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Rockwell Kent, (1882-1971) And Now Where? |
The California Historical Society in collaboration with the California Exhibition Resources Alliance now presents the premiere showing of the traveling exhibition “Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Response to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present.” This timely exhibition features the work of more than 30 artists from the 1930’s to the present who have documented the tragedy of homelessness and the government’s role in the crisis. Through painting, printmaking, photography and mixed media, Depression-era and contemporary artists offer glimpses of life on the street and show many similarities between the eras.
The show features works by New Deal-era artists such as Dorothea Lange, Rockwell Kent and Giacomo Patri, along with contemporary artists such as Sandow Birk, David Bacon and Christine Hanlon. Curator Art Hazelwood explained, “Some of the artists in this exhibition personally experienced homelessness and poverty, and some worked directly with organizations to combat poverty, but all of them felt that art could be used to focus attention on homelessness. The idea that art can have a function in society by engaging in a struggle for a better world, and that everyone should take an interest in the well-being of less fortunate people are the twin beliefs of the artists in this show.”
The California Historical Society, located at 678 Mission St., San Francisco, near the intersection of Third Street and Mission, can be reached from the Peninsula by taking Caltrain to the S.F. station and hopping a bus for the short ride to the museum. The Society is open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. Free. For more information call (415) 357-1848 or visit www.californiahistoricalsociety.org. “Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Response to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present” runs through Aug. 15. |