fbpx
Exhibition

Freeform: Experiencing Abstraction

Ongoing
Floor 4
Tickets
Entry to this exhibition is included with general admission.

Exploring abstract art since 1950, this presentation brings together artists who employ abstraction to express the intangible and ineffable, inviting a range of interpretations and responses. The works on view demonstrate a broad range of techniques, from gestural brushstrokes that record the act of making to sumptuous monochromatic explorations of shape and hue. The breadth of these approaches underscores the idea that abstraction is constantly being redefined.

This exhibition, along with presentations on Floors 5 and 6, is the result of an innovative partnership established in 2009 between the Fisher Art Foundation and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Bringing together works from the Fisher Collection and the museum’s permanent collection, these installations offer expansive ways of looking at the strengths of each.


Exhibition Preview

Square canvas composed of fourteen solid-colored vertical bands ranging the color spectrum
Overlapping, semi-transparent, radiating lines of colorful paint
Forest green canvas painted with scrawling, dripping, white loops
Artwork image, Brice Marden, The Sisters
Square blue field covered with a grid of thin white lines

Ellsworth Kelly, Spectrum I, 1953; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab; © Ellsworth Kelly; photo: Ben Blackwell

Morris Louis, Untitled, 1959–60; the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Estate of Morris Louis; photo: Katherine Du Tiel

Cy Twombly, Note I, from the series III Notes from Salalah, 2005–7; the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Cy Twombly Foundation; photo: Ian Reeves

Brice Marden, The Sisters, 1991–93; the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Brice Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Agnes Martin, Night Sea, 1963; the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Elizabeth Murray, Things to Come, 1988; the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Estate of Elizabeth Murray / Artists Rights Society (ARS)