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Post-Impressionists at the de Young: an adventure in San Francisco

de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California

Today, what started as a visit to the “Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay” (in Paris, France) exhibit at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, turned into an adventure! The Post-Impressionist exhibit of art from the Musée d’Orsay (now undergoing renovation) follows an exhibit of Impressionism, about which I wrote earlier.

We knew that we were in trouble when we entered Golden Gate Park.

Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and cars were parked tightly along every available space at the curb. When we reached an intersection to turn to museum garages at slightly before noon, there was an attendant who told us that all available garage space was occupied.

Ultimately, we parked on Stow Lake Drive, almost directly north of the “A” marker on this Google Map, and hiked down a trail (not shown) to behind the Japanese Tea Garden, and then to the de Young. When we arrived, we entered by a side entrance, since we are members of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (at the reduced rate offered to teachers, one of the FEW financial benefits of being a teacher), where a staff person looked into my wife’s purse and my fanny pack (probably as a result of heightened surveillance for terrorism over the holidays).

It was about 12:30 PM as we reached the members desk. We were told that the only available tour groups for the Post-Impressionism exhibit were at 7:00 and 7:30 PM. We got tickets for the 7:00 PM group.

Since a winter storm was supposed to hit California this evening (it did), we walked back to the car on Stow Lake Drive with only occasional light sprinkles. We decided to drive to Barbara’s Fish Trap in Princeton-by-the-Sea for a late lunch (not an endorsement, but you would be foolish to pass it by!) along Highway 1, through Devil’s Slide, and then return to San Francisco with plenty of time to park (hopefully in the de Young parking garage), and time to line up for the 7:00 PM group.

Lunch at Barbara’s was great and the service was even better!

We returned to San Francisco up Highway 1 through Montara and Devil’s Slide again and found parking in the parking garage under the de Young. We sat for awhile watching a video presentation with background information about the major artists in the exhibit. The videos informed us that San Francisco is the ONLY city in the world to host BOTH the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism collections while the Musée d’Orsay is undergoing renovations. Then, we walked through some of the regular exhibits, then had a couple of cups of coffee each at the museum cafe in a large “room” constructed of transparent plastic for wintertime use, as rain pelted the transparent roof.

It was wonderful.

We lined up with the 7:00 PM group and began our tour. The masterpieces were, of course, magnificent! You can read about the works that are present in my first link above, but, if possible, you should see the exhibit, unless travel to Paris is in your future!

Suddenly, between the Nabis and Rousseau, all of the lights in the exhibit went out, and we were plunged into complete and utter darkness! I muttered, mostly to myself, “Now everybody just stand completely still.” Then, the emergency lighting came on, powered by generators, and I mentioned to another visitor, “Now, count the paintings!” :-) He said that there was one painting in another museum that had really tempted him.

The importance of LIGHT to viewing art then became even more obvious (under the yucky fluorescent tubes powered by the emergency generators). Fortunately, we had seen the portions of the exhibit that I had most wanted to see and were near the end. All in the exhibit were ushered out, “for our own safety.” The door to the parking garage was locked, and we were forced to leave by the main entrance, cross the road to the Music Concourse, and backtrack under the road through another entrance to the parking garage. (Note to the Museum: It would be better for both the safety [think liability suits] and convenience of your patrons to keep the entrance from the Museum DIRECTLY to the parking garage open until ALL exhibits are closed. If it is closed for security reasons [access by vehicles], then that is a different matter.)

We drove out to Ocean Beach and the Great Highway, alternately through city blocks with and without power, hoping to avoid street flooding and general craziness in San Francisco’s downtown. A radio broadcast that we heard later confirmed that we had made a good choice. An overturned vehicle (likely driving too fast for conditions – what is called a “solo-spin-out accident”) near the Bay Bridge had made a mess of traffic in that area. Then we planned to make our way down I-280 to the San Mateo Bridge and back to Livermore.

As we drove, I was reminded of the immortal words of George Carlin, “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?:-) There were people who were paralyzed with fear, since California folks rarely drive in RAIN. These folks were going about 20 miles per hour in 45 mile-per-hour zones. Conversely, there were folks who were driving on occasionally flooded streets at about 70 miles per hour, with their “high beam” headlights on. (No, driving with your high beams on will not make you any “brighter” :-) but MAY blind the driver in front of you, causing an accident IN FRONT OF YOU!) This latter group we call “solo-spin-out-accidents-in-the-making!” :-)

I let those drivers go around me – including the Mercedes below.

When crossing the San Mateo Bridge, a “maroon” in a Mercedes (hey, HItler’s driver drove one, too!) was tailgating me with his bright lights on! (Is there a positive correlation between wealth and stupidity? I know that stupid people are preferentially promoted in corporations that obey the 3th Commandment of Fake Steve Jobs:

“3. Only promote stupid people. But not just any stupid people. You have to find the certain type of stupid people who actually believe they’re super brilliant. They make insanely great managers and are incredibly easy to manipulate. It’s easy to spot them. Former McKinsey consultants are top candidates.”

I have worked for a couple of those companies, personally!) Shortly thereafter, while still on the San Mateo Bridge, we heard on the radio that the CHP (California Highway Patrol) had closed the eastbound lanes of the bridge before the “high-rise section” (just minutes behind us) because a vehicle HAD LOST ITS REAR AXEL, which was lying in the roadway! (Whew! Missed THAT one…! :-) )

In any case, we returned safely to Livermore at about 10 PM, with no further excitement other than the occasional semi truck driver (TWO of these) who could not keep his trailer in his own lane, while driving too fast for conditions. I am old enough to remember when “big-rig” drivers were some of the best, safest, and most courteous drivers on the road.

-Bill at

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