SFMOMA | largest museum of modern art in the US

SFMOMA and St. Regis San Francisco (c) 2017 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

We spent last weekend in San Francisco, choosing the St. Regis San Francisco for our stay. Located a few blocks south of Market Street at the corner of Mission St. and 3rd Avenue, SFMOMA is literally the hotel's neighbor to the south (see the photo above of the hotel tower in the background and the museum in the foreground).

SFMOMA re-opened in May, 2016 after a massive expansion and renovation project that tripled its gallery space. With ten total floors of exhibits, including two floors (45,000 square feet) of public space that require no ticket, this is the largest museum of contemporary art in the United States.

Alexander Calder sculpture (c) 2017 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Because Saturday afternoon is an especially crowded time, we plan to come back and view the museum on a less crowded weekday morning. We live across the bay in Berkeley, just a 30 minute BART ride away. But we did walk through the two public floors of exhibition space, viewing the museum's interesting architecture, the atrium's central skylight with a suspended mobile sculpture by Alexander Calder, and a massive sculpture on the ground floor by Richard Serra entitled Sequence.

SFMOMA is one of many things you'll enjoy doing when you visit San Francisco. If you stay at the St. Regis, contact us for the Virtuoso amenities that will reward you with free daily breakfast for two and a $100 F&B credit just by booking with us!

copyright (c) 2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

Fondation Maeght gallery in St Paul de Vence

sculpture at Fondation Maeght (c) 2016 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Fondation Maeght is a museum of contemporary art located outside the village of St. Paul de Vence. It's just a short walk away, perhaps 10 minutes distance (and uphill) from the town's entrance. We went there this morning and enjoyed our visit.

Featuring art by Calder, Miro, Picasso, Giacometti, and other 20th century artists, the museum usually features a special exhibit. During our visit, we saw some of the conceptual art of Christo and Jean-Claude, a husband and wife team who have done such things as creating a giant stack of colored oil barrels in Abu Dhabi.... or a fabric fence in Marin and Sonoma Counties in California,  24.5 miles long and 18 feet high.

Admission is 15€ per adult, and there's an extra charge of 5€ for the right to photograph ... so the photograph above is legit! If you appreciate 20th century modern art, this is a worthwhile exhibit, and on the way back to the village, be sure to drop in to the Podgorny Robinson gallery (free admission) for some very interesting and quite recent paintings and sculptures.

copyright  (c)  2016 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.