Beyond the Frame

Laurie Anderson (1947–) is an influential performance artist known for blending music, storytelling, and technology. A composer, poet, and visual artist, she rose to fame with her song O Superman (1981). Her innovative performances, including large-scale multimedia works and solo pieces, explore culture, politics, and perception. In 2004, Anderson performed at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall.

John Baldessari (1931–2020) was a seminal figure in California conceptual art, known for blending text, photography, and humor to challenge traditional ideas of image-making. Largely based in Los Angeles, Baldessari studied at UC Berkeley from 1954–55. He has significant work in the SFMOMA collection and exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1986.

Romare Bearden (1911–1988) was a prominent 20th-century American artist. He was celebrated for his innovative collages and photomontages depicting Black American life and culture. Bearden’s 1973 Final Study for Berkeley – The City and Its People, in the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, inspired the city of Berkeley’s logo.

Elliott Erwitt (1928–2023) was born in Paris to Russian Jewish parents, and educated in Milan, Paris, and New York, later moving to Los Angeles. After studying at Los Angeles City College and the New School, he rose to prominence in the 1950s as a photographer with the Magnum photo agency, and he became renowned for witty, humanistic images and influential work in photojournalism and film.

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) was a leading Beat Generation poet. Born in New Jersey to Jewish parents and educated at Columbia University, he gained fame for “Howl” (1956), written largely during his time in Berkeley. Its publication by City Lights Books (San Francisco) sparked a landmark obscenity trial that helped expand free speech, cementing his legacy in American literature.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020) was a pioneering Supreme Court justice and champion of gender equality. She co-founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and argued landmark discrimination cases. Appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, she became a cultural icon, known for her sharp legal mind and lifelong fight for equal rights. In her chambers, she displayed artwork bearing the Hebrew phrase “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” (“Justice, justice shall you pursue”), reflecting her deep commitment to justice and her Jewish values. In 2019, she delivered UC Berkeley Law’s inaugural Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture at Zellerbach Hall.

Philip Glass (1937–) is one of the most influential contemporary composers, celebrated for his pioneering minimalist music and operas that reshape classical tradition. He has a longstanding relationship with San Francisco Opera, which commissioned and premiered several of his works, including the opera Appomattox.

Leon Golub (1922–2004) was born in Chicago and studied art after serving as a World War II cartographer. Rejecting postwar abstraction, he became a leading figurative painter whose large-scale works confront power, violence, and oppression. Known for scraping painted surfaces, he created raw, politically charged images addressing war, racism, and the abuse of authority. The Magnes has a set of his prints in the collection.

Seiji Ozawa (1935–2024) was an internationally acclaimed conductor celebrated for his dynamic interpretations and global influence on classical music. He served as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1976, helping elevate the orchestra’s international profile before leading major ensembles around the world.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (1961–) is a renowned violinist celebrated for her passionate performances and charismatic stage presence. She served for nearly a decade as Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, helping shape the ensemble’s adventurous programming and distinctive artistic voice within the Bay Area classical music community.

Richard Serra (1939–2024) was a leading figure in process art, known for monumental steel sculptures exploring space, material, and perception. Born in San Francisco, he studied at UC Berkeley, where early ideas about material and form took shape, influencing his groundbreaking career in sculpture, film, and drawing. BAMPFA hosted an exhibition of his work in 1979.

Raphael Soyer (1899–1987) was a Russian-born Jewish American painter and printmaker. Immigrating to New York in 1912, he became known for Social Realist depictions of urban life and economic hardship. He trained at Cooper Union and remained committed to figurative art, portraying everyday people with empathy and solidarity. The Magnes holds paintings and prints of his in the collection and hosted an exhibition of his work on Russell Street in 1983.

Donald Sultan (1951–) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker known for large-scale still lifes and industrial imagery. Using unconventional materials like tar and enamel, he blends minimalism with bold forms. His work often depicts flowers and everyday objects, reimagined with striking simplicity and monumentality. His Suite of Eight Fruits is in the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) was one of the most celebrated artists associated with Northern California, renowned for his vivid paintings of everyday subjects and landscapes. A longtime professor at UC Davis, he lived and worked in the Sacramento and Bay Area regions for much of his life, shaping generations of artists.