Media Preview for “Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro,
Media Preview for “Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro,
An Exhibition to Benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk” and Meet the Designer of the Rainbow Honor Walk
WHERE: George Krevsky Gallery 77 Geary (at Grant), 2nd Floor, San Francisco
WHO:
Carlos Casuso, Madrid, Spain—Architect and Designer of the Rainbow Honor Walk Plaques
David Perry, Board President, Rainbow Honor Walk
George Krevsky, George Krevsky Gallery
WHEN: Saturday, January 4, 2014, 2pm to 3pm
Exhibition Dates: January 3 – March 1, 2014
WEB:
www.georgekrevskygallery.com
www.rainbowhonorwalk.org
WHY:
The Rainbow Honor Walk (www.rainbowhonorwalk.org) will honor 20 historic LGBT figures in 2014 with bronze plaques to be installed along Castro Street, designed by Spanish architect Carlos Casuso, who won an international competition for his design for the plaques, which feature a portrait and brief information about each of the first 20 honorees. To raise funds for the fabrication and installation of the plques, the Rainbow Honor Walk has joined with George Krevsky Gallery to present a benefit exhibition of artworks by Beth Van Hoesen, the late Castro district resident and nationally recognized artist. Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro, on view at George Krevsky Gallery from January 3 through March 1, 2014, features more than 20 original works donated by the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust to benefit the construction of San Francisco’s newest public monument. The artworks include watercolors, drawings, and prints from the 1990s that depict colorful personalities that Van Hoesen encountered in her neighborhood, including well-known figures in the LGBT community. Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro, An Exhibition to Benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk is free and open to the public at George Krevsky Gallery, 77 Geary (at Grant), Suite 205, in the Union Square District of downtown San Francisco. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11am–5:30pm. On Thursday evening, January 9th and February 4th, the Gallery will be open for the First Thursday Gallery Walk, 5:30pm to 7:30pm. The works are also available for online viewing at www.georgekrevskygallery.com www.rainbowhonorwalk.org
For more than forty years, Beth Van Hoesen (1926-2010) and her husband, artist and designer Mark Adams (1925-2006), lived in an old firehouse on 22nd Street at the top of the Castro Street hill, where they maintained their studios. For many years, Van Hoesen and Adams hosted weekly figure- and portrait-drawing sessions, joined by prominent Bay Area artists Robert Bechtle, William Theophilus Brown, Gordon Cook, Wayne Thiebaud, and others.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Van Hoesen became particularly fascinated with people she saw in her neighborhood, occasionally inviting them to pose for her at the firehouse. Many of these artworks from Van Hoesen’s sessions with her Castro neighbors have not previously been exhibited or available. The drawings, watercolors, and color etchings of Castro personalities range from leather-clad, dyed, and tattooed punks and queers, to well-known figures such as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the late Jose Sarria, known as The Widow Norton. Thanks to this generous gift from the artist’s estate these portraits are now available to benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk. # # #