San Francisco Museum of Modern Art facts for kids

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San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art

The 1995 Mario Botta-designed building with the new white Snøhetta-designed building behind it. (2017)
Established	1935 (1935)
Location	151 Third Street San Francisco, California, United States
Collection size	33,000
Visitors	1,113,984 (2017)
Architect	Mario Botta and Snøhetta
Public transit access	Montgomery Street

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a famous museum in San Francisco, California. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast of the United States to be dedicated only to art from the 20th century.

The museum has a huge collection of over 33,000 artworks. These include paintings, sculptures, photographs, and designs. It also features media arts, which are artworks that use technology. The museum has 170,000 square feet (16,000 m²) of space to show its art. This makes it one of the largest museums in the United States for modern and contemporary art.

SFMOMA first opened in 1935. It moved to its current building, designed by Mario Botta, in 1995. In 2016, the museum reopened after a big three-year expansion. This new part was designed by Snøhetta architects. The expansion made the museum much larger. It now has more gallery space and public areas. This allows SFMOMA to show even more art, including the special Doris and Donald Fisher Collection.

Discovering SFMOMA's Story
Artworks and Exhibitions
- Selected Art Highlights
Museum Architecture
Museum Leadership
- Directors
- Curators
SFMOMA Artists Gallery
In Situ Restaurant
See also

Discovering SFMOMA's Story

The atrium of the museum before the 2016 renovation.

SFMOMA started in 1935. It was first called the San Francisco Museum of Art. Its first director was Grace L. McCann Morley. For 60 years, the museum was on the fourth floor of the War Memorial Veterans Building. This building is on Van Ness Avenue.

A man named Albert M. Bender gave 36 artworks to the museum. One of these was The Flower Carrier (1935) by Diego Rivera. These gifts helped start the museum's permanent collection. Mr. Bender gave over 1,100 artworks to SFMOMA in his lifetime. He also created the museum's first fund to buy art.

In its second year, the museum showed art by Henri Matisse. That same year, it started its photography collection. This made it one of the first museums to see photography as a true art form. In 1940, SFMOMA held its first architecture exhibit. It was called Telesis: Space for Living.

The museum also showed films starting in 1937. In 1946, filmmaker Frank Stauffacher started the "Art in Cinema" film series. This series ran for nine years. In 1951, SFMOMA even had its own TV show called Art in Your Life. It later changed its name to Discovery.

Grace Morley left her job as director in 1958. The museum became more famous under director Henry T. Hopkins (1974–86). In 1975, the museum added "Modern" to its name. Since 1967, SFMOMA has given the SECA Art Award to artists from the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the 1980s, SFMOMA added new roles for curators. Curators are experts who manage and organize art collections. They added curators for painting, sculpture, architecture, design, and media arts. The museum also started hosting many special art shows. These shows included works by famous artists like Jeff Koons and Willem de Kooning.

In January 1995, the museum opened its new building. It is located at 151 Third Street. This area is next to Yerba Buena Gardens. The new building cost $60 million and was designed by Mario Botta. A kind art supporter, Phyllis Wattis, helped the museum get important artworks. These included pieces by Magritte, Mondrian, Andy Warhol, and Wayne Thiebaud.

Under director David A. Ross (1998–2001), SFMOMA bought many important artworks. These included pieces by Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp’s famous Fountain. These new artworks helped SFMOMA become one of the top modern art museums in America.

Neal Benezra became director in 2002. Under his leadership, more people visited the museum. The number of members also grew. The museum continued to add to its collection. In 2005, the museum received a gift of almost 800 photographs. These were from the private collection of Prentice and Paul Sack. In 2008, the Frida Kahlo exhibition brought in over 400,000 visitors.

In 2009, SFMOMA announced plans for a big expansion. This was to make space for more visitors and art. In 2010, the architecture firm Snøhetta was chosen to design the new building. Construction began in May 2013.

Artworks and Exhibitions

Henri Matisse. Femme au Chapeau (Woman with a Hat), 1905

Many famous artists had their first museum shows at SFMOMA. These include Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, and Arshile Gorky. The museum's collection has important works by Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn, Dorothea Lange, and Ansel Adams.

Each year, the museum hosts more than twenty art shows. It also offers over three hundred educational programs. While the museum was closed for expansion from 2013 to 2016, SFMOMA showed its art in other places. This was part of a program called "SFMOMA On the Go."

In 2009, the museum became the caretaker for the amazing art collection of Doris and Donald Fisher. They are the founders of Gap Inc. This collection has about 1,100 artworks. It includes pieces by artists like Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Willem de Kooning, and Andy Warhol. This collection will be on loan to SFMOMA for 100 years.

In 2011, the museum announced it had bought 195 new artworks. These included paintings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Francis Bacon. In 2012, 473 photographs were also promised as gifts. These included 26 works by Diane Arbus. The artworks bought through this campaign are shown in the expanded building.

SFMOMA has a website where you can look at its permanent collection. The SFMOMA App helps visitors explore the museum using their phones. It can even track your location inside the museum.

The SFMOMA Research Library started in 1935. It has many resources about modern and contemporary art. These include books, magazines, artist files, and photo collections.

Selected Art Highlights

Here are some of the famous artworks you can see at SFMOMA:

Ocean Park #54 by Richard Diebenkorn
The Nest by Louise Bourgeois
The Flower Carrier by Diego Rivera
Frieda and Diego Rivera by Frida Kahlo
Collection (formerly Untitled) by Robert Rauschenberg
1947-S by Clyfford Still
A Set of Six Self-Portraits by Andy Warhol
My Mother Posing for Me, from the series Pictures from Home by Larry Sultan
Untitled, Memphis by William Eggleston
Where There's Smoke Zig Zag chair (Rietveld) by Maarten Baas
Three Screen Ray by Bruce Conner
Video Quartet by Christian Marclay
Intermission by Edward Hopper
Honey-pop by Tokujin Yoshioka

Franz Marc. Gebirge (Mountains), 1911-1912
Anna Atkins. Asplenium radicans (Jamaica), ca. 1850
Lewis Wickes Hine. Woman with Folded Headdress, Ellis Island, NY, 1905
Carleton E. Watkins. Mt. Broderick, Nevada Fall, 700 ft., Yosemite, 1861
Paul Klee. A Spirit Serves a Small Breakfast, Angel Brings the Desired, 1920
Georges Braque. Violin and Candlestick, 1910

Museum Architecture

The Mario Botta Building

SFMOMA's Oculus bridge.

In the late 1980s, the museum wanted to expand at its old location. But this plan didn't work out. So, they decided to build a new museum downtown. In 1988, three architects were chosen to design it: Mario Botta, Thomas Beeby, and Frank Gehry. However, the museum soon picked Mario Botta to design the new building.

The new museum was built on a 59,000-square-foot (5,500 m²) parking lot. This area was on Third Street between Mission and Howard streets. Construction started in early 1992. The new museum opened in 1995, which was the museum's 60th anniversary.

When it opened, SFMOMA was one of the largest new art museums in America. It had 50,000 square feet (4,600 m²) of space to show art. Botta's design features galleries around a central atrium with a skylight. There is also a famous staircase. The outside of the building has a tall, 130-foot (40 m) cylinder in the middle. The walls are made of stone. Inside, the design uses polished and flame-finished black granite on the floors and walls.

Rooftop Garden

In 2009, SFMOMA opened its 14,400 sq ft (1,340 m²) rooftop garden. This garden was designed by Jensen Architects. It has two outdoor areas and a glass room. From here, you can see sculptures from the museum's collection. You can also enjoy views of the San Francisco skyline. It's a great place to see art both indoors and outdoors all year.

Ceiling architecture

The Snøhetta Expansion

In 2009, SFMOMA decided to expand again. This was because more people were visiting, and the art collection was growing. In 2010, the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta was chosen to design this expansion.

The expanded building opened in May 2016. It added about 235,000-square-foot (21,800 m²) of new space. This new part connects to the older building. The expanded museum has seven floors for art and public programs. It also has three floors for museum operations. It offers about 142,000 square feet (13,200 m²) of indoor and outdoor gallery space. There is also nearly 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²) of free public space filled with art. This more than doubles the museum's ability to show art.

The new building has some cool features. There's a large vertical garden on the third floor. It's said to be the biggest public "living wall" of native plants in San Francisco. There's also a free gallery on the ground floor facing Howard Street. It has 25-foot (7.6 m) tall glass walls. This lets people walking by see the art inside. The building also has special studios for art conservation. The outside of the new building is covered with lightweight panels. These are made from a strong, modern material called Fibre-Reinforced Plastic. The building also earned a special "LEED Gold" certification. This means it was built to be very energy-efficient and good for the environment.

Museum Leadership

Directors

The current director of SFMOMA is Christopher Bedford. He was appointed in 2022.

Here are some of the past directors:

1935–1958 Grace Morley
1958–1965 George D. Culler
1966–1972 Gerald Nordland
1974–1986 Henry T. Hopkins
1987–1997 John R. Lane
1998–2001 David A. Ross

Curators

Curators are like art detectives and organizers. They study, care for, and arrange the artworks. Here are some of the curators at SFMOMA:

Sandra S. Phillips, Curator Emeritus (a special title for a retired curator)
Janet C. Bishop, Curator of Painting and Sculpture
Rudolf Frieling, Curator of Media Arts
Clément Chéroux, Senior Curator of Photography
Corey Keller, Curator of Photography
Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, Head of the Department of Architecture and Design

SFMOMA Artists Gallery

The museum also has the Artists Gallery at Fort Mason. This is a special gallery for artists from Northern California. It helps new and established artists show their work. The gallery has eight exhibitions each year. These include shows for single artists, groups, and specific themes. You can rent or buy the artworks.

In 2021, SFMOMA announced that it would be closing the artists' gallery. They also planned to close a publishing platform and the film program.

In Situ Restaurant

In Situ is a fancy restaurant located inside SFMOMA. It is run by Corey Lee. He is the chef and owner of the famous San Francisco restaurant Benu. In Situ has a unique menu. It features special dishes from other famous restaurants around the world.