SF MOMA

Our family loves to visit museums when we travel, yet there are quite a few museums close to home that we've never visited. When my friend Kirsten of Twenty Stitches offered up guest passes to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, I happily accepted! We'd never been there and this was just the incentive we needed to plan a visit. 

We invited Steve's parents to join us at SF MOMA. Here they are with Trevor and me, sitting at an ingenious table. The table stair-steps across the entire length of the room (seating maybe 20) with each tabletop and chair slightly larger than the next. No matter how tall or small you are, there's a spot that is just your size. 

There's a spider that's just your size, too. Different artist, equally cool, somewhat less utilitarian. 

The special exhibit, which runs through October 28, features the later works of surrealist painter Rene Magritte. 

Surrealism is not my favorite, but I still thoroughly enjoyed looking at his artwork. This gallery was particularly fun. When you looked at a particular 'window' or 'door,' you might see yourself projected back in a different location, or you might see somebody standing elsewhere in the building. We enjoyed trying to figure it all out.

I can't believe Trevor is already 12 years old!

We had only gotten through 2 of the 7 floors before lunchtime. We ate at the delicious, albeit somewhat pricy, Cafe 5. Everything was fantastic. You can choose to eat indoors, which we did....

... or you can eat in the sculpture garden. I didn't realize SF MOMA has one of Robert Indiana's famous LOVE sculptures. (Turns out there are 23 in the United States and more worldwide.) 

We recognized the work of Tom Otterness right away. We first discovered his artwork in Phoenix while doing the Urban Adventure Quest. 

I love taking pictures of Steve taking pictures of Trevor. I should make a layout with all of them one of these days. 

This artwork was very interesting. It's a collection of all the ways you can arrange three or more adjacent sides of a cube, arranged by number of sides. The wall has diagrams of all the combinations. The picture only shows a small portion of them. 

This piece by Chuck Close was one of my favorites from SF MOMA because it was just so interesting how the viewer's perspective made such a difference. Up close, you see colorful diamonds filled with circles, triangles, and irregular shapes. 

Back up, and those shapes have meaning. 

Keep backing up and you see the whole face.

Here's another portrait by Chuck Close but done in greyscale. When you back up far enough, the huge painting looks like a grainy photo.

Move closer in, and you see the many shapes that create the face.

Stand close enough, and it's hard to see anything but the shapes and the shades of browns and greys. 

We passed on the bunny light in the gift shop, but I can't say it wasn't tempting.

Huge thanks to Kirsten for the tickets! We thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Because admission to SF MOMA is always free for kids, we only used four of the six tickets Kirsten gave me. Which means I have two tickets to give away to one of you! There is no expiration date on them, but I would like for them to go to someone who will actually use them. If you're local to San Francisco (or will be visiting in the next year or so) and would like free tickets to SF MOMA, leave a comment and I'll pick one of you.