| 1935 |
On January 18, the San Francisco Museum of Art, under the leadership of founding director Grace L. McCann. Morley, opens on the fourth floor of the War Memorial Veterans Building on Van Ness Avenue.
A gift of 36 works from Albert M. Bender, including The Flower Carrier, 1935, by Diego Rivera, establishes the nucleus of the permanent collection.
Morley and her tiny professional staff present 70 exhibitions for over 150,000 visitors by the end of the year. |
| 1936 |
The second year begins with an exhibition of works by Henri Matisse, primarily drawn from two local private collections. Many of the featured paintings and sculpture are later donated to the Museum, forming the core of an exceptional Fauve collection.
The Museum becomes one of the first to recognize photography as a fine art by establishing, under the guidance of Curator John Humphrey, a collection of photographic works. |
| 1937 |
The Museum presents a landmark showing of the work of Paul Cézanne, drawing over 30,000 visitors in its five-week run.
The Museum hosts the only presentations outside New York of Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism, organized by Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. |
| 1940 |
The Museum makes national news when, at the closing hour on the last day of a major Picasso retrospective organized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, 1,300 visitors sit down and refuse to leave “till they had had their fill.”
The Museum organizes its first architecture exhibition Telesis: Space for Living, a landmark effort that prompts the city of San Francisco to establish an office of planning. |
| 1941 |
The Museum presents Arshile Gorky’s first solo museum exhibition. |
| 1945 |
As representatives of Allied countries meet in the Veterans Building to discuss the formation of the United Nations, the galleries are occupied by conference delegates and the press. From March through July, the Museum occupies a temporary facility off Union Square.
The Museum presents Jackson Pollock’s first solo museum exhibition. Pollock’s early masterpiece Guardians of the Secret, 1943, is added to the collection. |
| 1946 |
Two new Museum programs, Art in Cinema and the Rental Gallery—the latter being the first of its kind in the country—enhance Museum activities. |
| 1950 |
The Museum enters the new decade sporting refurbished galleries, new classrooms, auditorium facilities in the sculpture court and an enlarged bookstore. |
| 1952 |
Sixty-eight photographic works spanning Alfred Stieglitz’s entire career are acquired by purchase and through the gift of Georgia O'Keeffe. |
| 1958 |
Morley steps down from her 23-year directorship and is succeeded by George D. Culler. |
| 1963 |
The photography collection gains great depth with the addition of the Henry Swift Collection, a group of 85 prints by original members of
f/64, including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston. |
| 1964 |
A group of seven major paintings, including Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Women of Algiers), 1955, and La Chemise noire (The Black Chemise), ca. 1905–9, by Kees van Dongen, are donated to the collection by Wilbur D. May. |
| 1966 |
Gerald Nordland assumes directorship of the Museum. |
| 1970 |
The Museum launches an expansion program when the third floor of the Veterans Building is made available for operational space. |
| 1972 |
The two-year, million-dollar renovation project is completed, adding new and refurbished fourth-floor galleries; a café; a fully equipped art conservation laboratory; expanded bookstore, offices and classrooms; and a new library on the third floor. |
| 1974 |
Henry T. Hopkins arrives from the Fort Worth Art Museum to take over as director after Nordland’s departure in 1972. |
| 1975 |
“Modern” is added to the Museum’s title to more accurately reflect its purview.
SFMOMA expands its gallery space to the third floor.
Artist Clyfford Still’s gift of 28 monumental paintings enriches the permanent collection. |
| 1978 |
Curator John Humphrey ends his 43-year tenure at the Museum. |
| 1979 |
Van Deren Coke is appointed director of photography. |
| 1980 |
The Department of Photography is established.
The Museum organizes and opens a major retrospective of Philip Guston to critical acclaim. |
| 1983 |
The Department of Architecture and Design is established. |
| 1985 |
The Museum commemorates its 50th anniversary with yearlong festivities, including a major exhibition of its permanent collection and a Museum-wide birthday party. |
| 1987 |
John R. Lane becomes the fifth director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Sandra S. Phillips and Paolo Polledri are named curator of photography and curator of architecture and design, respectively. |
| 1988 |
John Caldwell is appointed the first curator of painting and sculpture.
The Department of Media Arts is established, and Robert R. Riley is appointed its founding curator.
The Third Street site for the Museum’s new facility is announced. Swiss architect Mario Botta is selected to design the new building. |
| 1989 |
SFMOMA’s four-part series celebrating the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography is launched with A History of Photography from California Collections, representing Sandra S. Phillips’s first major curatorial effort at SFMOMA. The series of exhibitions also includes Real Fictions: Recent Color Photographs by Bill Dane, John Harding and Larry Sultan; Experimental Color Photography; and John Gutmann: Beyond the Document.
Georges Braque’s early example of Analytic Cubism, Violin and Candlestick, 1910, is bequeathed to the Museum by the Schreiber family. |
| 1990 |
Organized by Curator Robert R. Riley, the Department of Media Arts’ first major exhibition, Bay Area Media, highlights the achievements of 10 artists who pioneered a variety of media art forms distinctive to the San Francisco Bay Area.
SFMOMA presents Visionary San Francisco, a sweeping examination of the architectural planning of San Francisco—past, present and future—and the first major exhibition organized by the Department of Architecture and Design under the direction of Paolo Polledri.
Mario Botta’s designs for the new building are unveiled. Phase I of the New Museum Campaign is completed with pledges of $65 million.
The Elise S. Haas Collection is bequeathed to the Museum and includes Matisse’s seminal work Femme au chapeau (Woman with the Hat), 1905.
Sigmar Polke, the first major exhibition of this contemporary German artist’s work, opens to international acclaim. The exhibition was organized by Curator of Painting and Sculpture John Caldwell. |
| 1991 |
Mario Botta reveals design refinements for the new building in which the trees are removed from the crown.
A major retrospective of the work of American artist Helen Levitt, organized by Curator of Photography Sandra S. Phillips, opens its national tour at SFMOMA. |
| 1992 |
SFMOMA breaks ground for its new building with a two-day celebration that features performances by San Francisco artists Survival Research Laboratories and David Ireland.
Phase II of the New Museum Campaign is completed with an additional $15 million in pledges, bringing the campaign total to $80 million.
Phase III of the New Museum Campaign is launched.
The Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson Collection—comprising seven works related to American Pop art—becomes the first major gift of art in honor of the new building.
SFMOMA presents Jeff Koons, the first solo museum presentation of this controversial American artist’s work organized by Curator of Painting and Sculpture John Caldwell. |
| 1993 |
Curator of Painting and Sculpture John Caldwell dies unexpectedly in March. The John Caldwell Memorial Fund is established. Gifts from donors, including works by such artists as Luciano Fabro, On Kawara, Jeff Koons and Sigmar Polke, are presented to the Museum in tribute to Caldwell.
The topping-out phase of construction for the Museum's new building is completed.
John S. Weber is appointed Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Programs.
Gary Garrels is named Elise S. Haas Chief Curator and curator of painting and sculpture. |
| 1994 |
Construction of the new building is completed.
Staff offices and the permanent collection are moved to the new building.
SFMOMA’s facility at 401 Van Ness Avenue is closed to the public on September 5.
The SFMOMA MuseumStore opens at the new building in mid-October, prior to the holiday shopping season.
Caffè Museo opens in mid-November.
Aaron Betsky joins the Museum as curator of architecture and design. |
| 1995 |
On January 18, SFMOMA celebrates its 60th anniversary with a public grand opening of the new Museum facility, which was attended by over 10,000 people.
SFMOMA launches its Web site at www.sfmoma.org. |
| 1996 |
On January 18, SFMOMA celebrates its first anniversary in the new building with the installation of the permanent, glass-etched donor wall and a public birthday party featuring a poster signing by Wayne Thiebaud and SFMOMA-inspired cakes. As of this milestone, SFMOMA has welcomed 800,000 visitors to the new Museum, and the Museum’s membership has grown to 35,000. |
| 1997 |
On March 13, SFMOMA launches its first multimedia publication on
CD-ROM, Voices and Images of California Art, which garners multiple awards. In September, the Museum introduces an accompanying Voices and Images Teacher Training Program and 100-page Classroom Curriculum Guide, which is employed by teachers throughout the state of California.
In December, SFMOMA receives an unprecedented fractional gift of 250 works from Bay Area residents Vicki and Kent Logan, who have amassed one of the most exciting and important collections of contemporary art being formed in the United States today. |
| 1998 |
On June 1, David A. Ross is appointed the sixth director of the Museum, replacing John R. Lane, who departed the previous year. Ross previously served as director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
An unprecedented year of collecting: SFMOMA acquires 14 important Robert Rauschenberg works directly from the artist with the help of funds from Phyllis Wattis. Wattis’s support extends to the Museum's purchase of René Magritte’s signature painting Les Valeurs personnelles (Personal Values), 1952, at auction. Other acquisitions include works by Piet Mondrian (the Museum’s first), Pablo Picasso, Anselm Kiefer, Brice Marden, Andy Warhol and Louise Bourgeois, among others.
On view from September 4 to December 3, the exhibition Alexander Calder brings a record 300,000 visitors to SFMOMA, becoming the sixth most attended exhibition in the nation in 1998. |
| 1999 |
The Photography Department receives over 1,000 images spanning the full history of the medium from the Prentice and Paul Sack Photographic Trust, as well as 11 rare works by American precisionist photographer Charles Sheeler.
Continuing its aggressive collections-growth strategy, SFMOMA acquires 22 Ellsworth Kelly works from the artist’s personal collection.
In September, Douglas R. Nickel is promoted from associate curator to curator of photography. Sandra S. Phillips’s position is enhanced to senior curator of photography.
In honor of Phyllis Wattis, Robert Rauschenberg donates his monumental work Hiccups, 1978, which consists of 97 linked tranfer drawings on sheets of handmade paper. Wattis also enables the Museum to acquire key pieces by Eva Hesse and Brice Marden. |
| 2000 |
In February, Benjamin Weil joins SFMOMA as curator of media arts.
In April, Janet Bishop is promoted from associate curator of painting and sculpture to curator of painting and sculpture.
In July, director David A. Ross announces the appointment of Madeleine Grynsztejn as SFMOMA’s Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture.
In October, SFMOMA presents Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection. Filling three floors of the Museum with over 300 works from the private collection of Bay Area collectors Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson, it is the largest exhibition in SFMOMA’s
65-year history.
In December, SFMOMA becomes one of the leading repositories of the work of Sol LeWitt with a major acquisition of nine important wall drawings and structures and 26 working drawings, many of which are donated from the artist’s personal collection. The group of acquired works represents all the significant periods of LeWitt’s oeuvre. |
| 2001 |
SFMOMA ventures beyond its galleries with two groundbreaking exhibitions. In addition to its major in-gallery presentation, 010101: Art in Technological Times—an exhibition charting global developments in contemporary art as artists respond to a world transformed by technology—launches a major online component at one minute after midnight on January 1. The site, www.sfmoma.org/010101, features five cutting-edge Web commissions as well as interactive public programs and resources. In May, Revelatory Landscapes brings site-specific installations by five teams of California-based landscape architects to locations around the Bay Area, making it SFMOMA's first off-site exhibition.
In July, SFMOMA marks the centennial of Ansel Adams’s birth with a full-fledged aesthetic reappraisal of Adams as an artist and working photographer. Ansel Adams at 100 brings together 114 of Adams’s finest photographs, representing exemplary prints drawn from important public and private collections of Adams’s work.
In late 2001 and early 2002, the Museum receives seven major works by Frank Stella from the collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson—including the seminal Black Painting Zambezi, 1959—establishing SFMOMA as a major repository of this important postwar artist's work. The artist responds by gifting a new work from his series The Duel to SFMOMA in honor of the Andersons. |
| 2002 |
In January, Joseph Rosa joins the Museum as the Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, the first person to hold this newly endowed post.
On February 2, SFMOMA opens the historic retrospective Eva Hesse to glowing national reviews. Organized for the Museum by Elisabeth Sussman, SFMOMA is the sole U.S. venue for the exhibition, which will travel to Museum Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Tate Modern, London.
On March 13, Neal Benezra is appointed director of SFMOMA, replacing David A. Ross, who departed in August 2001. Benezra was formerly deputy director and Frances and Thomas Dittmer Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Art Institute of Chicago. |
| 2003 |
In January SFMOMA presents Treasures of Modern Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis. This special exhibition highlights artworks acquired through the vision and generosity of devoted Trustee and patron Phyllis Wattis, who passed away in 2002. It features more than 80 of her most important gifts, including pieces by Robert Rauschenberg, Piet Mondrian, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Barnett Newman.
In July the exhibition Marc Chagall opens to a record-breaking number of visitors: more than 4,000 per day. SFMOMA is the sole venue outside Paris for this major retrospective.
In October SFMOMA Senior Curator of Photography Sandra Phillips and guest curator Elisabeth Sussman organize Diane Arbus Revelations, another popular and critically acclaimed retrospective that continues on to a three-year international tour.
The Museum’s Koret Visitor Education Center, the only educational facility at an American art museum to offer drop-in public access, celebrates its first anniversary. |
| 2004 |
In yet another banner year, SFMOMA welcomes nearly 800,000 visitors and experiences a 36 percent increase in membership, giving it the largest member base of any modern or contemporary art museum in the country.
In July the fifth floor becomes home to the ongoing exhibition Between Art and Life: The Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Collection, presenting SFMOMA’s significant collection of post-1960 contemporary art. The entire second floor is devoted to the display of the Museum’s formidable collection of modern art (1900–1960). This new installation scheme allots more than 50 percent of the institution’s total gallery space to its remarkable holdings in painting and sculpture.
Among the nearly 600 works acquired in 2004, of particular note are Suspension of Disbelief (for Marine) (1991–92), a video installation by Gary Hill; Tide Table (2003), a film and suite of related drawings by the South African artist William Kentridge; and Atrabiliarios (1992–2004), a mixed-media installation by the Columbian artist Doris Salcedo. |
| 2005 |
January 18 marks the tenth anniversary of the Museum’s new building, now a San Francisco landmark, designed by the renowned Swiss architect Mario Botta.
In March the Museum announces the promised gift of nearly 800 photographs to the Prentice and Paul Sack Photographic Trust at SFMOMA from the Sacks’ private collection. These important pictures augment the couple’s 1998 gift of nearly 1,000 works spanning the history of the medium. All of the photographs will also be made available to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (when the de Young Museum reopens in October 2005, it will house a new gallery specifically devoted to photography).
In May SFMOMA inaugurates the Modern Ball, a spring fundraising gala to be held biennially, with immense success. Attendees dine, dance, and mingle while raising nearly $2 million to support the Museum’s exhibitions and programs.
In July SFMOMA presents The Art of Richard Tuttle, the first full-scale retrospective of Tuttle’s work, which spans his four-decade career and features more than three hundred objects. |
