Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
©Stephen Somerstein |
As a valley is carved by natural forces, the path of history is carved by people and events. Complex patterns, cultural evidence, are left behind that trace its evolution. Every generation, every decade, certain individuals and moments of iconic proportions leave indelible marks. Sometimes they serve as banners, sometimes as profound inflection points. Ultimately they are commonly memorable and meaningful to our cultural story, hence, our lives and identities.
The passage of time often allows us to appreciate to a greater degree the depth of the significance of historical figures or artifacts well beyond their contemporaneous impact. Movements, wars, fashion, design, art, social diversions and spectacle generate some of the evidence societies leave behind.
History [herstory, our story] requires the presence of the individuals and events that make up the milestones of the past along the timeline that brings us to where we are today. If any of these timeline “landmarks” is removed from the continuum of human experience, at least as we know it, a gap in a certain significance and human meaning would most likely result.
As a culture and as a species we trace, as on cave walls, our story in many forms of evidence using innumerable methods. San Francisco Art Exchange offers a limited, albeit impactful, selection of visual evidence in the forms of art and photography, presenting images that convey various historical symbols with which we, by definition, are familiar.
By design we make it part of our mission at San Francisco Art Exchange to display, as well as offer to collectors, images of transformational leaders and events, fashion and other kinds of creative enterprise that have had major affect upon the molding of society and culture. These works are on display online and at our downtown San Francisco gallery to celebrate, remember, appreciate, and reflect upon. They are the records of a contemporary human story that have always been a part of our lives. For some of our clients, certain works have become touchstones in their personal living and work environments as among their most important art acquisitions.
