The Art of Baseball

What are baseball bats, baseballs and bases doing in an art gallery and shouldn’t Sandy Koufax be on the sports pages instead of hanging on a wall? Well, it must be time for the 10th Annual Art of Baseball exhibition at the George Krevsky Gallery located at 77 Geary Street in San Francisco. This year’s show, Spring Training started on March 15th and continues through Saturday, April 28th. Forty artists from across the country have been invited to create their interpretation of our National Pastime. Paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture, on the theme of baseball, line the walls of a gallery normally showing Modernist art by such well-known artists as Thomas Hart Benton and Milton Avery.

Immortals like Honus Wagner, Satchel Paige, and Roberto Clemente can be seen, as well as Pacific Coast League favorites and sandlot players playing for the love of the game. Among the highlights of this year’s show are Carl Hugo Beetz’ canvas painted in 1938 of a White Sox exhibition game and Benjamin Blackburn’s contemporary wood sculpture of Honus Wagner’s famous Tobacco card. Artworks based on historical images of the 1934 Boston Red Sox, and the San Francisco Seals vs. the Oakland Oaks, were created by Bay Area printmaker Stacey Carter, Jennifer Ettinger’s homage to Satchel Paige and Tina Hoggatt’s porcelain enamel paintings on steel are all featured. Ebbets Field, now only a memory, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, the DiMaggio brothers, and a young Ted Williams all create an atmosphere that will touch the hearts of art enthusiasts and sports fans alike.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm and visuals can be seen on the website at http://www.georgekrevskygallery.com/.