A Visit to SFMOMA

During our recent trip back to the Bay Area, Mathilde and I spent an afternoon exploring some amazing art exhibitions at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, better known as SFMOMA. 

We'd visited SFMOMA many times in the past when we lived in the Bay Area, so the museum itself was nothing new to us, however with ever new exhibitions on display there is always something fabulous to see, even if you think you've seen it all before. So while Ava and Lola spent a day catching up with friends in Berkeley Mathilde and I took Bart into the city to check out some art.

SFMOMA On the Go at Crissy Field

Over the weekend we headed into the city to check out a few places we've been meaning to visit. Our first destination was the San Francisco Cable Car Museum (which I'll write about in another post soon) and our second destination was Crissy Field down by the Golden Gate Bridge.

We've visited Crissy Field quite a few times in the past though I don't think I've ever written about it on Little Hiccups. While Crissy Field is a great park with spectacular views over the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge, and therefore a popular tourist destination in its own right the reason for our visit this weekend was specifically to check out an outdoor art exhibition. Back in June last year SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) closed its doors due to extensive building renovations set to be completed in 2016. While the museum is closed SFMOMA will continue to hold exhibitions around the Bay Area as part of their SFMOMA On the Go program.

The expansive grassy park that is Crissy Field is currently home to one such exhibition featuring eight large sculptures by artist Mark di Suvero. The monumental sculptures date from 1967 through to 2012 and have been brought to San Francisco from all across the country. The Golden Gate Bridge, which has clearly been an inspiration throughout the artist's career makes the perfect back drop to this exhibition.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This Tuesday it was free entry day at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) so the girls and I went on an adventure in modern art.

Enigmatic Combat by Arshile Gorky was one of our favourites

Inspired by this post on Design Mom about visiting art galleries with kids, I decided to prepare a little treasure hunt for Ava to stave on the dreaded "I'm bored" comments which usually go hand in hand with kids and art galleries. Ava is quite fond of a treasure hunt and is always eager to hunt down every last item - no matter how boring it may seem for a five year old! I prepared a treasure hunt of eight paintings and two sculptures for Ava to track down. I made sure to select artworks that I knew would be currently on display at SFMOMA and that would be of interest to Ava. I also made sure that they were all located within relatively close proximity to each other within the museum. Visiting museums and galleries with small children always takes much longer than expected and I knew that we may have run out of time to finish the treasure hunt had I selected artworks spread out over the four floors of the museum. Had that happened, I know that Ava would have been quite upset.