The Bently Reserve conference center in downtown San Francisco launched a partnership with the city’s Museum of Modern Art.
The MOMA is currently closed for an extensive renovation and has much of its art in storage, and the conference center, located in a 1920s-era bank building, was crying out for decoration, according to Peter Pryputniewicz, art director for Bently Enterprises, which manages the space.
“The Bently Reserve has a lot of dark wood paneling and some intriguing architectural elements, so we selected pieces with a bit of a nautical theme,” Pryputniewicz says, explaining how, like many structures near the perimeter of the San Francisco Peninsula, the building stands on landfill that used to be ocean.
Pryputniewicz and his team selected eight modern pieces by Bay Area artists from the MOMA’s collection to be displayed in meeting rooms at the Bently.
The artwork will be swapped out for new pieces every few months. The nautical works range from a painting of ships in a foggy harbor to a close-up view of distressed boat hulls with an emphasis on texture, to a detailed collage of seabirds.
“The art offers some visual relief for people sitting in long meetings,” Pryputniewicz says.
