Anderson Collection at Stanford University, rating: 7/10

Difficult to argue against free. Lots of modern art in a plain, unremarkable building. The best pieces I think were the semi-translucent "Untitled" by Robert Irwin and the single Wayne Thiebaud "Candy Counter". You can see most (all?) of the works at anderson.stanford.edu .

The LA Times ran a piece on the Andersons: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ca-hunk-moo-stanford-anderson-collection-20140713-story.html .

Baltimore Museums, overall rating: 7/10

American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM): Interesting but smallish.  Steep entrance fee IMO (first weekend of the month, having a BofA card is helpful).  Black Icarus is quite nice.  Many mechanical devices in the sculpture building were broken (probably from all the use), but those that did work were fascinating.  A crafts fair had popped up there. Right next to a good view of Inner Harbor from Federal Hill.  Rating: 6/10

Walters: Some nice paintings and fine (well proportioned) greek sculptures.  Bonus: it's free.  Rating: 8/10

Baltimore Museum of Art: More nice paintings than Walters including Impressionists. Matisse's Blue Nude was out on loan, but this place is also free.  Rating: 8/10

Fort McHenry: A museum/historical site about war of 1812 and origins of the Key's Star-Spangled Banner anthem. I'm sorry to say, I didn't get the fever. Despite being on the water, the site isn't picturesque. Getting there and back was easy enough by bus. But I didn't find seeing inside the ramparts worth the time and $7 NPS entrance fee.  Rating: 5/10

Baltimore has a free purple line 'Charm' bus service which goes up and down Charles Street from Inner Harbor all the way up to Penn Station (as well as lines in other directions), and the visitor center at Inner Harbor is spacious and welcoming.

San Diego Museums, overall rating: 4/10

Museum of Photographic Arts: wildly overrated in tour books, small, uninteresting

Timken Museum of Art: can't complain too much about free, but small, has a few very slightly above average paintings, weird old building

San Diego Museum of Art: better than above (not saying much); medium sized with some good paintings

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and La Jolla: rotating exhibitions; downtown was better with very interesting Isaac Julien and Ai Wei Wei pieces (downtown rating: 6/10)

CJM: Reclaimed paintings of Jacques Goudstikker, rating: 6/10

When the Jewish art dealer from Amsterdam (Heerengracht 458) attempted to flee the country, he died in a tragic accident, though his wife survived. His collection of 1400 works left behind in Amsterdam was looted by the Nazis. "In February 2006, Goudstikker’s family successfully reclaimed 200 artworks from the Dutch government in one of the largest restitutions of Nazi-looted art." It doesn't seem like there are 200 items in the Contemporary Jewish Museum exhibition, but what's there gives an idea of the high quality of the original collection.

Legion of Honor: Japanesque: the Japanese print... Impressionism, rating: 6/10

Hiroshige and Hokusai created well known and loved wood block prints mostly of landscapes in Japan, including many of Mt Fuji. Many Western artists took this art as inspiration. The exhibition shows a number of striking examples of this.

I never noticed this before, but the Legion of Honor has a number of good Dutch paintings, though the early Rembrandt has his stylistic touch, it lacks the aesthetic beauty of the Rembrandt paintings in the Rijksmuseum. Perhaps it's just the model.

De Young Museum: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Orsay, rating: 7/10

Viewing this exhibition and Birth of Impressionism which preceded it, you could almost skip a trip to Paris and the Orsay. Still the Orsay has some wonderful Van Goghs which are not here. In addition, you can take photographs in the Orsay, but as is the custom for temporary exhibitions, you may not take photographs in the De Young. Nevertheless, there are in fact some lesser paintings you might not have seen or noticed at the Orsay which are here. Rating considers that even advance admission is relatively expensive at $20.

Musee D'Orsay, Paris, rating: 9/10

The best museum in Paris. Unbelievable room after room of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings are the highlight. I went twice while I was in Paris, and it was still worth it to me (which is actually saying something, I think).

Photos: Allowed
Admission: Expensive, but worth it

Calder to Warhol: Fisher Collection at SFMOMA, rating: 7/10

GAP founders collection has some of the best Calder mobiles I've seen. The collection also has an affecting triptych by Warhol of Jackie Kennedy depicting her beaming happiness to immense sadness. And there's a huge Lichtenstein painting with a disembodied woman.

Concurrently SFMOMA is having its 75th anniversary show which also has some cool stuff.

Photos: Not allowed
Admission: Expensive, but worth going on the free day

SFMOMA: Avedon and Adams/O'Keefe

You might think Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe would be more exciting than Richard Avedon. You'd be wrong. I'd seen Avedon's American West at the Cantor (Stanford) exhibit a few years ago, and I knew he was good. But the SF MOMA exhibit has those as well as some photos from other times and with famous people, including Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Truman Capote, and an ensemble portrait of Andy Warhol and Members of the Factory. As it happens some guys are nude in that last one. There's also the photo of Twiggy with the massive and awesome hair all in the air. The photos are all from large format film and large prints.

If your strapped for time, I'd almost skip the Adams and O'Keefe which wasn't terribly new and was horribly crowded.

California Academy of Sciences, GG Park

It's a natural history museum, but there are no dinosaur bones. Instead the highlights are the aquarium with unusual fish and plants, the exuberant penguins, the fancy and amazing six-projector planetarium, and the green roof.

PS1 Contemporary Art Museum, Queens

One subway stop from Manhattan, the PS1 museum is easily accessible, inexpensive (get a free admission on the back of your MoMA admission), and stimulating. The recent Scandinavian modern art exhibition is unique and diverting, especially the white rabbits and the video of the lasso guy. The huge mirror by Eliasson is amazing in its ability to change your perspective. And check out in almost "The Matrix" bullet time fashion the 360 degrees of weapons from the perspective of the attacker (what a power trip!) and the victim.

I regret having missed the other Eliasson exhibits -- notably those with water. I was only able to see photos of them in a book at the store.

Oriental Institute / Smart Museum at University of Chicago

Here 'Oriental' refers to the Middle East, and I think it is one of the best collections of such art in the US. The other University of Chicago museum is the Smart Museum which houses more modern Western art is smallish and a little less impressive (though the kid at the desk was super nice).

Art Institute of Chicago

One of the best big metropolitan museums in the country especially for paintings. Maybe even better than the Met for paintings.

[Temp location: Howard Street] California Academy of Sciences / Steinhart Aquarium

This natural history museum is currently shoehorned into a tiny space next to Moscone center. Most of the current exhibits are of fish, snakes, turtles, frogs or lizards. The tropical fish tanks with coral are amazing and beautiful. There's a tank with a huge bass, probably magnified significantly by the special aquarium glass, but still quite impressive. In all, it's quite surprisingly entertaining, but only good for about an hour or so.

Will be curious to see the transformation when it moves back to permanent (LEEDS platinum) digs in Golden Gate park, but that's in 2010 Sep 2008!

A review of the new French museum of architecture

NYT Sarkozy opens the new museum which is across the river from the Eiffel Tower.

Crocker Museum, Sacramento

Judge Crocker was one of the big four Sacramento businessmen and railroad magnates. Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker, and Huntington are all depicted in paintings in the large main salon. Crocker is the one with the unconventional facial hair: a long pointy beard of all white hair without a mustache. It makes him look like a KKK member, but anyway...

The main salon is where more than 100 paintings are stacked floor to ceiling on all four walls. Thankfully for my neck there are no paintings on the ceiling. While this method of presentation does allow density of paintings, it does make the upper paintings very difficult to see. And paradoxically, they seem to have placed the smaller paintings up there. The reason might be that the larger paintings are more famous and well known, and it makes even less sense to have them put way up and out of the way.

Overall the museum is in much need for the expansion -- which is planned to be complete in 2010 -- to make room for more of the collection which seems reasonably good, although judging on the samples on view Crocker's partner Stanford clearly has a much more varied and higher quality collection at the Stanford University campus.