Friday, November 06, 2015

In California


Andy and I spent our first day in San Francisco by going over to the DeYoung museum for a lovely big exhibit JEWEL CITY: ART FROM SAN FRANCISCO'S PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION.  The original exhibit essentially covered covered the waterfront here in SF.  All the art wonderful stuff, mostly American, including a little Homer, Aikens, Sargent , a lot of surprises-- art photography  (Imogen Cunningham's diaphanous naked ladies!) some french, and I don't think I'd really realized that Impressionism was the establishment art of the moment. There was also a little “new” stuff that seemed to be more shocking themes and bright colors than anything else, then, at the very end, a lot of Futurism that made it late to the museum after being seized in Europe due to the war. I especially liked colorful explosive stuff from Umberto Boccioni who died at 33, but was very forceful and influential.  I never had much interest in futurism, but his pieces were alive and wildly dynamic. 
There was also an exhibit of Hawaiian capes made of woven feathers, yellow and red, and of more interest to me now that I've had my little one book excursion into the cultures of Polynesia. Andy was struck by how a young king and queen went to England and promptly died of the measles.
Also, the De Young I always forget has that great slash through the middle of a narrow strip of green house that you see from various points on the floors. And in the entryway the big stone chunks with cracks running through a floor of stone tiles.

Afterward, I enjoyed the forty four bus where we had to stand and got tossed around a lot as we swung around the curves of Glen Canyon.  People were largely Chinese elders plus some Chinese and other mothers and kids and a few teens.  Lunch at a Vietnamese Pho place, small but enjoyed. Coffee back in Glen Park, Joel and Sarah for dinner, local Italian place, delicious house ravioli with a really good light orange tomato sauce.
And so to bed.

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