di Rosa permanent collection in Sonoma, CA

I wanted to share some images from the exhibit in Gallery 1, Building a Different Model: Selections from the di Rosa Collection. They had a shuttle to the Viola Frey show in Gallery 2, although you can also walk through the vineyard on the property to get there.

Marilyn Anne Levine, Brown Drawstring Bag, 1980
Ceramic and leather (straps are leather)
William Theo Brown, Untitled, 1964
Oil on canvas
Background: George Herms, Universal Telephone, 1965
Mixed media

Front: Robert Arneson and Roy De Forest, A West Texas Interlude, 1969
Glazed ceramic
Terry Allen, Beautiful Waitress, 1970
Glass, sand, lead, coins, found figurine, and salt
Robert Arneson, Six Pack, 1964
Glazed ceramic
Les Kerr, Private, 1963
Oil on zinc
H.C. Westermann, Untitled, 1976
Watercolor on paper
A vineyard across the street from the di Rosa.

We did get to a couple of wine tastings in Sonoma, because my brother would have been appalled if we hadn’t. We went to Hawkes Wine right next door to where we stayed, and my brother made a reservation for us at Bedrock Wine Co. The servers at both places could tell we were novice wine tasters, and they both gave us incredible history lessons of each winery. It really was fun, and the wine was great. At both places, when we mentioned our real purpose of being in Sonoma was to see the Viola Frey show, we got great recommendations. The server at Bedrock Wine Co. told us to check out Donum Estate. We unfortunately weren’t able to get in as you need to make a reservation weeks in advance. Since 2015 they have been placing large-scale contemporary sculptures in the their vineyards. They have around 40 works of art by artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Anselm Kiefer, Tracey Emin, among others. At Hawkes Wine we got the recommendation for El Molina Central which I mentioned in the Viola Frey post. We stayed right on the town square at the El Dorado hotel. If you prefer a quieter spa like place, you might consider staying at the Sonoma Mission Inn. It’s worth going to see the black and white carpet in the lobby, and have drinks and lunch at the poolside bar.

Jaume Plensa sculpture seen from the Donum Estate front gate

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