Asian Art Museum 3: Japanese Design

The Japanese wing is also featuring contemporary works, such as the sculpture by Hoshino Kayoko above...



...a large screen by Okura Jiro above...



...and a 1995 waterfall painting by the New York-based Senju Hiroshi.



And of course the rotating Japanese basket collection demonstrates once again...



...that Japanese design is usually twenty years ahead of the rest of the world.



In the lobby, a museum worker was handing out questionnaires, and one of the questions was whether or not we preferred the museum experience to be lively and filled with people or if we preferred it to be quiet and solitary. Unfortunately for the institution, I much prefer the latter, which doesn't help their bottom line or longtime survival.

Asian Art Museum 2: Korean Minimalism

The beginning of the Korean wing on the second floor looked like a conceptualist exhibition...



...that belonged in a Museum of Modern Art...



...with pieces of blue tape and cheap looking photos on display instead of the usual thousand-year-old muted celadon ceramics.



On the Asian Art Museum blog, cristina explains:
"In preparation for the exhibition Poetry in Clay: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, museum staff have removed all of the permanent collection artwork from the Korean galleries and tucked them away in storage."



A new installation of contemporary Korean art devoted to vases...



...has just been installed in the remaining section of the Korean wing...



...and the mixture of ceramics, drawings and paintings are beautiful and thoughtfully displayed.



A highlight are a series of "Translated Vases" from 2007 made of celadon shards with gold gilt on their edges by Yeesookyung (below).



She also has some large-scale sculptures on the loggia level but there's no special signage so I missed them.

Asian Art Museum 1: Sunday Afternoon

On the way to the Heart of the City Farmers Market last Sunday, I stopped in for a quick tour of the Asian Art Museum's rotating permanent collection to see what was "newly on view."



On the top floor, there's an exhibit of prints by Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1899–1975), who was Pakistan's preeminent 20th century artist.



A Chinese American board member raised in San Francisco once told me that many older Chinese don't like coming to the museum because much of the ancient art feels like it is haunted by spirits. Passing the Philippine burial urns near the elevator always reminds me of the truth of that superstition.



In the Thailand room, one of Doris Duke's recently acquired treasures (above) is newly on view, and it's a stunner...



...as is a collection of Indonesian head dresses...



...and a trio of Tibetan hangings nearby.



The ancient Chinese art room is filled with bronze age objects that look like they are from a different culture and time altogether...



...and some of the vases look like they could be from Native American cultures, which makes the Bering Strait theory of migration from Asia to the Americas all the more persuasive.

Party Tents and Public Mayhem

Tonight's Episode 22 of FotoTales documents the tents going up around Davies Hall and the San Francisco Opera House in anticipation of their opening night parties ten years ago.



Labor Day Weekend 2001 seemed to be full of mayhem, including an argument between the San Francisco Police and the San Francisco Fire Department over who was responsible for a belligerent chronic drunk making a spectacle of himself in the Castro District.



There was also a young man who discovered his stolen bike at Church and Market and who engaged in a public brawl with the thief...



...followed by a car crash at Gough and McAllister that involved a cab and a fire hydrant. You can see it all on Comcast Channel 29 at 7:30 PM or watch it anytime you want online by clicking here.