William Scott

Part of Bay Area Walls
Opened April 6, 2024
Floor 2

About

For William Scott, paintings are spaces of freedom to reinvent the past and imagine new futures. Guided by an optimism that something different is possible, the resulting compositions engage in grand acts of time travel that picture Scott and his community reborn. Praise Frisco: Peace and Love in the City is William Scott’s largest painting to date. Commissioned in conjunction with Creative Growth: The House That Art Built, it merges two of his abiding interests: maplike renderings of San Francisco and portraits of the people who populate his life and dreams. He and his mother, for example, appear as youthful versions of themselves, smiling alongside members of their church and the musician Diana Ross. In the background is the Alice Griffith public housing development near the city’s Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhood, where Scott was raised. Scott’s realism expresses hopefulness and fantasy, culminating in a monumental celebration of “Praise Frisco,” his name for the new San Francisco he envisions for the future.

William Scott: Praise Frisco: Peace and Love in the City is part of SFMOMA’s Bay Area Walls, a series of commissions and other site-responsive wall projects by local artists. Begun in 2020, the program is designed to support local artists who are keenly attuned to our community and current moment.
 

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The presenting sponsor for Bay Area Walls is Gap Inc.

Major support is provided by the Roberta and Steve Denning Commissioning Endowed Fund.

Generous support is provided by the Patricia W. Fitzpatrick Commissioning Endowed Fund, Diana Nelson and John Atwater Commissioning Fund, and the Denise Littlefield Sobel Commissioning Endowed Fund.