Floor 6: 6th Floor Landing (exiting Elevators)
Overview
Gallery Wayfinding
You are at the 6th Floor Landing. From a central position on the landing directly in front of the elevators, the view into the first gallery of Louise Bourgeois's large sculpture Spider dominates. The walls in that gallery are painted a dark charcoal gray, creating a contemplative atmosphere.
This floor has seven galleries organized in a long rectangular layout. You are currently at the short back end. The back and side walls are white, but the front wall in front of you is painted a dark charcoal gray. Facing the 6th floor tactile map, to your right is the exhibition graphic followed by the entrance to the galleries, and the title wall for the 6th floor.
The entrance to the Objects of Memory Gallery is in the middle of the front wall. The QR code is at the threshold on the right wall of the threshold, marked with a perpendicular tactile floor strip.
Label
Much art produced since World War II has been haunted by the past. The artists featured on this floor explore individual or shared experiences, including traumas that have been forgotten or suppressed. Some focus on the process of remembering and making meaning from the past—how memories are mediated, distorted, and/or misused.
The works engage memory and history, whether private or public, including some of the most disastrous events of the twentieth century. Through a wide range of mediums and techniques—found objects, photo-derived works, casts, and layered images and materials—they give memory a physical form. Special focus is given to German artist Anselm Kiefer and South African artist William Kentridge, who reflect on the devastating legacies of nationalism and colonialism. With works that embrace ambiguity and avoid easy answers, Kiefer and Kentridge challenge collective amnesia and prompt active remembering.
Gamynne Guillotte
Chief Education and Public Engagement Officer
Ted Mann
Project Assistant Curator, Fisher Collection
Visionary support for Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10 is provided by Fisher Art Foundation.
Lead support is provided by Penny S. and James G. Coulter, Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, and Diana Nelson and John Atwater.
Presenting support is provided by Dana and Bob Emery. Major support is provided by Katie Hall and Tom Knutsen. Significant support is provided by Concepción S. and Irwin Federman, Alexandria and Kevin Marchetti, and Deborah and Kenneth Novack.
Meaningful support is provided by Alka and Ravin Agrawal, Sabrina Buell and Yves Béhar, Nancy and Alan Schatzberg, and Susan Swig.
Label
This exhibition was designed to welcome the widest possible audience, and this screen-reader friendly website was built specifically with our low-vision and blind visitors in mind. Please enjoy the following features to help you navigate and engage with the exhibition:
- Each floor has a welcome panel that contains a Braille introduction and tactile map of the floor.
- All videos have open captions.
- Throughout the exhibition spaces, there are tactile floor strips that extend perpendicular from the wall, between galleries and at specific touch points. When you encounter a floor strip, that means there is a tactile QR code on the wall within arm’s length. Scanning this QR code on your personal device takes you to a screen reader friendly website that contains all exhibition text, visual descriptions for all artworks and galleries, guided tactile descriptions for touch objects accompanying select artworks, guided tactile descriptions for tactile maps located to the right of each introductory panel, and transcripts for all videos.
Helpful Links:
- Are you curious about what this website is and other accessibility considerations we've built into this reinstallation? Check out this FAQ to learn more.
- Certain galleries and artwork might have audio stops associated with them, which will be indicated by a 3-digit audio callout number on the wall. You can navigate to our Audio Guide Search, also located at the top of this navigation bar, to look up the stop number and listen on your personal device.
Label
Floor 6
- Memory and Matter: Personal and Collective Histories
- William Kentridge Galleries
- Anselm Kiefer Galleries
- Poetry Listening Station
Tactile Description
Map Overview
This tactile map shows Floor 6 of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It has two primary regions. On your left is the legend oriented vertically and surrounded by a rough-dotted rectangular outline. On your right is the map of the museum, outlined in thin, smooth, double lines.
Legend
Start in the bottom left corner and find the dashed rectangle outline. Inside, at the top left, is the Braille word “Legend.”
- The solid five-pointed star means “You Are Here”
- Two stacked triangles pointing up and down mean elevators
- A zigzag line means stairs
- Two Braille r’s in a dashed line box mean the restrooms
- A water droplet means a water fountain
How to Read the Map
The map to your right is made up of a long, irregularly shaped rectangle with its left wall slightly jutting outward.
Double lines identify the building’s exterior walls, and single lines identify interior walls. When a wall stops and starts again, it marks an entrance or exit.
Each main room has a Braille label inside.
The areas labeled “Galleries” consist of many galleries that occasionally change depending on the current exhibition. The internal walls for the galleries are not depicted tactiley or visually on this map.
Map
This map shows two gallery areas, elevators, staircases, restrooms, and water fountains.
Let’s find the five-pointed star, which signifies, “You Are Here.” Find the Elevator icon in the legend and move to your right until you reach the exterior wall. Keep moving to your right until you find the five-pointed star. You will use this as your starting point to explore the map.
Starting at the star, the elevators are directly below it and slightly to your right. Below the elevators are galleries. Moving up from the elevators, you will find a break in a horizontal interior wall signifying the entrance to an area with galleries. Find the label, “Galleries,” then move to your left until you reach a vertical wall. Follow this wall up until you reach a break in the wall, move through this exit to your left until you find a staircase icon that leads down to Floor 5. Go down the map, and you’ll encounter a second staircase icon that leads up to Floor 7.
Let’s go back to the star. Continue down from the staircase until you reach a horizontal wall. You are now back in the general area where you started. The five-pointed star is to your right. Move to your right, past the star, until you hit a vertical interior wall. Past that is a space with restrooms and a water fountain. From top to bottom are the women’s restroom, the water fountain, and the men’s restroom.