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Exhibition

A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions

December 10, 2016–April 2, 2017
Floor 7

A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions reflects on the ways that artists have responded to the evolving conditions of the twenty-first century. Composed of works from the museum’s collection made since 2000, including several recent acquisitions and works on view for the first time, the exhibition explores the prevailing correlations between the personal, the intimate, and the individual; constructions of identity, history, and culture; the instability of materials; and strategies to rediscover or recover the past.

Underscoring the varied forms and approaches taken by artists including Lutz Bacher, Trisha Donnelly, Mark Manders, Paulina Olowska, and Danh Vo, the exhibition broadly considers the fluidity of ideas and how artworks embody time. The title phrase is taken from art historian George Kubler’s seminal book, The Shape of Time (1962), in which the author proposes a history of “things”—including artworks—that traces connected ideas developed in temporal sequence, sometimes over centuries.


Exhibition Preview

Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda (detail)
Artwork image, Fischli Weiss, Busi
Artwork image, Paulina Olowska, A Portrait of the Artist - Indoors
Artwork image, ​Mark Manders, Big Female Head
Artwork image, Gronemeyer, Exclamation Marc
Artwork image, Catherine Opie, Kate (Bike)
Artwork image, ​Carrie Mae Weems, Hush of Our Silence
Artwork image, Walid Raad, Cotton Under My Feet

Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda, 2008–2010 (detail); CAM, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; photo: Patrizia Tocci, courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York

Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Büsi (Kitty), 2001 (still); collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Peter Fischli and David Weiss

Paulina Olowska, A Portrait of the ArtistIndoors, 2012; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Paulina Olowska

Mark Manders, Big Female Head, 2011; collection SFMOMA, purchase, by exchange, through an anonymous gift; © Mark Manders

Ellen Gronemeyer, Exclamation-marc, 2015; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Ellen Gronemeyer

Catherine Opie, Kate (Bike), 2007; promised gift of the Pilara Foundation Collection to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Catherine Opie

Carrie Mae Weems, Hush of Our Silence from In The Year Three: Exit Art Portfolio 2003, 2003; collection SFMOMA, gift of Charles Kremer; © Carrie Mae Weems

Walid Raad, Cotton Under My Feet, 2007; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Walid Raad; photo: Don Ross

Explore themes of exile, diaspora, fragmentation, mourning, and fragility found in art collected by SFMOMA after 2000 and featured in the exhibition A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions.
Artwork image, Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda (Silent Prayer) See All

Significant support for A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions is provided by SFMOMA Collectors’ Forum.

Header image: Doris Salcedo, Plegaria Muda, 2008–10 (detail); collection SFMOMA, purchase, by exchange, through a fractional gift of Shirley Ross Davis; © Doris Salcedo