American Friends Musée d’Orsay Trip Itinerary

February 3-5, 2016

AFMO welcomes you to celebrate opening of the

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia exhibition at the Legion of Honor

And to Enjoy Exceptional Private Homes, Collections and Art Tours

Itinerary

(more detailed information on activities can be found below this itinerary)

Wednesday, February 3

John and Gretchen Berggruen Home and Private Collection (5pm)

Welcome Dinner at The Park Tavern in the private dining room, The Eden Lounge (7pm)

Thursday, February 4

Frances Bowes Home and Private Collection (late morning)

Lunch hosted by Sotheby's at The Wayfare Tavern

Tea at the home of Diane Wilsey, President of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), to view her collection (4pm)

Donors' Opening of Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia exhibition at Legion of Honor, AFMO group invited by the FAMSF (6:30-8:30pm)

Friday, February 5

Curator-led tour of Pier 24 Photography, the private photographs museum (10-11:30am)

Pricing of trip, per person:

$1750: for AFMO members at the Sponsor level and above ($1000+ level, these levels are “Dual”, thus valid for two people, this $1750/person member trip price is valid for up to two participants/membership).

$2000: for non-members or members at the Friend level ($250-$999, this level is valid for one person only.)

Hotel information: We are holding a limited number of rooms at the Hotel Vitale, a luxury boutique hotel near the Embarcadero and Financial District that was recommended to AFMO. Please contact the AFMO office about reserving a room: by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 508-1639.

More Information on Activities

Wednesday, February 3

Berggruen, Wednesday, February 3, 5pm:

The home of San Francisco art dealers Gretchen and John Berggruen on the historic crest of Russian Hill, was first built in 1854 as a single-story home. In the 1890’s, two more floors were added, and in 1985, when the Berggruens hired New York architect Robert A.M. Stern to restore the home, little of the original structure remained. The Berggruen’s primary goal in reconfiguring their shingled home was to strike a balance between expanses of open space, to reveal sweeping views of the bay and downtown, and wall space, to accommodate their very personal and eclectic art collection. Gretchen and John Berggruen's collection includes works by both artists whom they've represented at the Berggruen Gallery and works by artists of a historical significance. While it includes select works of pure abstraction, this very personal and eclectic collection is focused on figurative painting. It features works of Post-War artists Willem de Kooning, David Hockney, , Martin Puryear, and , as well as important examples of Bay Area figurative painters , , , Nathan Oliveira and .

Welcome Dinner at The Eden Lounge, private dining room at the Park Tavern, February 3, 7pm

Thursday, February 4

Bowes: February 4, morning - time to be determined

Frances Bowes is born and raised in San Francisco. She was married to the late John Bowes, who was a toy, games, and recreational products entrepreneur who died about ten years ago.

Although San Francisco is home base, Mrs. Bowes has other homes in Sonoma (Ricardo Legoretta), New York, and St. Barths. The collection in San Francisco is consistent with other homes. John and Frances have collected in depth the works of Gerhard Richter, Donald Judd, Robert Ryman, Brice Marden, Agnes martin, Sol Lewitt, John Chamberlain, Carl Andre, Lucien Freud and Cy Twombly (some of the largest and best examples in Sonoma). Frances in the years since John has passed away has added to the collection works by Picabia, Shiraga, Fontana, and Burri to name a few. Frances is on the board of the Dia Art Foundation in New York and American Friends of the Tate Gallery.

Lunch hosted by Sotheby’s, February 4

Wilsey (tea), February 4, 4pm:

Dede Wilsey started collecting seriously about ten years ago. Her holdings include works by Impressionist, Post- Impressionist, Surrealist, and modern artists. Mrs. Wilsey also has a large number of pictures by Grandma Moses and Alfred Stevens, in addition to American Impressionists, at her house in the Napa Valley. Her criteria for acquiring a piece is that it must be of museum quality and that she personally would enjoy looking at it every day.

Donors’ Exhibition Opening, February 4, 6:30-8:30pm

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia exhibition, Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (exclusive US venue) - Runs February 6–May 15, 2016

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia is the first major international presentation of Pierre Bonnard’s work to be mounted on the West Coast in half a century. The exhibition features approximately 75 works that celebrate Bonnard (French, 1867–1947) as one of the defining figures of painting in the transitional period between Impressionism the emerging modernism. Bonnard worked in many genres and techniques, including painting, drawing, and photography. As a young artist, he developed an Arcadian vision of the world, centered on his personal life, his family and companions, and his physical surroundings; his passionate search for a perfect union between humanity and nature is the theme that best defines his entire ouevre. Early in his career, inspired by the teachings of Paul Gauguin, he joined with the group of young painters known as the Nabis, who painted scenes from everyday life in vibrant patterns and hues. By the early years of the twentieth century, the Nabis had disbanded, but Bonnard continued to develop his idyllic vision, alternating stylistically between the themes and techniques of the Impressionists and styles verging on abstraction.

Among the many significant paintings on view are Man and Woman (1900, Musée d’Orsay), a dual portrait of the artist with his lifelong companion and model, Marthe de Méligny; The Boxer (Self-Portrait) (1931, Musée d’Orsay); The Work Table (1926–1937, National Gallery of Art); and decorative panels and screens including View from Le Cannet (1927, Musée Bonnard) and Pleasure (1906–1910, Musée d’Orsay).

Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia offers a fresh interpretation of Bonnard's repertoire, and a reconsideration of the artist as one of the foremost practitioners of modernism.

This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Musée d'Orsay, , and the Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid. Presenting Sponsors: Cynthia Fry Gunn and John A. Gunn, and the San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums. Director’s Circle: Diane B. Wilsey. Benefactor’s Circle: Lucinda Watson. Patron’s Circle: George and Marie Hecksher, and David A. Wollenberg.

Friday, February 5

Pier 24 Photography, February 5

Located on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Pier 24 Photography provides a quiet, contemplative environment for viewing photographic works. Pier 24 Photography houses the permanent collection of the Pilara Foundation, which is dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting photography. We seek to engage the community through exhibitions, publications, and public programs, and we welcome members of the public, academic institutions, and museum groups for self-guided tours that last up to two hours. Pier 24 Photography is free and open to the public Monday through Friday by appointment.

PILARA FOUNDATION CO LLECTION

Revelations – the Diane Arbus retrospective organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2003 – inspired the purchase of the Pilara Foundation’s first photograph, a portrait from her challenging and emotive Untitled series. The emotional intensity characterizing this photograph has informed subsequent acquisitions for the collection, which now exceeds over 4,000 works spanning the history of the medium and its international breadth. At the collection’s core are those photographers first exhibited in two seminal twentieth century exhibitions: New Documents (1967) at the Museum of Modern Art and New Topographics (1975) at Eastman House. In recent years, the Foundation has collected more emerging photographers in depth, developing holdings that speak to evolving practices within the medium.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION: PAUL GRAHAM: THE WHITENESS OF THE WHALE

Pier 24 Photography is pleased to present The Whiteness of the Whale, a solo exhibition by British photographer Paul Graham (b. 1956) who lives and works in . For the first time, this exhibition brings together three bodies of work made in the United States between 1998 and 2011, American Night (1998–2002), a shimmer of possibility (2004–06), and The Present (2009– 11). The Whiteness of the Whale features nearly sixty works, ranging from singular large-scale photographs to sequences of over twenty images. This exhibition marks Pier 24 Photography’s first single-artist presentation and the only time a shimmer of possibility has been presented in its entirety. Graham’s three bodies of work from this period operate as an informal trilogy, linked not only by common subject matter, but also by underlying issues such as racial and social inequality, the texture of everyday life, and the nature of sight, perception, and photography itself.

Since opening to the public in 2010, Pier 24 Photography has produced seven exhibitions. The inaugural exhibition highlighted prominent veins running through the collection with rooms dedicated to portraiture, contemporary Bay Area photographers, historical images of San Francisco, early American color photography, and worksproduced through the Farm Security Administration (FSA). That exhibition also included complete portfolios by Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand. In the five exhibitions that followed, many of these themes have been explored in greater depth.

BUILDING

The Pilara Foundation is the first to inhabit this historic space in nearly three decades. After two years spent remodeling the building, Pier 24 Photography opened to the public in 2010. The building’s design straddles the line between storage and exhibition space, while maintaining a gallery-like aesthetic. The scale of the space allows for the Foundation’s collection to be displayed with few restrictions, and the location off the Embarcadero promenade, directly underneath the Bay Bridge, provides for a breathtaking panoramic view of the Bay. Pier 24 respects the original use and intention of the building, pays homage to a remarkable collection of photography, and highlights the Bay Area’s stunning landscape.