Celebrating Korea at the Asian Art Museum

Shamanic painting of General Choe Yeong (1216-1388)

The Asian Art Museum's Korea Day festival is back on Sep. 25 with presentations by notable musicians, artists, performers and more.

stART tour for Kids
10:30–11 AM
All tours meet at the information desk
Asian Art Museum storytellers share myths and folktales from Korea while exploring objects in the Korean galleries. Recommended for families with children ages 3–6.

The Spirit of Korean Art Docent Tour
11:30 AM–12:15 PM and 2–2:45 PM
All tours meet at the information desk
A museum docent brings the Korean collection to life through a dynamic tour of highlights.

Art-Making Activities
11 AM–4 PM
North Court
Through this hands-on activity, families can create their own designs inspired by mother-of-pearl lacquerware and Korean art and culture. Activities are created and led by the museum’s Art Speak high school interns.


Artist Demonstration with Hwang Samyong and Lee Ikjong
Presentations 12–12:45 and 3:15–4 PM
Demonstration 1:15–3:15 PM
North Court
Mother-of-pearl lacquer artists Hwang Samyong and Lee Ikjong demonstrate the process of working with mother-of-pearl and lacquer using the “cutting up” technique on larger-than-life pebbles. These whimsical artworks are featured in the special exhibition  Mother-of-Pearl Lacquerware from Korea.

Storytelling for Families
1–1:45 PM
All tours meet at the information desk
Asian Art Museum storytellers share myths and folktales from Korea while looking at art in the Korean galleries. Recommended for families with children of all ages.

K-Pop Lounge
1–4 PM
Resource Room
Sit back, listen to K-pop and test your knowledge of the current Korean music scene with a K-pop quiz. How well do you know your K-pop? Share your knowledge and win a prize!

Korean Traditions Transformed Feature Performance with the Wooden Fish Ensemble
2–3:30 PM
Samsung Hall
The Wooden Fish Ensemble plays the music of Hyo-shin Na, including the world premiere of a new work based on A Meadow by Czeslaw Milosz for piano solo. Program includes commentary by Hyo-shin and a short Q&A after the presentation.  


http://www.asianart.org/

Creativity Explored Opening Tonight

Untitled (Pterodactyl) by Peter DeLira © 2016 Creativity Explored Licensing, LLC, chalk pastel on matte board, 40 x 32 inches

Natural History transforms the gallery into a miniature science museum. Don't miss this opportunity to view the natural world as seen through the eyes of Creativity Explored artists!

In this group exhibition, artists explore the fields of astronomy, geology, paleontology, flora, and fauna through painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation.

Curated by Andrew Gilson and Glenn Peckman.

Opening Reception
*
Thursday, September 15, 2016
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Music by El Duo
FREE parking available at Mission Dolores Church until 9:00 pm.

*Win tickets to the California Academy of Sciences!
Submit your contact information during the reception and we will draw four winning names at 8:30 pm. You do not need to be present to win.

Donor Preview*

6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

*To become a donor, click here.

Jill Magrid and the Proposal - now at SFAI

What happens to an artist's legacy after his death?

In his will made prior to his 1988 death at age 86, in Mexico City in 1988, Mexican architect Luis Barragán designated two people to manage his legacy, with his friend and fellow architect Ignacio Díaz Morales to identify an institution for his library. Díaz Morales established the foundation managing the Casa Barragán. Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía which owns (in co-ownership with the Government of the State of Jalisco) Luis Barragán's former private residence in Mexico City: Luis Barragán House and Studio. The house is now a museum which celebrates Barragán and also serves as a conduit between scholars and architects interested in visiting other Barragán buildings in Mexico, including Capilla de las Capuchinas and Casa Prieto López.UNESCO added the Casa Luis Barragán to its World Heritage List in 2004. (Wikipedia)

But a portion of Barragán's estate, his professional papers and the copyright was bought in 1995 by a Swiss furniture executive and have not been made available to the public. Furthermore, Vitra, the Swiss company, claims copyright to all images of Barragán's work, including current photographs of the buildings he designed.

"Researchers have been denied access, and even the use of images of Barragán’s buildings is carefully controlled. Among those who study twentieth-century architecture, the inaccessibility of Barragán’s archive and the bizarre conditions of its custodianship have become almost as much of a preoccupation as his buildings." (New Yorker Magazine). 

After hearing about this, American conceptual artist, Jill Magid, felt this silencing of an artist's legacy was untenable. With the family's permission, Magid exhumed Barragán's ashes and had them made into a two-carat diamond engagement ring.

In The Proposal, now on view at the San Francisco Art Institute, Magid presents Federica Zanco, director of the Barragan Foundation (sans accent), Swiss home of the archive since 1995, with a two-carat diamond engagement ring made from Barragán’s ashes.

Magid asks: Will Zanco accept “the body” of the man in exchange for the return of “the body of work” to Mexico?

The bare bones of the show - two vitrines with various documents, a floral tribute modeled on Mexican Day of the Dead, a film and even the diamond make the viewer reflect on the questions of intellectual copyright, corporate control, even the commodification of an artist's legacy. 

San Francisco Art Institute 
Walter and McBean Galleries 
800 Chestnut Street 
San Francisco, CA 94133
United States 
Hours: Tuesday 11am–7pm,
Wednesday–Saturday 11am–6pm

www.sfai.edu

Marie Van Elder at The Great Highway Gallery

You are crawling through the desert, on hands and knees. The shimmering wave of heat off the sand beckons with the promise of pools of cool water that seem to get further away.

Cut to Lawton and 43^rd Avenue, in the Outer Sunset district of San Francisco.  There you will find a real oasis.  

The Great Highway Gallery is what drew me here, after reading about it in Sam Whiting’s Visual Arts column in the August 25 San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco Artist Anna Conti had a home gallery nearby until she and her husband, photographer David Sumner, moved to the booming art scene in MidTown Reno a year ago.  http://www.bigcrow.com

Great Highway is a small, narrow gallery, with two driftwood benches and a quiet dog/doorman/velvet rope guest curator.  Gallery owner John Lindsey also offers fine art printing and other art and design services.   Great Highway is currently hosting “Ente Fleurs et Mer,” still life and landscape paintings by Marie Van Elder, through September 24.

Next door to the left is Lawton Trading Post, “a community gathering space” offering pop-up events, music, and classes, today being: Summer Preserving: Jamming and Pickling Class with Chef Lisal Moran.

Photo: Fred Pompermayer

To the right of the gallery is Alex Martins Surfboard Repair, “offering high quality ding repair,” and an excellent web site for yoga and surf related links.  Standing out in front, seeing dozens of well used surfboards of many colors and sizes in vertical and horizontal racks, I thought it is an art gallery in its own right.  I pictured James Michener, sitting outside, scribbling an outline for a 600 page book detailing all the beaches where each board had played and plied its trade, plus a few hundred pages of the history and the ancestors of all the board owners. 

Exhausted from such thoughts, I moved right to see the line out the door at the Gallery recommended Andytown Coffee Roasters. One of the employees was sitting outside, eating the last piece (“employee benefit”) of a tasty looking slice of fresh bread choked into submission by a half jar of Nutella.    This little place somehow has FOUR bakers, and they turn out an array of Irish family recipe breads, plus muffins and scones.

For the month of October, The Great Highway Gallery will be the site of ArtSpan SF Open Studios Hub Exhibition, featuring Open Studios artists.

Posted by Phil Gravitt