HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DE YOUNG AND LEGION OF HONOR
Julian Schnabel
An exhibit of his works through August 5 at the Legion of Honor
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) recently announced their contemporary art program through summer 2018. It includes a major exhibition by Julian Schnabel. The program as a whole creates dialogues between living artists and the unique buildings and locations of the de Young and Legion of Honor, and works in FAMSF’s encyclopedic collection, revealing new meanings and juxtapositions across decades and genres. “The response to our program launch has been fierce and we will continue to broaden the discourse with multifaceted projects conceived for the de Young and Legion of Honor in the coming year,” said Max Hollein, former Director and CEO of the FAMSF. He added that a new series of outdoor paintings by Schnabel transforms “the Legion of Honor’s courtyard into a temporary gallery.” Schnabel is one of the most important painters of our time, according to Hollein and his team. Schnabel’s artistic attitude is embodied in audaciously scaled and shaped paintings, incorporating classical pictorial elements, oscillating between figuration and abstraction.
Julian Schnabel’s studio in Montauk, 2017. Photo by Tom Powel Imaging, copyright Julian Schnabel Studio Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Mining a vast array of sources and materials, composed and distributed across surface and support in defiance of notions of moderation, rationality, and order, his approach to the use of materials is highly experimental. The new exhibit features not only the significantly sized, sculptural paintings in the iconic Court of Honor, but also three other distinct bodies of new work in the galleries dedicated to Auguste Rodin’s sculptures. These all mark the artist’s response to the physical space of the Legion of Honor and eternal themes in its collection. “These paintings might be the culmination of my entire painterly practice since 1977, as they epitomize so much of what had been the essential characteristics of the smallest and most nascent proposals of how imagery drawing and material could be called a painting,” said Schnabel. “It seems to me this is as far as I could go and as far as I can currently take painting—this week.” www.famsf.org
Writing Children’s Books to Educate Future Generations About Diversity By Lyndsey Schlax (Editor’s Note: Teacher Lyndsey Schlax of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA) launched the nation’s f irst on-site high school LGBT course in 2015. She still offers that groundbreaking class but is teaching Ethnic Studies this semester. The two subjects often intersect, so in this column her students share their thoughts about both Ethnic Studies and LGBT-related matters, including their concerns, what they have learned in class and more. Here, students from grades 10– 12 discuss their class as well as their latest project: writing children’s books to educate generations to come about diversity.)
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1. This semester’s final project in LGBTQ/Ethnic Studies is writing a children’s book about a topic we have discussed this year. All week, we have been learning how to include personal narrative, causality & agency, and hegemony/counterhegemony into a book designed for 5–12-year-olds. The truth is children understand a lot more than they’re given credit for. Oftentimes, matters of race, gender, and privilege are dumbed down for young children. But kids, and especially those of a racial minority, have been exposed to these issues since birth and are sometimes more open to talking about them than full-grown adults. In general, there is a lack of children’s books that are inspirational for children of color and children within the LGBTQ community. The guideline we were given at the beginning of the writing process was to “write a book that you wish would have existed when you were young.” That is why I am writing a book about a young boy who does not fit in with the hypermasculine social norms in elementary school. It is important for me that
young boys know that it is not necessary for them to play sports and to like trucks. It is okay to have friends who are girls as well as to have friends who are boys. That is why I am excited for the end of the project, when we will get to read our books to a class of second graders, and to share the invaluable information that we have learned this year in this amazing class. 2. The LGBTQ/Ethnic Studies class here at Ruth Asawa SOTA has taught me so much more about the world and what should be done to fix the systems put into place. This country specifically has many issues that people do not know about, that people should be educated on. If anything, this class should be a requirement for students to take since it is important to understand all of the issues that come into play in this country. It is also due to the fact that history books in everyday education do not go into depth about the histories of anyone who is a part of the LGBTQ community, as well as people of color. In order to make a more sustained and united society, people have to learn about the underlying histories that were never told. Other than this class opening up my eyes, it has engaged me to want to attend more walkouts or anything that has to do with activism and problems that arise from the wrongdoings of the government. Attending and helping to lead the national walkout on gun violence was a great experience for me. Overall, this class has made me feel more conf ident in myself in wanting to move forward and to change the world. This class itself has been a great opportunity for me since it is not a class that is allowed in many places, so I have my school, and my teacher Ms. Schlax, to thank for that. 3. In our Ethnic Studies class, we read articles regarding intercultural education through children’s books and
STUDENT VOICES the authors’ approach to an audience of 7–10-year-olds. Passing on histories of race through children’s books requires attention to boundaries, language, and the audience’s reading level. When it comes to race and LGBTQ lenses, authors with young audiences focus their themes on multicultural children’s literature, elements of social justice, and heterosexual/queerness. Writers not only ask themselves questions like, “What is good?” and, “What is my goal with writing this?” but they also apply the queer theory lens, social action ideas, representation and humanization, awareness and more, all within appropriate boundaries. Authors tell untold histories and share social movements and changes in their children’s books to provide the young readers with a per(continued on page 38) Lyndsey Schlax has been a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District since 2008. She is uniquely qualified to address multiple areas of LGBT studies, having also specialized in subjects such as Modern World History, Government, Economics and U.S. Politics. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, and earned her M.A. in Teaching at the University of San Francisco.