Janet Delaney at the de Young

This weekend after a disastrous attempt to attend a lecture at the San Francisco Art Institute, I visited the de Young hoping to view the museum's featured Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland and Janet Delaney's South of Market exhibit.  Botticelli to Braque was exquisite, a wonderful survey of the major periods of art in the renaissance to modern eras.  I highly recommend seeing it while it's so readily available.  South of Market is very much worth seeing as well.  Janet Delaney deals with the issues of gentrification in a very interesting, observational and often subtle way.

I first became aware of Janet Delaney through a lecture at this year's Art History Symposium, held at Sacramento State.  When I realized that one of the works that was heavily referred to in the talk by Bridget Gilman was being featured so close to home, I had to see it for myself.

South of Market explores the South of Market district in San Francisco in the late seventies and eighties.  During this time period, South of Market was under redevelopment.  Delaney documents the effects of gentrification on the people living and working in the South of Market area during this time.  Delaney photographed new buildings that were built, like the office building pictured below, and the massive Moscone Center.  The Moscone Center displaced people from their homes, and had a large impact on the people who lived in the region.  It seems to me that the issues surrounding the Moscone Center, built in 1981, reflect some of the same issues the citizens of Sacramento have had about the new downtown Sacramento Kings arena.  Though, of course, a difference is that in 1981 people were being kicked out of their homes, but there's still a connection to be made there.

First Office Building in the Redevelopment Zone, Lapu-Lapu Street, 1980.

Delaney's series of photographs also depicts small businesses and business owners, like the photograph below, which shows an all-female car repair shop.  These photographs seem to glorify the small business owner somewhat, while also showing businesses that would not be allowed to thrive in a big-business situation.  The photographs are clear, crisp with a more muted color palette, which seems to give them a seriousness and an importance.  

Labyris Auto Repair, "Complete Car Care by Women," 240 Sixth Street, 1982.

Another major theme of the work is evictions.  In Eviction, a family is being forced to leave their home, while a crew of painters makes the house look new, high class even.

Eviction, 158-160 Langton Street, 1980.

The wall in the photograph below reads, "Tim O'Shea: How many people are you evicting this month? How many next month?"  It clearly shows the distress of the people in the region and the effects that gentrification was having on the public.

Saturday Afternoon, Howard between 

Third and Fourth Streets, 1980. 

South of Market is a really interesting way to experience this time period in San Francisco's history.  It also makes the viewer aware of and question the merits of tearing down something in order to build something else up.  Overall, the series of photographs is not overly pessimistic or hopeful.  Whether Delaney was trying to get something across to the viewer about gentrification as a whole or not, the work comes across as mostly purely observational.  Any conclusions drawn are up to the viewer.

South of Market will be on view at the de Young in San Francisco through July 19th.