The Art of Lee Miller at SFMOMA

An epitome of femininity, a gorgeous model, a classic muse to so many artists, Miller herself was art. Behind the softness of her angelic looks there was a dark side, a conflict, a puzzle, a disquieting push for more exploration of self—never simple, never calm. Driven by her powerful creativity, she decided she wanted to take pictures rather than to be in them. Her brilliant intellect, her sardonic wit made her a straight-shooter reporter. Whatever was her subject matter, she was exploring unflinchingly, with a steady hand and a cool eye of a photographic surgeon. Her inner strength helped figure out the circumstances of her reality—provincial childhood, Parisian art world, New York, the battlefields of WWII—with her, always in the whirl of the events, always looking into the eye of the storm. Miller’s most striking images, like those taken in concentration camps in Germany after the liberation, and her courageous writings on the subject, heavily edited in her time, can be seen in an all-encompassing catalogue by Mark Haworth-Booth, a curator for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who dedicated this show to Miller’s 100th anniversary. As Miller herself put it, only a poet can make a poem. In her life, there was always a quest for true love, in her art, there was always high poetry. “The Art of Lee Miller” is on view at SFMOMA, 151 Third St., San Francisco, through September 14. For more information, call 415-357-4000, or visit www.sfmoma.org