The 2011 SFFAS was a well done show in muted tones with a dramatic entry of over scaled scroll brackets that enclosed the exhibit "Hidden Treasures" into themed sections. The classic soft greys and creams used for the show marked a return to a show of quiet good taste. There were fewer 20thc dealers this year and I was disappoined to find that Liz O'brien was not showing. What the dealers bring is always of excellence and every year a piece or two lingers in my mind and inspires me. This year Therien's 15thc Spanish giltwood chest on a base of fluted columns and Hackett Mill's 1974 blue and charcoal painting by Robert Motherwell sent me into a creative dreamworld of possibilities. Maybe some day we will have a 20thc show in San Francisco as strong and as well done as our SFFA has been.
Now off to the Bohams auction preview of Katherine Elkins Boyd to see her mothers, Frances Elkins, plaster lamps and furniture.