Until February 3, you have a chance to see the Jay DeFeo retrospective at SF MOMA. She is best know for her gargantuan work, The Rose, a composition layered together over years. This image shows her working on it. But the last paintings, very small and heartbreakingly beautiful were my favorite. She was a painter very interested in space and edges, and though abstract art generally doesn’t move me, hers does.
If you like to dance, another event taking place on February 14, is One Billion Rising, a flash mob doing a 4-minute dance against violence, called Break the Chain. You can learn it online, or find a rehearsal and performance near you.
Finally, it seems important to add a footnote to my post about the Steins Collect exhibit. I was unaware that Stein was a collaborator with the Vichy government, and enjoyed (as a Jew) an extraordinary protected status in France during the war. She was a translator of Petain, and (at least in the early days) an admirer of Hitler. I did wonder when I saw the exhibit how she managed to wait out the war without fleeing France, and think that this information was a serious omission in the exhibit text. I think your political choices are a factor in how the world views your legacy.
Great Man ….