De Young Museum

Most people love or hate the exterior architecture of Golden Gate Park’s De Young Museum, but there is little debate about the bright interior spaces or the transcendence of the art within. Even most critics agree that once inside, the de Young is a fine fine-arts museum.

It starts with the airy atrium, brightened by three wedges of adjacent, landscaped outdoor spaces seen through glass, including a sculpture lawn punctuated by large bronze pieces. The first floor features Native American art from throughout the Americas; many genres of 20th-Century American art (including works by O’Keeffe, Rivera, de Kooning, Diebenkorn, Thiebaud and Chilhuly); and an indoor/outdoor café.

Up the grand staircase, you’ll find earlier American art, from colonial days to the early 20th Century, with works by iconic artists like Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and Mary Cassatt. Also on the second floor are large galleries devoted to textiles and African and Oceanic art—some dating to prehistoric times. In almost all of the museum’s 30 galleries, 3-D pieces such as sculptures, pottery and antique chairs supplement the paintings, prints and photography on the walls.

The basement level is where special exhibitions are seen (you’ll pay extra for this), with The Birth of Impressionism (May 22-Sept. 6) and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces (Sept. 25-Jan. 18, 2011) on loan from the Musee D’Orsay in Paris while it’s being refurbished. Come to see Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin and more.

No De Young visit is complete without an elevator ride to the 144-foot-high observation tower, where panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park and downtown San Francisco rival any painting on the walls far below.

As for the view of the museum from outside its walls (it was rebuilt from the ground up after 1987 quake damage), Pritzker Prize architect Jacques Herzog took a big gamble. The strangely shaped, copper-plated structure, many say, doesn’t belong in Golden Gate Park, the city’s verdant pride and joy. But since the California Academy of Sciences’ similarly contemporary rebuild next door, it doesn’t like quite so out of place.

HelloSanFrancisco Tip: Admission to the de Young includes same-day general admission to the Legion of Honor, a 10-minute drive, and its extensive European art collection.

- by Bob Cooper, San Francisco Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Bob Cooper

Bob Cooper is a full-time freelance writer (www.bob-cooper.com) who writes about travel, outdoor sports and health. He is a monthly contributor to Runner's World and has written recent articles for other national magazines such as Continental, Ladies' Home Journal and Inc.