Exhibitions

In 2005, in celebration of the opening of the redesigned de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, Ruth Asawa donated 15 sculptures to the Fine Arts Museums for a permanent installation. This grouping was personally selected by Asawa as being excellent examples of many of her sculptural forms. In keeping with Asawa's belief that art should […]

Focusing on works made from 1900 to 1960, Where We Are traces how artists have approached the relationships, institutions, and activities that shape our lives. Drawn entirely from the Whitney’s holdings, the exhibition is organized around five themes: family and community, work, home, the spiritual, and the nation. During the six decades covered here, the United States […]

Using works created since 1950, this exhibition explores the relationship between subject, content, and the materials that informed each object’s production.

SFO Terminal 2 Departures - Level 2 - Post-Security Featuring works from the Forrest L. Merrill collection Studio craft combines the characteristics of traditional, handmade craft with the refined qualities of fine art. Made by professional artist-craftspeople who work in a variety of media, studio craft includes both utilitarian items and more experimental pieces that […]

Drawing from their historic holdings and re-contextualizing them with modern and contemporary art, Specters of Disruption connects the museums’ colonial and geological underpinnings to the current conditions of the Bay Area and the evolving trajectories of American art histories.