De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA (other) *Lots of Thumbnail Images!*

Name:De Young Museum
Type:other
Street:50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
City:San Francisco
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:415.750.3600
Status:operational

Description:
For a better overall description than I could write about the De Young follow this link...

http://www.famsf.org/deyoung/

Now they have an amazing Oceana Collection that has been discussed a bit in varying posts, but here are some of the shots me and my daughter snapped on a visit there. I did not have the time to get descriptions, so you'll have to go there yourself, or sleuth it out with fellow tc'ers via these images. But enjoy the eye candy, and I will be posting more as time permits.

These are clickable thumbnails so don't fret, you can see big versions with just one click. I also did some close up cropping on that fabled Trader Vic's Tiki...

Enjoy.

[ Edited by: TikiGardener 2008-07-30 12:59 ]

[ Edited by: tikigardener 2008-07-30 13:17 ]

More photos kids...

Last batch barring a few others...
Mostly drums here.

Hope you guys dig this, we certainly did!
TG

We are, Scott, but we certainly would do so MUCH more if all these images would not be in the thumbnail size they are now. It was discussed here before, I think this happens when they are not hosted by TC, but by a photo site like flicker.

It is amazing that they have so many cool pieces, I never see the DeYoung mentioned anywhere. If the new LACMA acquisition was 5 Million bucks worth, this collection must be worth many times more. You have a treasure there, San Franciscans.

They are clickable for larger versions. I figured rather than bog computers with the full size, I'd give you the viewing audience, the option of choosing which ones you would like to see full size.

I can put them up full size, what say the masses? Thumbs or full size?

Aaah, of course, we had that before, and I forgot about it. Sorry, that fully suffices for my needs, thanks Scott.

awsome photos,thats quite alot to take in. thanks a ton for sharing!

On 2008-07-30 13:29, bigbrotiki wrote:
We are, Scott, but we certainly would do so MUCH more if all these images would not be in the thumbnail size they are now. It was discussed here before, I think this happens when they are not hosted by TC, but by a photo site like flicker.

It is amazing that they have so many cool pieces, I never see the DeYoung mentioned anywhere. If the new LACMA acquisition was 5 Million bucks worth, this collection must be worth many times more. You have a treasure there, San Franciscans.

Speaking of acquisitions...

You can always go to the gift shop and get some Oceana looking shields and masks for a very agreeable price! I think between $150 and about $275 or so... maybe more on some...

Apparently one of the Covarrubias "Pageant of the Pacific" murals (flora and fauna) was installed there recently and it seems there are a couple of related events tomorrow night:

Friday 1st August

6:00-8:30 p.m.
Art-making for the Entire Family. Create an animal amulet necklace inspired by the Covarrubias mural in the Art of the Americas gallery.

Koret Auditorium
7:00 p.m.
Lecture: - Diego Rivera, Covarrubias, and the San Francisco Murals Tradition, by William Maynez, a mural historian at City College of San Francisco.

Thanks for the pics!

[ Edited by: Paipo 2008-07-31 23:28 ]

My work had those murals in storage and I was very fortunate to see the panels up close and personal.

And no prob for the pics, if you couldn't tell I enjoy taking them!

TG
http://exotic-tiki-gardens.com

[ Edited by: TikiGardener 2008-07-31 15:09 ]

Scott! And you didn't call me !!!?

It's OK, I got to see them in situ :)

Thank you again for your great post, Scott, I will definitely seek out the De Young when in S.F. next....I must find that early 50s depiction of the Maori Tiki that Vic used.

And how exciting to hear that one of the Covarrubias maps will be on display again.
Please San Franciscans, keep us posted about that here! I wish I could go to that mural lecture today, that sounds great! Kind of ironic that a member from the other side of the world had to tell us about it... :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-08-01 08:24 ]

TG! Dang, if only I'd known you were going to be there! The deYoung is a short stumble from my place, and I've been meaning to get back there to take more/better pictures, it would have been a blast to do it with you. Dang, dang, dang!

Thanks also for the heads-up on the Covarrubias thing tonight, Paipo -- I probably can't make it, but I'll keep an eye out for the mural the next time I'm there.

oh yeah, thanks for the photos! A ton of PNG masterpieces. I wish I could get to SF. You guys on the west coast are so lucky in so many ways.

I actually saw the announcement about the mural on Dinosaurs and Robots and was already going to post it here when I saw that this thread had conveniently been freshly created.
Looking at the DeYoung site it seems there is a regular series of Friday night lectures and events, including bands and a cocktail bar, but unfortunately the Covarrubias lectures have all been and gone now.

Also, I posted this link in the thread about the TV logo tiki, but it's probably worth mentioning the other DeYoung connection with Trader Vic in this one too. That Marquesan crown would be worth a visit on its own....

One Last shot... I've been playing around with medium format film cameras now for a few months. So I turned my attention to that feathered skull. Given that its low light, its a time exposure, but I like the otherworldly quality to it.

More for feel than detail.

[ Edited by: TikiGardener 2008-08-06 12:04 ]

[ Edited by: tikigardener 2008-08-06 13:38 ]

On 2008-07-30 13:29, bigbrotiki wrote:

It is amazing that they have so many cool pieces, I never see the DeYoung mentioned anywhere. If the new LACMA acquisition was 5 Million bucks worth, this collection must be worth many times more. You have a treasure there, San Franciscans.

I love that fact that two premier institutions like LACMA and the DeYoung have Oceanic Art collections.

Museum collection threatened by family feud
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, September 19, 2008

(09-19) 20:45 PDT -- An entire wing of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum that was built to hold a peerless collection of art from Papua New Guinea could be emptied by an inheritance battle between heirs of the Annenberg publishing fortune.

That threat in the coast-to-coast dispute prompted San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera to obtain an emergency court order today to prevent the art from being seized and sold.

"We're going to do everything possible to make sure the collection is available to the city for the benefit of the public," Herrera said.

At the heart of the dispute is de Young Trustee John Friede, who appears to have promised his prized collection to the museum but also put it up as collateral in a legal dispute with his brothers in Florida.

The 400 works at the museum are part of the 4,000-piece Jolika Collection compiled by Friede and his wife, Marcia. The array, which includes masks and ritual headdresses, is considered the world's most important private collection of objects from Papua New Guinea.

Estimates of the value vary, but the 400 items at the de Young are insured for more than $90 million, a city official said. They take up more than a quarter of the museum's permanent exhibit space, and their inclusion at the de Young's Golden Gate Park building that opened in 2005 was hailed beyond the Bay Area in art trade publications and the New York Times.

"It's truly one of the most unique collections of its kind anywhere in the world," said John Buchanan, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the de Young. "They have made the de Young really one of the great centers for the study and appreciation of Papua New Guinea art. It's a tremendous jewel in the crown of the city's museums."

That status is threatened by a heated inheritance dispute playing out in a courthouse in Florida's Palm Beach County that spilled over this week into San Francisco Superior Court.

Family feud
Three brothers - John Friede, Robert Friede and Thomas Jaffe - have been feuding since 2005 over the estate of their mother, Evelyn A.J. Hall, a sister of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg. Under a settlement reached on Oct. 18, 2007, John and Marcia Friede agreed to pay his brothers $30 million - $20 million of which was secured by the couple's art collection, according to figures in the case.

The problem was that a week earlier, John Friede had finalized paperwork donating the entire 4,000 piece collection to the city-owned de Young, according to documents from the city attorney.

Last week, a probate judge in Florida ruled that John and Marcia Friede had breached the settlement agreement by its deal with the de Young and by granting a lien on the art in exchange for a $670,000 advance, court documents show.

Judge John Phillips ordered the couple to turn over "all collateral described in the security agreement, which is in their care, custody or control" to the two other brothers. The balance of the Jolika Collection is at the couple's home outside New York City, according to court filings. Those pieces had been donated to the museum even if they had not been moved, according to the city.

Herrera's office tried to intervene in the Florida case this week, but Phillips would not allow it, prompting Herrera to file a case in San Francisco Superior Court. There, Judge Peter Busch issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the artwork from being removed from the museum or the house. A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Oct. 6.

The main question is: Who really owns the artwork?

"That's a murky area," Deputy City Attorney Donald Margolis said. "We're taking the position that entirety of the Jolika Collection has been transferred to the museum."

History of giving
Buchanan, the museum director, said he did not feel misled that John Friede apparently entered into a deal with his brothers involving the artwork as collateral after signing it over to the de Young.

"I don't feel misled at all. What we're trying to do is support his ongoing charitable intentions," Buchanan said. "I'm not involved in his own personal situation with his family."

An attorney for John Friede could not be reached for comment.

John and Marcia Friede had been donating parts of the Jolika Collection, named from the first two letters of the names of their adult children, John, Lisa and Karen, to the museum since 2003, according to court records. De Young officials designed and built a major gallery specifically to house the collection and named it in honor of the couple.

The city attorney's court filings state that the other brothers intend to immediately seize the art, dismantle the collection and sell off the pieces.

A Florida attorney for Jaffe, one of the brothers, disputed that.

"Tom Jaffe does not intend to immediately sell or dismantle the tribal art collection," said attorney James Pressly Jr., who declined to comment further on his client's intentions.

Robert Friede's attorney could not be reached.

Adine Varah, a deputy city attorney, said the potential loss of the rare collection couldn't be measured.

"The value beyond monetary value is enormous," Varah said. "It spans centuries and regions. There is value that is far beyond any number that can be ascribed to it."

Thanks for that article, Elicia, that is alarming! I was just reading an article about John Friede donating his collection, in the Summer 2004 issue of "Art Tribal". Check out these pics from his home:

No wonder the wealth of Oceanic art at the De Young came as such a surprise to all of us: It was placed there so recently! It would be a bummer if it would not last there...

On a related issue, the same issue of "Tribal Art" had this great PNG "Phantom" shield in it:

whose story I always loved, and so I found other examples here:
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/karlins/karlins6-28-07.asp

...and which led me to a very interesting sounding book and DVD:

http://www.ru.nl/cps/30/nb30e.html

"In this documentary, the famously-elusive scholar comments on his wide-ranging fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic and Papua New Guinea, concepts of authenticity and truth in media and art, the relationship between anthropology and surrealism, and the impossibility of preserving culture."

"...the impossibility of preserving culture"! Yeah...

safe for now!!

(09-22) 18:46 PDT -- The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum's matchless collection of art from Papua New Guinea appears to be safe from the auction block for at least three months, regardless of a family's inheritance fight that threatens to have artwork seized and sold.

John Friede, the de Young Museum trustee who pledged his 4,000-piece collection to the museum in a series of deals from 2003 to 2007, said today that he has no intention of turning the artwork over to his brothers, despite a Florida probate court's order to do so.

A San Francisco judge, at the request of City Attorney Dennis Herrera, issued a contradicting order on Friday, directing the artwork to remain where it is.

"Right now, the two courts offset each other, so I don't have to do anything. I'm frozen," Friede said from his home outside New York City. "These are ugly matters and I certainly hope that they resolve in a way that everyone in the family can be happy together."

The Florida ruling that was made public Monday forbids Friede's brothers from selling any of the art pieces before Dec. 20 so that ownership claims can be sorted out. A hearing in the San Francisco case is scheduled for Oct. 6.

The Jolika Collection, which Friede and his wife named after the first letters in the names of their three children, is considered the world's most important private collection of objects from Papua New Guinea.

It became a part of the inheritance battle because Friede promised the entire array to the de Young but then, in a deal dated a week later, put up the collection as collateral in a dispute with his two younger brothers. That inheritance fight started after the death of their mother, Evelyn A.J. Hall, a sister of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg.

Friede agreed to pay a combined $30 million to his brothers, Robert Friede and Thomas Jaffe, to settle the dispute, and the brothers demanded collateral. John Friede maintains the promise of the art as collateral was a temporary measure never designed to involve the sale or transfer of the artwork, which include masks, various figures and dance ornaments.

So far the de Young is in possession of about 400 items in the collection and has them insured for $90 million. The new de Young museum, which opened in Golden Gate Park in 2005, was built with a wing designed especially to hold the collection.

The Florida judge said the brothers could sell up to $20 million worth of the tribal artwork as part of the settlement, but San Francisco officials maintain that the two brothers are not entitled to any part of the collection that John and Marcia Friede compiled over 40 years.

"The entirety of the collection, none of it is owned by John Friede and Marcia Friede. It's owned by the museum," said San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Donald Margolis.

John Friede said most, if not all, of the $30 million he owes his brothers will come from his share of their mother's estate, which includes valuable paintings by Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin. That money is not accessible until the Internal Revenue Service makes a determination on the inheritance tax and that amount is paid, John Friede said.

"The liens to the brothers are simply a guarantee that they will get this money, which I have every intention to pay," John Friede said. "I just don't have access to it until I get this IRS settlement."

An attorney for Jaffe declined to comment on that assessment, and an attorney for Robert Friede did not return calls seeking comment.

If John Friede can come up with $30 million settlement payment, the sale threat to the Jolika Collection disappears and the items will stay with the de Young.

John Friede said that could come in weeks, and by his May birthday at the latest.

"I'm 70. By the time I'm 71 ... I want this to be over with," he said. "They would get their money, and I'll get, whatever you want to call it - relief from legal bondage - and I can go on with my life."

John and Marcia Friede, starting in 2003, promised to provide rotating selections from their collection to the de Young. They later increased the amounts on loan to about 400 pieces, transferred ownership of at least 142 of those to the museum. In October 2007 they gifted the balance of the collection to the de Young, with the pieces to be handed over during the course of several years, documents show."My point is I love this stuff," John Friede said. "In an awful way now, of course, the public will be more interested in looking at it. Now it's not just art, it's a scandal."

Good news. I never knew that:
"The new de Young museum, which opened in Golden Gate Park in 2005, was built with a wing designed especially to hold the collection. "

Wouldn't mind an inheritance such as this:
"John Friede said most, if not all, of the $30 million he owes his brothers will come from his share of their mother's estate, which includes valuable paintings by Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin."

I'd hate to have to sell my Gauguin, though!

The Annenbergs are an interesting family - patriarch Moe Annenberg was a legbreaker for Hearst newpapers, who threw his money into a racing form and local publications that turned into the Philedelphia Inquirer. His son walter took that money and started TV Guide & Seventeen Magazine, which made him billions and earned him a political appointment to the Court of St. James. His son Roger committed suicide.

The Annenberg Foundation is maybe the biggest donator to the arts and education in the US, but it was probably started to assauge guit that Annenberg Jr. felt from starting the entire fortune with money derived from beating the crap out of people. Murder was never tied to Moe, but he spent three years in the pen for tax evasion. Later, the big money was made from telling people what was on TV each night.

Check out the amazing "Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book" by Gerard Jones for all the gory details.

Thanks for the pics.
This reminds me of some vintage mug. (peanut maybe?)

On 2008-08-06 12:03, TikiGardener wrote:
One Last shot... I've been playing around with medium format film cameras now for a few months. So I turned my attention to that feathered skull. Given that its low light, its a time exposure, but I like the otherworldly quality to it.
More for feel than detail.

He looks like he's either flippin us off, or picking his nose.
(could both be done at the same time?)

I visited the De Young last month when I was in the Bay Area for the Tiki crawl.

This is truly one of the finest collections of PNG art that I have seen.

There are a small handful of Maori and Rapa Nui artifacts, but the PNG collection is massive.

The Covarrubias mural is impressive as well.

Most of my pics are redundant to what has been posted above, but here are a few anyway -

They also have these two large-format prints, which are from the same series that produced a set that hangs in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu:

They were produced in tall vertical strips, and meant to be assembled as a large interior mural. Not many complete sets survive; the set in the De Young is in better shape than the Bishop's set.

• James T.

http://www.tydirium.net
Big Stone Head / Tiki Road Trip / Left Orbit Temple
Drink with us at: http://www.cocktailsnob.com

[ Edited by: tikibars 2008-11-04 13:32 ]

Thanks for that crisp close up of the highly influential and often copied Trader Vic Tiki, James. And that Covarrubias Flora and Fauna mural, gorgeous. Did you ask them where the others are?

great pics!
i smell a ROADTRIP!

I can never get enough of these - thanks to all the contributors to this thread!

I went to see the collection a couple of weeks ago and was just in awe. Spent about an hour just studying all of the pieces- homework.
I recommend getting there right when they open. Not only will you most likely have a peaceful time looking at the pieces, but you will also avoid the throngs of people who are flocking to the area to go the the Hall of Science across the street. Golden Gate Park is a nightmare to try to drive around on the weekend.
SO worth the trip!

Bump this up for all to see

Most of the collection is safe! I've included the text of the article below, but click the link if you want the accompanying photos. Interesting that the articles states the estimated value of the collection is around $300 Million!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/23/MNED1B89F6.DTL

Deal gives de Young most of Oceanic art works
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Most of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum's cornerstone collection of Oceanic art will stay put under a deal that San Francisco officials have struck to resolve an inheritance dispute that threatened to have the collection dismantled.

The tentative settlement, confirmed Tuesday by attorneys involved, will give the de Young clear title to 274 of 398 pieces of Papua New Guinea artwork housed at the city-owned museum - a compilation that nation's ambassador to the United States hailed as an "unparalleled and extensive collection of masterpieces."

The fate of the remaining 124 pieces at the de Young Museum, dozens of them on loan from Sotheby's, is still unresolved and could result in some of the pieces being sold to satisfy a roughly $20 million debt to the auction house.

4,000-piece collection
New York philanthropists John and Marcia Friede collected 4,000 or more pieces of New Guinea tribal art over four decades and promised the prized works to the de Young Museum in a series of agreements dating to 2003.

The de Young Museum specifically designed an 8,000-square-foot gallery named for the couple to house the collection when it rebuilt its Golden Gate Park home.

The artwork, named the Jolika Collection after the first letters in the Friedes' three children's names, was to be transferred over a period of years.

But the couple also used the works to secure loans from Sotheby's to acquire more pieces and, at the insistence of John Friede's brothers, put the collection up as collateral in an inheritance dispute following the 2005 death of John Friede's mother, Evelyn A.J. Hall, sister of publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg.

The result was a series of legal battles in California, New York and Florida.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera went to court in September 2008 to try to prevent John Friede's two brothers from seizing the collection and selling parts of it to raise up to $20 million after a Florida judge ruled that Friede had violated the terms of a legal settlement involving their mother's estate.

In that case, John Friede had agreed to pay his brothers $30 million and put up the Jolika Collection as collateral, despite already having pledged it to the de Young. He values the entire collection at about $300 million.

$10 million shortfall
John Friede had paid his brothers more than $22 million of the $30 million, but legal fees and interest made the shortfall around $10 million, court documents show.

In April, the city agreed to sell 76 works not at the museum to help pay the Friedes' debts. Only some have been sold.

Under the settlement, the balance John Friede owes his brothers will be set at $5.65 million and will be paid from three sources: John Friede's one-third share of the Pierre Bonnard painting "Le dejeuner" that he owns with his brothers; a portion of a $3.7 million payment from his mother's estate that was to go the de Young to pay for upkeep, promotion and study of the Jolika Collection; and proceeds held in escrow from the sale of some of the works not housed at the museum, lawyers involved in the case said.

The brothers, Thomas Jaffe and Robert Friede, agree to give the de Young clear ownership of 168 works at the museum, on top of the 106 collection pieces the de Young indisputably owns.

"We've achieved a great result in protecting the museum's works from the brothers' claims," Deputy City Attorney Don Margolis said. "Everyone compromised to some extent."

Rosemary Halligan, an attorney for Friede's half-brother, Thomas Jaffe, noted that the agreement is tentative.

"We're not there yet, but we're hopeful that we'll get there," Halligan said.

The Board of Trustees for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which oversees the de Young, signed off on the proposal Dec. 10.

'Very, very pleased'
John Friede said it is premature to comment before the settlement is finalized, but added that he is "very, very pleased with the progress."

Also unclear is what will happen to about 3,500 pieces at the Friedes' Rye, N.Y., home, which the couple has planned to gradually turn over to the de Young. Some could be sold to resolve the Sotheby's case in New York.

"We believe it's still (the Friedes') desire to bequeath these works to the museum," Margolis said.

E-mail John Cote at [email protected].

Thank you for the update! Well that is two thirds, which is pretty good. But what about the rest of their original 4000 piece collection? :D And how hard must you've been hit with the collector bug to put up part of your collection as collateral for bidding on more !??

Sotheby's will be auctioning off some incredible pieces of Oceanic art from the Friede collection at the end of this week:
I saw one "flute stopper" the was estimated between 1 and 1 and a 1/2 million bucks!

On 2008-09-24 08:07, Unga Bunga wrote:
Thanks for the pics.
This reminds me of some vintage mug. (peanut maybe?)

Dominican Republic Tiki:

Mexican Mayan Tiki:

It comes together as this "South Pacific Room:"

I was there today. It's all still there. Another new display is 'Objects of Belief From The Vatican". Check it all out if you can. Good stuff.

Dredging this old thread up. I somehow was unaware of the de Yong Museum's amazing PNG collection. I was at the museum on Sunday to see some other installations and when I saw they had a Pacific Arts section, was interested to check it out.

I've been to a number of other "Pacific" arts collections, but had NO IDEA how much PNG (and some Maori) artifacts they had. not only is there quite a bit of space dedicated to it, they actually curate it much better than a lot of other museums by giving a fair amount of context for the pieces. It seems like most museums seem to merely stat what a piece is and maybe a general idea of "Middle" or "Lower" Sepik. They actually had some nice context about the use of hooks as cult pieces and a number of other informative bits of info. Plenty of pics on the previous pages. They also have a great section of African art. Obviously not tiki, but perfect for anyone with an interest in these kinds of cultural artifacts.

Another de Young bonus: they have Covarrubias' giant twelve panel mural of "Flora & Fauna of the Pacific"!

From this site:
The Fauna and Flora of the Pacific on display at the de Young is the largest of the six murals and is comprised of 12 panels with dimensions measuring 179-¾ inches by 286-½ inches. The colorful map depicts the four Pacific Rim continents with examples of their flora and fauna suspended in a swirling blue Pacific Ocean populated with sea creatures. A color key is painted in the lower corner and identifies climatic regions ranging from the tundra to the “waterless desert.”

Cheers!
:drink: