “The Cakes.” I want to go see the cakes. Although San Francisco continues to mostly look at itself, (the best shows in the city often feature artists who are deeply connected to the Bay) I am urging myself to just surrender and enjoy the regionality. Thiebaud really just basks in the sunlight of his own creations. Edward Hopper comes to mind first as maybe an East Coast precursor to Thiebaud. Both painters worked in a highly stylized manner and depicted scenes of everyday life in America. Hopper, perhaps having been of age during the great depression, always manages to highlight the isolation of city living; you get none of that with Thiebaud. Expect these to be light as cream and saccharine to the nth degree.
Reflection: Do artists need to suffer to be good?
Ruth Asawa: Retrospective
SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
April 5 – September 2, 2025
Another claim to fame for San Francisco is Ruth Asawa. The woven wire hanging sculptures are ubiquitous throughout museums nationally, but I am truly excited to go to a retrospective of her work and for the chance to view all the pieces in relation to each other. The forms range from simple spheres to complex architectural creations with multiple cavities containing organic shapes and bulbous protrusions all made from Asawa’s signature woven metal wire. Some of these pieces might be modeled after known objects like trumpets, stars, and flowers but for the most part they all come out abstractly organic. Some look like long pieces of kelp, deep-water sea crustaceans or alien life. Her weaving process is so indicative of the trends of the ’70s. I am thinking about macrame hippies, chainmail purses, and Black Mountain college crafts, but the simplicity of her chosen material (metal wire) also connects her to minimalism and maybe an artist like Eva Hesse. Although I feel that Hesse was much more comfortable with ugliness than Asawa. Perhaps because of this, Asawa’s work has historically been so popular in the intersection of design and art, Noguchi being another example of this. There is so much to love about the sculptures alone, but then we also have the lesser-discussed equally elegant aspects of her artistic practice drool over; the drawings, paintings, and watercolors.
Reflection: Why does design kill art?