Worth your while when you go into San Francisco between now and Feb. 13 is to take time to visit the Legion of Honor’s special exhibition celebrating the art of pastels. “Color into Line: Pastels from the Renaissance to the Present” features rarely-seen holdings from the museum’s collection, as well as other prominent private collections. Through 80 masterworks, the exhibition traces the technical evolution of pastel, from its introduction in 16th Century Europe to works created as recently as 2020.
Laid out in chronological order, and accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, visitors have a rare opportunity to savor various masterpieces from public and private collections across Northern California, many on view for the first time.
One of the most long-standing media in art history, pastel has maintained a formulation almost unchanged since its emergence in the Renaissance. Composed of finely ground pigments, a dry filler (kaolin or chalk), and a binder (traditionally a vegetable gum), pastels are still used today in much the same way as when they first appeared. Examining the technical process of creation, the exhibition pays specific attention to the medium’s materiality, looking at techniques shared by artists across centuries. | legionofhonor.famsf.org
