Please view our San Francisco, California checklist at the end of the article...

The renovated M.H. De Young Memorial Museum debuts in 2005, adding one more notch to a city already overflowing with cultural attractions. Take, for instance, the Asian Art Museum. One of the largest museums on the West Coast devoted to Asian art, it reopened last year to rave reviews. Or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which features the region’s most comprehensive collection of modern and contemporary art. Add to this list the ever-evolving number of art galleries—more than 70 at last count—and you have a destination that offers something for every taste, from commercial to cutting-edge, realist to abstract.

The majority of the galleries are clustered around Union Square, the city’s commercial and cultural hub. Anchored by a park that dates to the 1860s, Union Square encompasses Post, Geary, Stockton, Sutter and Powell streets, as well as Maiden Lane, a two-block stretch that once was home to bordellos. Now the streets are lined with upscale shops and a bevy of galleries.

Begin at 250 Sutter Street, at Hackett-Freedman Gallery. Its fourth-floor space is divided into two parts: contemporary and modern. Its more recent modern half features works by 20th-century and modern masters. Upcoming shows include drawings ($12,000–$35,000) and oils ($125,000–$225,000) by local abstract painter Frank Lobdell. Also in store are Roland Peterson’s oils on canvas ($25,000–$80,000) produced in the 1950s and ’60s. Shows planned for its contemporary division include Manuel Neri’s marble figures ($65,000 for small pieces and $325,000 for new works).

The expansive landscapes of Catalan artist Regina Saura ($10,000–$35,000) recently covered the walls at Caldwell Snyder Gallery, 341 Sutter Street, which also has whimsical fruit sculpture by the duo “Popliteo.” Their bronze “Weathervane,” a stack of cherries on an overturned bucket, is $20,000.

Louis Aronow describes his eponymous gallery at 522 Sutter as a “contemporary gallery steeped in classics.” Here, one can find Murano art glass by Dino Rosin ($4,800–$15,000), architectural renderings by Homero Aguilar ($9,000–$29,000) and surrealistic watercolors on paper by Daniel Merriam ($8,000– $50,000).

Step into John Berggruen Gallery, 228 Grant Avenue, for an extravagant treat: three floors of contemporary and modern art by American and European artists. You might walk out with a Nathan Oliviera work (starting at $15,000 for drawings and $150,000 for recent paintings) or one by Richard Diebenkorn ($40,000 for drawings, with paintings into the millions).