SFO Museum

Fresh exhibit at SFO Museum

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A new SFO Museum exhibition at San Francisco International Airport offers a fun look at products offered to consumers during the 1950s, when a wave of consumerism spread across the United States.

The Modern Consumer; 1950s Products and Style – Courtesy SFO Museum

From the exhibition notes:

“Driven by a thriving postwar economy, designers utilized bold styling to transform everyday objectsinto visually expressive items. Manufacturers unleashed an array of products tokeep pace with demand. Stores carried everything from portable televisions andpocket-sized radios to space-age toys and plastic dinnerware sets. Many familiesadorned their homes with modern furniture and automatic, push-buttonappliances. Consumers began to purchase items because they were the latest and greatest things.”

1950 lunchboxes. From The Modern Consumer; 1950s Products and Style – SFO Museum 

“Advertising and credit replaced rationing and restraint, and a growing number of middle-class families engaged in a spending spree. Shopping centers and indoor malls with vast, paved parking lots catered to new suburban housing developments that extended from cities and towns. Often located at the intersections of major roads and highways, shopping centers offered easy access to a multitude ofsupermarkets and stores.”

Comedy /Tragedy TV Lamp from the 1950s – courtesy SFO Museum 

“At home, television exerted a profound influence on the development of a consumer-based popular culture. TV lamps glowed atop television sets while families ate pre-packaged TV dinners on Melamine trays. Networks divided viewers into target audiences and advertisers spent large sums to promote their products. Official toys and games were marketed alongside children’s programs. Elvis Presley performed tomillions of TV viewers, launching rock ‘n’ roll into the mainstream and a craze for 45-RPM records. From tabletop jukebox selectors and portable record players to battery powered robots and space-themed lunchboxes, this exhibition presents examples of futuristic styling and innovative marketing from the golden age of consumerism.”   

The Modern Consumer; 1950s Products and Style

 
The Modern Consumer – 1950s Product and Style is on display post-security in Terminal 3 at San Francisco International Airport 3 through October 2019.

Fresh art and music at SFO, STL and SEA airports

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Increasingly, airports are great places to see cool art and listen to great music.

Here are the latest offerings from San Francisco International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Murmur No. 23 2006 Richard Barnes (b. 1953)

Murmur No. 23, by Richard Barnes. Courtey SFO Museum

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport is hosting an exhibition of photographs by Richard Barnes of starlings over Rome.

Barnes photographs the starlings during their winter migration from northern Europe to the Rome countryside. He waits till dusk, when the birds form dense cloud-like formations known as murmurations, and in his “Murmur” series Barnes has captured the starlings forming impressive aerial shapes.

Look for the Murmur exhibit pre-security on the Departures Level in Terminal 3 of the San Francisco International Airport.

 

Murmur No. 21 , by Richard Barnes. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has kicked off a new program, Celebrations at Sea-Tac, to honor holidays, traditions and cultures from the United Stations and global community.

The celebrations begin November with 1 for Dia de los Muertos, or the “Day of the Dead,” a Mexican holiday honoring and remembering loved ones.

Activities will include art installations, candy skull face painting and arts and crafts for children, food and beverage sampling and live performances.

And at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, the Art & Culture Program is hosting an exhibition by St. Louis artist Jeremy Rabus.

Titled “Livery,” the exhibition includes paintings inspired by the livery and components of commercial airlines. Look for this exhibit near the A Concourse entrance in Terminal 1.

Loran Naviagation by Jeremy Rabus; courtesy STL Airport

Fresh art at San Francisco Int’l Airport: the Cat in Art

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Cat night-light late 18th–early 19th century. Courtesy SFO Museum

The SFO Museum is hosting a new exhibit at San Francisco International Airport featuring more than one hundred objects celebrating cats.

There are an estimated 600 million domesticated cats worldwide, with cats edging out dogs as the most popular modern-day pets.

Historically, cats were worshipped by the ancient Egyptians and celebrated as symbols of good luck throughout Asia. In Europe, cats were associated with magic, witchcraft, and evil spirits and were persecuted for centuries before they gained cultural acceptance

Although officially condemned in Medieval Europe, cats were praised by painters, sculptors, and intellectuals during the Renaissance, with Leonardo da Vinci proclaiming that “even the smallest feline is a masterpiece,” the exhibition tells us.

Caticons: The Cat in Art, explores the history of the cat and its allure through art, literature, and decorative arts from around the world and is on view in the pre-security area of the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport through April, 2019.

Here are some more images from the exhibit, courtesy of the SFO Museum exhibit:

Seated cats c. 1900

Temple cats – 19th to early 20th century

 

Fresh airport art to look for on your next trip

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Here are some of fresh art exhibits to look for at some airports around the country:

Addoley Dzegede’s “Here and Elsewhere,” a 12 ft.-wide silkscreened work of pigment on cloth, is on view at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Terminal 2 between gates E10 and E12 through the end of October, 2018.

The airport currently has 29 equally intriguing works of art on view throughout the terminals, courtesy of the Lambert Art and Culture Program.

Christian Scott, North Beach Bandshell, Miami Beach, 2016.

A new exhibition at Miami International Airport on view through October, 2018, celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Rhythm Foundation, the award-winning local non-profit organization that showcases international artists in South Florida. Front Row to the World is an exhibition of 15 concert photographs near Gate D31 by Peruvian-born and Miami Beach-based photographer Luis Olazabal. 

Atomic Haystack by Isamu Noguchi. Courtesy SFO Museum

And at San Francisco International Airport, the SFO Museum has two installations exploring the relationship of Isamu Noguchi’s paper and bamboo Akari lanters with his steel and bronze plate sculpture. Look for these pieces pre-security in the SFO International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby through January 6, 2019

 

Vintage radios on display at SFO Airport

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The “Mystic” Radio Bug and headset c. 1927 – courtesy SFO Museum

Radio – the invention – was a transformational technological triumph of the 20th century and today some of the earliest radios – the objects – are sought after collectible objects.

A new exhibition – On the Radio – from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport brings together classic radio sets spanning sixty years of design, from crystal sets and luxury consoles, to stylish tabletop models and pocket-sized transistors.

Here are some highlights from the exhibition on view post-security on the Departures Level of SFO Terminal 3 through September 30, 2018. All photos courtesy SFO Museum.

Put on a podcast -or better yet, download an old-time radio classic – and take a tour.

Model 400–3 “Patriot” 1940

 

Model 21 “Minuette” 1932

X–11 Aladino 1949 

 

Regency TR–1 1954