2015. The year that was in art.

http://www.examiner.com/article/2015-the-year-that-was-art?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Raphael's 'Lady with a Unicorn' comes to SF's Legion of Honor in January

In his "Lives of the Artists," Renaissance writer Vasari declared that Heaven had bestowed upon Raphael the “infinite riches of her treasure.. of modesty, grace and talent.” His work personified the Renaissance ideals of clarity, order and balance.

Viewers will have a chance to decide for themselves when “Lady with a Unicorn." a one-painting exhibit opens at theLegion of Honor in January 2016. The work comes to us via the Cincinnati Art Museum and marks the very first timeRaphael’s “Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” has visited the United States, itself a reason for celebration.

http://www.examiner.com/article/raphael-s-lady-with-a-unicorn-opens-at-sf-s-legion-of-honor-january

'Sunrise' and 'Time Tunnel' at the Chnese Culture Foundation

“Sunrise." by the Chinese Culture Foundation, is a project which takes the mundane pedestrian bridge from the Chinatown Hilton to Portsmouth Square and elevates it to a vision for Chinatown’s future. The bridge was built as a compromise for the 27-story hotel tower blocking sunlight to the square known by many as Chinatown’s living room. 

 More at: http://www.examiner.com/article/sunrise-and-time-tunnel-at-the-chinese-culture-foundation

Bay Area Art and holiday events for Dec 9-12

Watercolor by Nancy Ewart

Art Explosion, Man Candy, MoAD and an Irish painter. Plus SANTA CON!

http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area-art-and-holiday-events-for-dec-9-12?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Closing events for the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific Expo

Throughout 2015, the PPIE100, a citywide consortium of cultural, civic, and historical organizations, has conducted centennial programs to commemorate the PPIE’s historical significance and to reflect on its legacy. Yet, even as the city celebrates the triumphs of 1915, "The Palace of Fine Arts", the sole surviving building from the PPIE and Bernard Maybeck’s masterpiece, is slated to be turned over to private development companies who have proposed a host of money making ventures including a hotel, a restaurant, a gym and a spa. The rotunda, the columns, the temple in the lagoon and a performing art space are to be preserved. But the three final plans all incorporate commercial venues like hotels and restaurants, which will bring hundreds more cars into the already congested location.

A local group, calling itself “Save the Palace of Fine Arts” has already collected 20,000+ signatures calling on the San Francisco Department of Parks and Recreation to use the space exclusively as a cultural and educational center. They face powerful opposition but, as in 1915, it’s not wise to underestimate the love that San Franciscan’s have for their city and their willingness to fight to preserve the legacy of the past.

On Friday, December 4, 2015. celebrate the final night of the Ferry Building's bright '1915" neon sign in honor of the centennial. The lights will go out on December 4, 2015, the same day the fair closed a century ago, and the Ferry Building will be restored to its 21st Century appearance

 More on the closing events here: http://www.examiner.com/article/closing-events-for-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-panama-pacific-expo?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Happy Birthday William Blake

Celebrate Blake's birthday by visiting "Luminous Worlds.." at the Legion of Honor. The show closes tomorrow so this may be your last chance in a long time to see these exquisite works on paper.

http://www.examiner.com/article/luminous-worlds-british-works-on-paper-1760-1900-at-the-legion-of-honor

In his lifetime, William Blake sold fewer than thirty copies of "Songs of Innocence and Experience."

‘Satan Watching the Caresses of Adam and Eve’; watercolor by William Blake for John Milton’s Paradise Lost, 1808

Born: November 28, 1757, Soho, London, United Kingdom
Died: August 12, 1827, Westminster, United Kingdom

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
William Blake Archive: http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/

Selling off the Palace of Fine Arts to the highest bidder

The lyrics “They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot” could be applied San Francisco’s Park and Recreation’s top proposals for what to do with San Francisco’s Iconic Palace of Fine Arts. It could have provided the sound track for today's meeting at San Francisco city hall.

Widely considered the most beautiful structure at the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, the Palace of Fine Arts — housing art from Renaissance to Modern — was the work of California architect Bernard Maybeck. Maybeck’s fantastic creation, inspired by a Piranesi engraving, featured a Roman ruin reflected in a pool. According to Maybeck, this ruin existed not for its own sake but to show “the mortality of grandeur and the vanity of human wishes.” Like other features of the fair, the Palace was intended as ephemeral; at the close of the exposition, it would come down.

But the Palace survived, thanks to the Palace Preservation League, founded by Phoebe Apperson Hearst while the fair was still in progress. By 1964, the Palace had deteriorated badly and the Rotunda and Colonnades were rebuilt, thanks to the generosity of Walter Sl. Johnson

The Palace as a public space is again hanging on by its fingernails. How do the word “privatize” and “monetize” sound to you? From the incessant talk of needing money, you’d think that SF was a poor city, instead of a wealthy one, full of those who can afford 5 million dollar condos with an equally expensive life style. In 1915, the city was able to raise 4 million dollars in a matter of hours. Are our current city masters so poor that they can’t raise the 2015 equivalent?

Unless you knew in advance or were able to dig down through the morass of official documents, you would never know that the two top contenders for the contract to preserve the iconic building have included “lodging” as an important part of their proposals.  They and their supporters didn’t mention that little fact in the meeting at City Hall on November 19, 2015.

The proposals, found on this website make it clear that both organizations plan to monetize the site to the max. The two top contenders, Maybeck Center at the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Palace of Fine Arts -San Francisco Arts, Crafts , Community and Hospitality include a host of money making ventures in their proposals including private gyms, spas and "lodging."

The top three proposals, based on their cumulative scores across six categories, are outlined below. The scoring criteria are public access, financial, compatibility with the Palace and the neighborhood, proposed use, public impact and public input:

1. The Maybeck Center at the Palace of Fine Arts: "A mix of recreational uses, including meeting and event facilities, restaurants, historic displays and a “small-scale, world-class hotel.”

2. Palace of Fine Arts-San Francisco Arts, Crafts, Community and Hospitality: A renovated public concourse and Exhibition Hall, “that embraces the history, arts, products, crafts and culture of San Francisco,” along with 175 guest rooms across two new mezzanine levels.

The third ranking proposal, perhaps the least overtly commercial from The San Francisco Museum At The Palace (SFMAP), includes a "A publicly accessible museum and great hall, with a renovated Palace of Fine Arts Theater and “a destination fine dining restaurant.”

Well, I guess that visitors to San Francisco have to eat somewhere. Gas, food and lodging anyone?

At a Parks and Recreation meeting last month, Julie Mushet, The Executive Director of The Center for Global Arts and Cultures, the non-profit that hosts of the annual Ethnic Dance Festival, made a proposal for a multi-cultural arts center.  She made another plea today, back up by speeches by Robert Cole, the former director of Cal Performances, Berkeley. However, unless the issue of a 20 million dollar (and rising) purse is answered, it doesn’t look like she has much chance.

One of the speakers pointed out that a petition not to monetize the site and not to build a hotel had received 20,000 signatures in less than two weeks.

She added that the community will support would support this venture and that the city certainly should, given the amount of money that must be flowing into their coffers these days. She also added – and this seemed to be the feeling of many in the crowd – that San Francisco’s citizens were not interested in seeing another arts organization disappear from the city or become a piggy bank for city hall.

If yet another proposal to sell parts of San Francisco to the highest bidder is the best that city hall can do, maybe we should scrap their decisions and start all over as this petition on Change-Org makes clear. "None of those proposals preserve the site as the important cultural/educational center San Franciscans have known it to be, nor do they keep it a community space that is open and available to ALL people. Once again, our officials are preparing to sell out from under us another piece of San Fransisco heritage, a heritage that belongs solely to the citizens of this City and to those who share a love for it . We demand that the Palace of Fine Arts be developed ONLY as a cultural/educational center."

The winner of the redevelopment bid will score a 55-year lease to the historic San Francisco arts center. What a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, by selling off another part of SF's soul. The facade may remain but the heart will be gone.

http://www.examiner.com/article/selling-off-sf-s-iconic-palace-of-fine-arts-to-the-highest-bidder

Willard Worton 'Portals of the Past' at the de Young

 Tower of Jewels, 1915

For those who love the PPIE and the glory of that era, this exhibit is a must see. Photos range from 1904 through 1915; this man was a photographic genius and I have to say that I like his photos better than the more crisp modern black and white.

My main criticism of the exhibit is that the curator didn't seem to realize how photographers like Wooden were influenced by Stieglitz's early romantic photography. I felt that a some of the photos were a direct homage to Stieglitz. But that's a minor quibble. The whole PPIE exhibit is fantastic but this gives us a look at the SF that was - and alas, is no more: 

http://www.examiner.com/article/willard-worton-s-portals-of-the-past-at-the-de-young?CID=examiner_alerts_article

'Looking East: How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh, and Other Western Artists' at the Asian Art Museum

Japanese portrayal of Commodore Matthew Perry’s gunship in Edo Harbor, 1853, block print, artist unknown

In 1853, Commander Perry famously forced Japan to end two centuries of self-imposed isolation and sign treaties opening its ports to trade with the Western powers. As Japanese prints, albums, and objects began to arrive in Europe and North America in unprecedented quantities, a craze for all things Japanese set in among collectors, artists, and designers.

Full review here: http://www.examiner.com/article/how-looking-east-inspired-western-artists?CID=examiner_alerts_article

A page from Random Sketches by Hokusai (Hokusai manga)

Whether it was used to pad a crate of porcelain is unproven, but it is certain that one of the fifteen volumes of "Random Sketches" by Hokusai (Hokusai manga) was in the possession of the well-known Paris-based printer Auguste Delâtre, who had it at his workshop by 1856. That year he showed it to the artist Félix Bracquemond, who was impressed enough to try to buy the book. Delâtre refused to sell and continued to show it to other artists for whom he printed.

 A year later Bracquemond purchased another copy for himself and, in addition to immediately incorporating some of Hokusai’s motifs in his own work, shared the images in the book with many of the artists in his circle, including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Whistler.

(left) Mary Cassatt, Woman Bathing, 1890–1891, color aquatint and drypoint; (right) Utagawa Hiroshige, Kinryuzan Temple in Asakusa, from the series, One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo (1856), color woodcut with ‘lacquer’ and embossing.

 Not long after, Japanese books and prints were much more easily found and obtained in Paris. Shortly after that, by the late 1850’smore , Western artists were discovering Japanese art and incorporating it into their work. The first discoveries led to admiration, then imitation, then innovation, then a true synthesis.

Known by the French term japonisme, the phenomenon created a radical shift in Western taste toward Japanese aesthetic principles. Japonisme played a prominent role in the major movements of Western art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, among them Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau, and influenced everything from architecture and furniture to book illustration and painting.

San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum surveys this sweeping development in the traveling exhibition "Looking East: How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh, and Other Western Artists.”  This in-depth and richly rewarding traveling show is a loan from the Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, which drew on its incredible collection of Asian art.

Comprised of more than 170 art works, the exhibit is organized into four themes: women, city life, nature and landscape. Within each theme, artworks from Japan are paired with American or European works to represent the West’s assimilation of new thematic and formal approaches. The Asian has also thoughtfully provided a complete time line of the transmission of art from East to West for those seeking a deeper understanding of this complex topic.

Carp banners in Kyoto, 1888, by Louis Dumoulin

The first works in the show make it very clear that while Western artists may have admired Japanese prints, they didn’t have a clue as to how to go about assimilating the work into existing styles. The elegance of simplicity, open space, irregular forms, the use of natural materials - in fact, the real essence of Japanese art went right over the heads by a number of the Western artists represented in the opening section of the exhibit. Louis Dumoulin’s “Carp banners in Kyoto (1888) is a heavy, heavily painted work not lightened up by the carp banners floating in the typical western 3-dimensional treatment of space.

Or, for instance, this inkwell by French artist Legrand which is described as, "Silver, partially gilded, decorated in champlevé, basse-taille, and cloisonné enamels, with cut out base supported on four cast turtles, enameled with geometric patterns, naturalistic scenes, and facsimile prints surrounding a sea with carp. Fitted with a drawer etched and parcel-gilt in three colors. Base supports four shaped letter racks in geometric patterns flanked by two rolling blotters topped with "shi-shi" dogs holding brocade balls. Removable central section has a vase-shaped pen holder decorated with female figures, plants, and field mice in kimonos, flanked by nesting boxes enameled in landscape and geometric motifs. Removable lids topped by a beetle and a wasp in gold and basse-taille enamel." Did they leave anything out?

Most of the decorative objects in the show have this same kind of over the top use of Japanese patterned design with the Victorian love of “more is better and even more is better yet.”

 Not all of the pairings work in terms of art-to-art direct inspiration - Mary Cassatt’s lovely painting of a mother and child owes as much to centuries of depictions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus as it does to Japanese prints of mothers and children. Van Gogh is known to have copied Japanese prints and even used their images in his work but his portrait of "Postman Joseph Roulin" is not an homage to Japanese art but pure, unadulterated Van Gogh. The section on women has more than its share of courtesans, both east and west. Both Japan's licensed pleasure quarters and 19th century European brothels and streetwalkers presented a lot of inspiration for those interested.

Where Western artists begin to integrate Japanese art into their own work is first apparent in the section on prints - Toulouse Lautrec’s “Little Casino” with it’s dancing figure separated by a diagonal block of black against white and Degas’ romping horses show the direct but integrated influence of Japanese prints.

In the print "Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery," Degas made use of several features that are unmistakably borrowed from Japanese prints by Harunobu, Utamaro, and Hokusai. Compositions with two figures, one standing and one sitting or kneeling, are common in Japanese prints. So is the geometric division of the background that, in Degas’ print, is created by a series of vertical and diagonal lines that render the room abstract. Perhaps the most obvious borrowing is the standing figure who leans on an umbrella; Degas took this directly from a sketch of a woman with a rearing horse in a volume of "Random Sketches by Hokusai," a book he would have studied for its depiction of the spontaneous, natural positions of figures, particularly women.

Where Western artists come into their own with an utterly unique synthesis of a multitude of influences is in the last gallery. The two Monet’s in the show are the best the city has seen in quite some time. Monet’s “Water Lily Pond”  with Its humpback footbridge arching over light-reflecting water is similar to the one seen in Hiroshige’s "Bamboo Yards, Kyôbashi Bridge." “Haystack” may owe their off center design to Japanese art but the impasto color and sheer beauty are again neither East nor West but solely Monet's own. Gauguin’s “Landscape with Two Breton Women”  uses  a Japanese influenced flat perspective but the bold, symbolic colors and symbolism are his unique hallmark, prefiguring his work in Tahiti. “I have never seen anything as beautiful as a tree” would be the theme song in the last gallery, where everyone from Munch to Gauguin to Behrens seem to be inspired by the vertical tree-trunk rhythms in one of Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.”

It’s really immaterial if all the Western artists in the show were directly influenced by Japanese art. Enough were to create an innovative synthesis between east and west. Plan to spend a delightful day to take it all in. While the big names in Western artist such as Van Gogh and Monet are what most of us know, the lesser known artists and the wealth of Japanese art offers a wider, deeper and equally insightful perspective.

"Looking East" will be on view from Oct. 30, 2015–Feb. 7, 2016 with the exhibition's final weeks marking the start of the museum's 50th anniversary year in 2016.

Happy Birthday Chardin

Happy birthday to 18-century French artist Jean-Siméon Chardin. See Self-Portrait with a Visor in Gallery 216A.

'Looking East' at the Asian Art Museum

From the subtle to the exuberantly gaudy.. so much wonderful work that you will need several visits to take it all in. A real review to come...

From the MFA Collections Catalog:

"Silver, partially gilded, decorated in champlevé, basse-taille, and cloisonné enamels, with cut out base supported on four cast turtles, enameled with geometric patterns, naturalistic scenes, and facsimile prints surrounding a sea with carp. Fitted with a drawer etched and parcel-gilt in three colors. Base supports four shaped letter racks in geometric patterns flanked by two rolling blotters topped with "shi-shi" dogs holding brocade balls. Removable central section has a vase-shaped pen holder decorated with female figures, plants, and field mice in kimonos, flanked by nesting boxes enameled in landscape and geometric motifs. Removable lids topped by a beetle and a wasp in gold and basse-taille enamel." Did they leave anything out? I don't think so, but I admire the Parisian exuberance here!

Art from San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Expo

One of the few images from the original show, showing the salon style of hanging which was popular at the time.

Review of the show here: http://www.examiner.com/article/art-from-sf-s-panama-pacific-international-exposition-revisited?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Edwin Deakin (American, b. England, 1838–1923), “Palace of Fine

Arts and the Lagoon,” ca. 1915. Oil on canvas. 32 3/8 × 48 3/8 in.

Crocker Art Museum

E. Charlton Fortune, The Four Seasons),” ca. 1915. Oil on canvas. 16 1/4 × 20 in.

Moonlight (Panama Pacific International Exposition),” ca. 1915. Soft- ground etching in color. 6 7/8 x 4 3/4 in. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Benjamin Chambers Brown (American, 1865-1942), “Art Palace, Reflections (Panama Pacific International Exposition),” ca. 1915. Soft-ground etching in color. 6 7/8x 4 7/8 in. Fine Arts Museums 

Bruce Nelson (American, 1888–1952), “The Summer Sea,” ca. 1914. Oil on canvas. 30 × 40 in. Irvine Museum, California

Cecilia Beaux (American, 1855 –1942), “Man with the Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker),” 1898. Oil on canvas. 48 × 34 5/8 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design

Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852–1911), “The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester,” 1900. Oil on canvas. 49 × 85 in. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Francis McComas (America, b. Australia, 1874-1938), “Navajo

Gateway, Arizona,” 1914. Watercolor. 26 3⁄4 x 21 1/16 in. Fine Arts

Museums of San Francisco, museum purchase, Skae Fund Legacy

John Singer Sargent (American, b. Italy, 1856–1925), “The Sketchers,” 1913. Oil on canvas. 22 × 28 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund

"Covert Operations' at the San Jose Museum of Art

Snowden and Manning’s revelations, NASA spying on citizens, the Chinese spying on Ai Weiwei, the Russians killing one of their spies by radioactive poisoning- at times, it seems like half the world is spying on the other half. Understanding our post 9/11 world is difficult enough; the artists in “Covert Operations: Investigating the Known Unknown” at the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA) are attempting to present the more disturbing facets of our 'Brave New World" via multimedia. The exhibition’s conceptual themes include secrecy and disclosure, violence, power, subterfuge, surveillance, territory, geography and the visible versus the hidden. Subjects range from classified military sites and reconnaissance satellites to border and immigration surveillance, terrorist profiling to narcotics and human trafficking, illegal extradition flights to nuclear weapons.

The title of the exhibition was inspired by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s response to a question at a 2002 news conference about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” Rumsfeld’s insight into our post-9/11 landscape illustrates the logic behind the phrase “war on terror." Luckily, the artists here are free to use our democratic freedoms to bear witness to the attacks on liberty and abuses of power.

More at: http://www.examiner.com/article/covert-operations-investigating-the-known-unknown-at-the-sjma?CID=examiner_alerts_article

images courtesy of the SJMA/various artists

A second look at "First Look" at the Asian

In August 2015, the Asian Art Museum launched its second summer exhibition of works from its recent contemporary art collection. The exhibition featured highlights and recent acquisitions in the Museum’s expanding contemporary art collection. Running until 11 October, the show marks the second time in 2015 that the Asian Art Museum is mounting a major display of contemporary art from its collection. The museum boasts a 180,000 strong collection, 1,100 of which are Asian contemporary artworks acquired in the past 15 years.

Allison Harding was the Guest Curator at the Asian Art Museum and the one who organized “First Look”. As she explained to the press:

"To truly understand the contemporary, you must understand the tradition from which it emerged. “First Look” embodies how tradition can inspire new works in the present and continue to impact contemporary life.”

The Asian Art Museum is not new to contemporary art exhibitions. The Museum has already held “28 Chinese” this summer, presenting 48 works by 28 Chinese artists organized by Miami’s Rubell Collection. Over the past 15 years, the Asian Art Museum has made a concentrated effort to include contemporary art in its exhibitions and acquisitions. They have organized two major contemporary art exhibitions – “Phantoms of Asia” (2012) and “Gorgeous” (2014) and number of exhibitions and installations including “Proximities” (2014), “Tetsuya Ishida: Saving the World with a Brushstroke” (2014-2015) and “Sanaz Mazinani: Threshold” (2015).

Many of the pieces, as skillful as they are, could be done by anybody, anywhere. For me, Asian art has such a magnificent past; I don't want to see that past thrown away for a generic modern "future." The best artists - well, those whose work I liked - combined cultural traditions with work that will prove timeless.

The Night of Perpetual Day, 2013
By Yang Yongliang (Chinese, b. 1980)
Four-channel HD video with sound, 8:32 min.
Acquisition made possible by Gorretti and Lawrence Lui, with additional funding from Richard Beleson, 2014.14

"The Night of Perpetual Day" combines Chinese painting traditions with new media techniques to construct an animated landscape exploring China’s rapid urban development. The artist’s process begins in the city, where he photographs the development of contemporary China that surrounds him. His images document the tensions of urbanization: progress and destruction, the grayness of the metropolis and the beauty of nature. He then digitally collages different photographs together and animates them to construct a landscape simultaneously futuristic and historic,
Interview with the artist at the Guardian. 

Vase, 1985
By Kim Yik-yung (Korean, b. 1935)
Porcelain with clear glaze
Gift of Dr. Phyllis A. Kempner and Dr. David D. Stein, 2015.22

Kim Yik-yung’s ceramics emphasize the whiteness of porcelain clay and the aesthetics of modern forms, overlapping the traditional and the contemporary. While studying in New York in the early 1960s, Kim went to a lecture by the influential British ceramic artist and teacher Bernard Leach and heard him say one should learn everything about ceramic art by studying Korea’s Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) whiteware ceramics. Since then, her goal has been to create unembellished porcelain forms with innovative surface treatments that convey the sense of serenity characteristic of traditional Korean ceramics.

My UFO by Yako Hoda

 At age sixteen Yako Hodo began six years of apprenticeship with three different bamboo masters before becoming an independent artist. Making only one or two exhibition pieces each year, he won numerous awards for his bamboo work, which transforms the strength and resiliency of bamboo into energetic, sculptural compositions. While "Wave Crest" and "Forest" suggest the beauty and movement of natural forms, "My UFO" offers the artist’s view of more alien terrain. 

Ended Season by Zheng Chongbin. Ink and acrylic on Xuan paper.

Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area 2015

Not able to go to China? Putting off that trip to Mongolia? Not to worry – for one activity and art packed week, Asia comes to the Bay Area.

Starting October 2nd through October 10, the week brings together Asian art dealers, auction houses, cultural institutions and academia, uniting the diverse participants around the theme of “Asian Art in the Contemporary World.”

The week begins with a Chinatown Art walk. Led by the Chinese Culture Foundation, the walk takes visitors through a history of Chinatown’s struggle to control its image and voice. The artwork seen on this guided tour features significant events in history such as the I-Hotel and also symbols of cultural pride

 Qui Deshu. Fissure - Gathered Colors, 2009

In the afternoon, NanHai Art is sponsoring a two-part symposium on “Asian Art in the Contemporary World.  The first panel is titled “Innovation and Continuity: Art Across Asia Now, the symposium will survey major  trends in contemporary Asian Art.  The second panel focuses on art from marketing and collecting perspectives. The gallery is also showing the work of Qui Deshu, whose work combines a traditional Chinese aesthetic along with a modern perspective.

In between, the visitor can view the current exhibit at the Asian Art Museum “First Look an exhibition featuring highlights and recent acquisitions in the Museum’s expanding contemporary art collection. Running until 11 October, the show marks the second time in 2015 that the Asian Art Museum is mounting a major display of contemporary art from its collection. Allison Harding,  the Guest Curator organized “First Look”.  She explained “To truly understand the contemporary, you must understand the tradition from which it emerged. “First Look” embodies how tradition can inspire new works in the present and continue to impact contemporary life.”

In Berkeley, California, you will find The Mongolia Foundation presenting an exhibition of three leading Mongolian women artists. Munkhtsetseg Jalkhaajav, also known as Mugi, currently has her works on show at the 56th Venice Biennale 2015. She creates oil paintings, collage, bronze and fabric sculptures, with themes of healing and nature. In contrast, Nomin Bold uses a traditional painting style known as Mongol Zurag, while Tugs-Oyun Sodnom is one of the earliest female oil painters in Mongolia whose versatility spans oil painting and graphic art.

While at the foundation, head over to the concurrent exhibition “Bay Area Mongolian Artists: Visions from Afar” featuring three artists based in the San Francisco and East Bay regions. One of the artists, Turburam Sandagdorj also known as Turo, uses paper cutting techniques in both large and minuscule installations. His work features characters in Mongolian folk tales and the world of fantasy. The Institute for East Asian Studies at  UC Berkeley is presenting "Auspicious Images to Feminist Critiques: The Evolution of Mithila Painting in Rural India. "

The week culminates with the opening party with San Francisco’s Open Studios, the city’s biggest art event of the year SF Open Studios is the oldest and largest open studios program in the country, featuring an annual, month-long art event in October and November that showcases over 800 emerging and established San Francisco artists in their studios. We invite you to explore our city and find amazing art at every turn. You’ll discover an authentic connection to your art community and artwork in myriad forms, from painting, photography, and printmaking to glass, metal sculpture, and more. The event connects collectors with artists for engaging dialogue and a glimpse into the life of the working artist; SF Open Studios simultaneously helps artists build their mailing list, gain new admirers, and ultimately sustain a living making art.

The complete schedule and list of participants is here.

Letters to Myself Calligrapher Alan A. Blackman Jewett Gallery SF Main Library

Secreted in the basement of the San Francisco Main Library is the Jewett Gallery, one small plain room that often hosts noteworthy exhibits.  “Letters to Myself” refers to Alan A.Blackman’s collection of postcards to himself with new stamps and first day issued postmarks.    
Over many years, calligrapher Blackman sent money for multiple stamps to the issuing post office, along with a self-addressed post card, with his name and address in varying fonts, colors, and styles drawn in the same theme as the new stamps the post office attached to mail back to him.  

The letters of his name stand on skates for Olympic Stamps, golf balls fly through the air on golf stamps. On bridge stamps, his name is suspended between towers.    

Blackman received first day issue stamps from around the world. The collection also includes letters to his son, to whom the exhibit is dedicated.

The exhibit notes that Blackman no longer lives at any of the addresses on the post cards.

Blackman brought to mind another postal worker in the art world: Herb Vogel   

Posted by Phil Gravitt

New work by Afro-American Indian artist Edmonia Lewis discovered

An important work by the 19th-Century Edmonia Lewis (1842-1907), has come to light. The marble 1870 "Bust of Christ" is in the collection of the Bute family on the Isle of Bute in Scotland.

http://www.examiner.com/article/important-work-by-19th-century-american-sculptor-edmonia-lewis-comes-to-light

'Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby' at CS Northridge

An exhibit honoring Jack Kirby, the most influential and well known comic book artist in America. For almost a decade, Kirby provided Marvel's house style, co-creating with Stan Lee many of the Marvel characters and designing their visual motifs. At Lee's request, he often provided new-to-Marvel artists "breakdown" layouts, over which they would pencil in order to become acquainted with the Marvel look.

More at: http://www.examiner.com/article/comic-book-apocalypse-the-graphic-world-of-jack-kirby-at-cs-northridge

Ancient Greek Bronzes at the Getty in LA

http://www.examiner.com/article/ancient-greek-bronzes-at-the-getty-l-a?CID=examiner_alerts_article