ide Young MuseumGolden Gate Park
Rose B. Simpson: LEXICON
Two custom cars by Santa Clara Pueblo artist Rose B. Simpson, painted with Pueblo pottery designs, fill Wilsey Court against a vast geometric backdrop.
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Rose B. Simpson found Bosque, a 1964 Buick Riviera, in Detroit with the engine still running. She smoothed the dents, patched the rust, painted it cream with Tewa turkey feathers and flowers, and hand-sewed the leather upholstery to match. It still drives, and the museum says that matters to the work.
It shares Wilsey Court, the de Young's central atrium, with Maria, the 1985 El Camino she painted in 2014 in glossy black on flat black after the San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez. The two cars face away from each other. Around them a mural 33 feet tall wraps the hall in cream, brown, rust and red, so you are standing inside a giant pot. JFK Drive went car-free, and two cars still got the best parking in Golden Gate Park.
Emily Wilson, in the Los Angeles Review of Books, called it "a genuinely startling experience." It is one room, and Wilsey Court needs no ticket, so it costs nothing.
Look for
Bosque (2024)
A cream 1964 Buick Riviera painted with Tewa pottery designs, with a brick-red underbelly and a patterned interior Simpson upholstered by hand.
Maria (2014)
A 1985 El Camino covered in glossy black Tewa patterns on a flat black base, Maria Martinez's black-on-black pottery at car scale.
The wraparound mural
Look up at 33 by 53 feet of rain clouds, corn, mountains, feathers and flowers circling the court like the painted wall of a pot.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want a full exhibition: this is two cars and a mural in one atrium.
Also at de Young Museum
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Image credits
6
- Rose B. Simpson: LEXICONPhotograph by Kate Russell, courtesy of the artist
- Rex RayCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- 20 Years - Anniversary ExhibitionCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- Isadora Gullov-Singh: Traces We HoldCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- de Young MuseumGuilhem Vellut / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- California Academy of SciencesWolfmanSF / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0