San Francisco - Alison Bing [48]
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ART FOR FOGGY DAYS
When clouds swallow the Transamerica Pyramid, don’t despair: there are indoor sights galore, packed inside galleries within a few blocks of each other – and admission is free. Hop the elevator at 49 Geary to the top floor, and work your way down four floors of contemporary art galleries. Look for these highlights:
5th floor – Gregory Lind (mind-warping painting and sculpture), Haines Gallery (sublime traditional and new media) and Robert Koch Gallery (high-impact, large-scale photography)
4th floor – Stephen Wirtz Gallery (absorbing photography and installations) and Steven Wolf Fine Art (further adventures in dadaism)
3rd floor – Fraenkel Gallery (photography masterworks)
2nd floor – Mark Wolf Contemporary (bold graphics, bold statements)
Ready for more? Head next door to 77 Geary for two more floors:
Mezzanine – Patricia Sweetow Gallery (memorable minimalism)
2nd floor – Marx & Zavattero Gallery (risk-taking concept meets careful craft), Rena Bransten Gallery (big names, big ideas) and Togonon Gallery (social commentary)
Then head across the street to Gallery Paule Anglim, then down a block to Mission St for Catharine Clark Gallery and SF Camerawork. Recap on your favorites over a drink at artistically inclined 111 Minna.
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XANADU GALLERY: FOLK ART INTERNATIONAL Map
415-392-9999; www.folkartintl.com; 140 Maiden Lane; admission free; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat; & Powell St
Shrink the Guggenheim and plop it inside a brick box with a sunken Romanesque archway, and there you have Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1949 Circle Gallery Building, which since 1979 has been the home of Xanadu Gallery. The nautilus shell ramp in the atrium leads you on a world tour of high-end folk art, from Fijian war clubs to mounted nose ornaments from the Andes.
JAMES FLOOD BUILDING Map
cnr Market & Powell Sts; & Powell St
This 1904 stone building survived the 1906 quake and retains much of its original character, notwithstanding the ground-level Gap flagship. Upstairs are long, labyrinthine halls lined with frosted-glass doors, just like in a noir movie – and that’s no coincidence. Back in 1921 the San Francisco office of the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency hired a young PI named Dashiell Hammett, now better known as the author of the 1930 noir classic The Maltese Falcon.
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JACKSON SQUARE
Local advertising agencies and antiques dealers are far more subtle about wheedling money from unsuspecting consumers than were the previous occupants of this former dock area, where notorious saloon owner Shanghai Kelly and madam Miss Piggot once conked new arrivals on the head and delivered them to ships in need of crew. Despite their efforts, many ships were abandoned as sailors left to seek their fortune in San Francisco.
Along the former waterfront bounded by Washington St, Columbus Ave, Pacific Ave and Sansome St, Italianate buildings with tall windows and cast-iron shutters were erected to house whiskey dealers, loan offices, lawyers and other necessary Barbary Coast evils. Architects and gallery owners liked the high ceilings and low rents, and successfully lobbied for historic status for the Jackson Square area in 1971. Since then, many of the elegant storefronts have been taken over by upscale design showrooms.
AP HOTALING WAREHOUSE Map
451-455 Jackson St; 10, 12, 15
‘If, as they say, God spanked the town/For being over-frisky,/Why did He burn His churches down/And spare Hotaling’s whiskey?’ The snappiest comeback in SF history was this saloon-goers’ retort after Hotaling’s 1866 whiskey warehouse survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, which many considered divine retribution for Barbary Coast debauchery. A bronze