November 14–January 11, 2025 Artist Retrospective Curated by Jennifer A. Thompson, Laurel Garber, Emily A. Beeny, Barbara A. Wolfe Image: Mary Cassatt at Work Exhibition Entrance. Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
Mary Cassatt. Lydia at a Tapestry Frame, ca. 1881. Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
Overview
Mary Cassatt at Work, features nearly 100 works from the artist’s 60 year career, which began in the early 1860s.
Cassatt was born into a prominent family in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh) in 1844. During this time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women were neither taken seriously nor regarded as competent beyond the roles of motherhood.
She defied the restrictive social norms of her era, breaking barriers of class and gender to pursue a career as a professional artist and art advisor—a path often dismissed by her genteel peers.
Mary Cassatt. Driving,1881. Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
“Alongside scenes of women at the opera, visiting friends, and taking tea, Cassatt produced many images of ‘women’s work’—knitting and needlepoint, bathing children, and nursing infants.
The exhibition calls attention to the artist’s own processes of making—how she used her brush, etching needle, pastel stick, and even fingertips to create radical art under the cover of ‘feminine’ subject matter.
Cassatt was the only American to join the French Impressionists, first exhibiting with the group at Degas’s invitation in 1879, and quickly emerged as a key member of the movement.”
Preview of Mary Cassatt at Work. Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
The exhibition’s catalogue (300+ pages) by Jennifer A. Thompson and Laurel Garber is available for sale on Amazon and at FAMSF stores ($49.50 members).
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco created this wonderful short biographical film on the artist, which is also featured in the exhibition.
FAMSF’s The Radical Art of Mary Cassatt. Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
Mary Cassatt. The Long Gloves, 1886. Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
⭐ DINING: Legion of Honor Café. American and European classic cuisine. Indoor and outdoor dining. Open Thurs 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.; Fri 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; Sat–Sun 9:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
⭐ DE YOUNG MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS:
Tamara de Lempicka [STUNNING Lempicka retrospective featuring 120+ works. Post to follow soon.] (Closes Feb 9, 2025)
Leilah Babirye: We Have a History [AMAZING AMAZING SHOW by the Ugandan artist, dramatically installed in the museum’s Art of Africa wing.] (Closes Oct 26, 2025)
Currently on View at FAMSF’s Legion of Honor
Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design | Nov 9, 2024–May 11, 2025
In celebration of the Legion of Honor’s 100th anniversary, this exhibition brings together some of our most outstanding costume and set designs.
Celebrating 100 Years at the Legion of Honor | Nov 9, 2024–Nov 2, 2025
This exhibition looks back to the museum’s 1924 opening through its 1990s expansion and into the present day, as well as forward toward a new vision for the future. The museum’s close ties to the communities of San Francisco are brought into focus through collection highlights, rediscovered materials from the museum’s archives, and an expansive timeline. Featuring some of the first additions to the collection, such as an ancient ceramic vase gifted by the queen of Greece and an Auguste Rodin sculpture donated by museum cofounder Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, the exhibition also highlights the museum’s early exhibitions, including one devoted to Diego Rivera. The timeline takes us through the decades, including the 1972 merger with the de Young, the seismic upgrade and expansion after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and recent interventions by contemporary artists such as Wangechi Mutu. The exhibition is punctuated by images of visitors through the years interacting with Rodin’s famous The Thinker (1904). Front and center in the museum’s courtyard, the sculpture continues to welcome visitors in to explore the art and their own creativity.
Coming Soon to FAMSF’s Legion of Honor
Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art | Opens March 2, 2025
“I believe very much in the tradition that art comes from art and nothing else” —Wayne Thiebaud Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) became famous for his colorful paintings of American confections and buffets. He was also a self-described art “thief,” who openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted old and new European and American artworks. An influential teacher at Sacramento Junior College and the University of California, Davis, Thiebaud never stopped learning. He believed that art history is a continuum that connects artists of the past, present, and future. Highlighting work from across the beloved artist’s six-decade career, this exhibition features Thiebaud’s inventive reinterpretations and direct copies of famous artworks, as well as objects from his personal art collection that inspired him. Approximately 60 quintessential works by Thiebaud — including paintings of people (alone and together); still lives of cakes, tabletops, and other ordinary objects; cityscapes featuring soaring buildings; and mountain landscapes — offer an in-depth exploration of one of the most important and overlooked aspects of his creative practice: his passionate engagement with art history.
Currently on View at FAMSF’s de Young Museum
Tamara de Lempicka | Oct 12, 2024–Feb 9, 2025
Tamara de Lempicka helped define Art Deco. This exhibition explores the painter’s distinctive style and unconventional life.
Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries | Oct 19, 2024–Jan 12, 2025
Seven enormous Renaissance tapestries are on view in the United States for the first time, alongside impressive examples of 16th-century arms and armor.
Robert Bechtle: Prints and Drawings | Aug 10, 2024–Jan 5, 2025
A lifelong resident of the Bay Area, American artist Robert Bechtle (1932–2020) captured local life in mesmerizing detail. A tribute to the artist’s life and work, this exhibition of prints and drawings celebrates Bechtle’s legacy and his close relationship with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. One of the earliest Photorealists, Bechtle worked from personal photographs of friends, family, nearby streets, cityscapes, and, above all, automobiles. Tinged with nostalgia, his most recognizable works memorialize moments that might otherwise be lost: San Francisco’s 34th Avenue fading into a bright blue sky or a parked Oldsmobile bathed in California sunshine. Drawn from our collection, the works on view — from the first abstract print he gifted to the Museums in 1961 to meticulous photo-based works from the final years of his career — reveal Bechtle’s stylistic evolution.
Nampeyo and the Sikyátki Revival | Feb 27, 2021–Jan 12, 2025
Celebrating the artistic ingenuity of Nampeyo, famed Tewa-Hopi potter, the de Young museum presents an installation of 32 pots from the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. During her lifetime, Nampeyo (ca. 1860 – 1942) was, and remains today, perhaps the most renowned potter from the American Southwest. The single-gallery exhibition highlights Nampeyo’s work, juxtaposed with examples of Hopi pottery from her time. Exquisite ceramics made by ancestral Hopi artists demonstrate Nampeyo’s sources of inspiration, and artworks by four generations of her descendants attest to the master potter’s enduring legacy.
Leilah Babirye: We Have a History | June 22, 2024–Oct 26, 2025
Leilah Babirye’s first solo museum show in the US features expressive sculptures that speak to the power of reclaiming personal and cultural identity.
Contemporary Painting in Papua New Guinea: Mathias Kauage and His Family | March 30, 2024–March 15, 2026
This exhibition features boldly colorful paintings of a radically changing world by contemporary Papua New Guinea artist Mathias Kauage and his family.
Coming Soon to FAMSF’s de Young Museum
Matisse’s “Jazz” Unbound | Opens Jan 25, 2025
In the final decades of a prolific career, modern artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954) took up book illustration. This exhibition celebrates our 2024 acquisition of Jazz, Matisse’s 1947 artist book on the circus and theater. Jazz includes 20 color stencil prints (pochoirs) of popular subjects on these themes, from horses to ringmasters. The prints were created using the artist’s lively paper cutouts, what Matisse called “drawing with scissors.” Published by the innovative Greek publisher Tériade (Stratis Eleftheriadis), it is considered the pinnacle of Matisse’s graphic art. This presentation offers the rare chance to see the unbound works from Jazz in conversation with other Matisse artist books and works on paper from our collection.
Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm | Opens March 1, 2025
Nearly 60 years after The Beatles performed their final concert at Candlestick Park, Beatlemania is back in the Bay. Featuring more than 250 personal photographs by Paul McCartney, along with video clips and archival materials, this exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at the meteoric rise of the world’s most celebrated band. The images capture the period from December 1963 through February 1964 and the band’s journey to superstardom, from local venues in Liverpool to The Ed Sullivan Show and worldwide acclaim. Photographs of screaming crowds and paparazzi show the sheer magnitude of the group’s fame and the cultural change they represented. More intimate images of the band on their days off highlight the humor and individuality of McCartney and bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Rediscovered in the artist’s personal archive in 2020, these images offer new perspectives on the band, their fans, and the early 1960s, as seen through the eyes of Paul McCartney.
A LOVE LETTER TO ART RECOMMENDS
RELATED VIDEO(S)
Charming short film Cassatt: American Impressionist, 1998.
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