While everyone has been focused on the attendance-record-busting exhibits back east — Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Met and Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass at the MFA-Boston — a fabulous exhibit on the West coast has quietly been attracting crowds, too.
The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is on track to draw about 350,000 visitors by the time it closes on Sept. 6, the museum says. The exhibit opened on May 21, and “by week 11” it had attracted about 236,000.
So, on Aug. 4, SFMoMA extended hours: it will remain open on Saturdays until 8:45 p.m., instead of closing at 5:45 p.m. as usual. And for members, the museum is opening an hour early on Saturdays and Sundays, at 9 a.m. instead of 10 a.m., and the same for Labor Day, Sept. 5. Details here. (All of which I applaud — they should extend again, if demand increases.)
If the trend continues, The Steins Collect will be SFMoMA’s No. 3 exhibit in the last 7 years. That “week 11” statistic figures in the museum’s projections. I had asked how it was doing, in the context of past winners. For whatever reason, the answer came back only for the past seven years (was it because just I noted here that 20th Century exhibits were exceeding 21st Century shows?). Anyway, here are the numbers I was provided:
FY09 Frida Kahlo: by week 11, approx. 300,000; final attendance, approx. 412,000
FY04 Chagall: by week 11, approx. 262,000; final attendance, approx. 391,000
FY10 O’Keeffe/Ansel Adams: by week 11, approx. 220,000; final attendance, approx. 299,000
FY11 The Steins Collect: by week 11, approx. 236,000; final attendance, TBD
Although I haven’t yet seen this show exhibit (some 200 works by Bonnard, Cezanne, Gris, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and many more), I have seen the catalogue — and I have wishful thinking about it at the Met, where it will be early next year. I’d like to see it attract a crowds as big, or bigger, than the just-closed McQueen show. I’d like it to be, for New Yorkers, a must-see. I’d like airline pilots, from the cockpit, to urge international visitors to see it, as they did for McQueen.
If you want to see why, take a look at SFMoMA’s press release, which has more details about the exhibit, and view some of the images. Better yet, look at the catalogue. This reunion won’t happen again.
Photo Credit: Girl With Green Eyes, Matisse, Courtesy of SFMoMA — in the exhibit