Urs Fischer: The Public & the Private
Legion of Honor
Lincoln Park, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121
April 22 – July 2, 2017
April 22, the Legion of Honor opens Urs Fischer: The Public & the Private, the first exhibition of a new initiative by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to integrate the work of living artists with the sites, buildings, and collections of the de Young and Legion of Honor. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) death, Swiss artist Urs Fischer has been invited to provide a new vision of the Museums’ collections, and specifically of the collection of Rodin sculptures.
For The Public & the Private, Fischer has installed 30 sculptures and paintings throughout the Court of Honor, rotunda, and upper level galleries of the Legion of Honor. In the Court of Honor, Fischer presents 16 bronze sculptures to accompany Rodin’s The Thinker; these sculptures were created using a form of crowd-sourcing, with the artist inviting guests to an exhibition space to help create clay sculptures, some of which were later cast in bronze, in a process which references Rodin’s use of assistants in the creation of the many existing versions of The Thinker. A number of works by Fischer explore the art historical genre of the vanitas. Chair-like sculptures UF and Foxtrot occupy the French and Italian Rococo gallery, interacting with objects of 18th-century design. The next exhibition in this vein by the Museums is Sarah Lucas: Good Muse, opening July 15 and drawing connections between the work of Lucas (b. 1962, and part of the Young British Artists generation) and Rodin’s eroticism.
Installation view, Urs Fischer: The Public & the Private at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2017. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Urs Fischer, Lead & Tin, 2016. Aluminum panel, aramid honeycomb, two-component polyurethane adhesive, two-component epoxy primer, galvanized steel rivet nuts, acrylic primer, gesso, acrylic ink, acrylic silkscreen medium, acrylic paint, oil medium, Framed: 99 1/2 x 75 1/2 x 3 1/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Mats Nordman. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Installation view, Urs Fischer: The Public & the Private at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2017. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Urs Fischer, Snail Crossing Helmet, 2016. Cast bronze, cast stainless steel, oil paint, 11 1/2 x 9 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery; Sadie Coles HQ, London; and Massimo De Carlo, Milan. Photograph by Mats Nordman. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Installation view, Urs Fischer: The Public & the Private at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2017. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
