The second season of the popular Poetry Series at the de Young Museum begins on Friday, September 7, as part of the Museum's dynamic array of Friday evening programming. In partnership with Epicenter: Arts, this unique series features readings and book signings from an impressive lineup of U.S. and international poets. Paul Hoover, poet, editor and professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University, curates the series.

The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend is the first major retrospective in America in more than two decades to examine the work of one of the towering figures of postwar American art. Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) was known for her monumental sculptures and her practice of constructing them from found wood. Her autobiographical works symbolically address issues of marriage, motherhood, death, Jewish culture, memory and (although she resisted the label) feminism.

The de Young Museum presents an exhibition of the work of Peter Max in conjunction with the community celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. The exhibition features fifty works by Max, including three color screenprints from the Fine Arts Museums’ Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts.

Over the years, renowned Santa Fe collector Sandy Besser has assembled a number of collections that transcend the traditional barrier between art and craft. This fall, from October 27, 2007 to January 13, 2008, the de Young Museum showcases the best of three of his collections: teapots, African beadwork, and contemporary drawings.

Enrico Donati (b.1909) is the last living Surrealist artist closely associated with the movement’s acknowledged leader, André Breton. Donati was a key figure in the community of European expatriate artists in World War II-era New York.

This summer at the Legion of Honor, where the classic can always be found, works on paper by artists from Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn to Wayne Thiebaud represent a decade of collecting, and master sculptors Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore are highlighted in special installations.

The style of Nan Kempner-noted fashion icon, couture connoisseur, San Francisco native, and member of The Best Dressed List's Hall of Fame-will be shown at the de Young Museum this summer. Kempner (1930-2005) started collecting couture clothing 50 years ago when she was a young woman living in San Francisco.