Culture: A Visit @ de Young Museum, San Francisco

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - San Francisco has at least two gorgeous museums. I reported already about my visit @ the Asian Art Museum (driveby). Last Wednesday my wife an I saw the de Young Museum (deyoung.).  As many other American museums this institution is funded by private money, donated by wealthy persons and families, contrary to the European museums, which are usally public, meaning government owned.

The de Young has a fascinated mixture of more or less classical works with contemporary paintings & sculptures. Above you can see "The Last Civil War Veteran" by Larry Rivers (Oil on canvas, 1961) followed by "Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf (O in Black with Scarf)" by Robert Henri (1910, oil on canvas).


                  The Look Of Cinema

I also enjoyed "Portrait of Orleans" by Edward Hopper (1950, oil on canvas). I believe this painting and other works by the great American master influenced many movie directors and shaped so the look of cinema today. The expressionist "Bathers" by Max Pechstein (1917, oil on canvas) is also an eyecatcher. I want to join them!

"Pierre-Edouard Baranowski" by Amadeo Modigliani (1918, oil on board) is one of most elegant works by the Italian painter.  "The Sonata" by Irving Ramsey Wiles (1889, oil on canvas) enchants by its charm



                   Fiction Replaces Reality

Many of the contemporary paintings in the de Youg collection remind me of my recent class in acrylic painting. Jeffrey Tolbert, our teacher, claims that artists don´t replicate the reality, instead they create a fiction. And he really likes power- and colorful expressionist paintings.

Above this paragraph you can admire "Yellow Lampshade" by Elmer Bischoff (1969,  oil canvas).

"Young Girl" by Joan Brown (1962, enamel on canvas) & "Couple" by David Park (1959, oil on canvas) belong into the same category - orgies of color.

Jeffrey Tolbert admires Bischoff`s & Parks` "direct style of paining with vibrant colors and thick wide brushstrokes!  They have an immediacy with their imagery this quite profound and their figures inhabit wild places!!"

Richard Diebenkorn`s  "Nude on Black and White Stripes" (1962,oil on canvas) & "Berkeley No. 3" (1953, oil on canvas) are more examples of this fascinating school of painting.


            Catastrophes On High Sea


The de Young also has a temporary exhibition with works by the British painter Joseph Mallord William "J. M. W." Turner, called "Painting Set Free" (through September 20,2015). The artist (1775-1851) influenced following generations by his generous use of paint, anticipating the surrealists & expressionists of the 20th century. I like best his catastrophes on high sea.

Above you can see "Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour`s Mouth making Signals in Shallow Water going by the Lead" (oil on canvas)

"Peace - Burial at Sea" (oil on canvas) devoted to the death of a friend

"The Hero of a Hundred Fights" (oil on canvas)


                             Green & Lush


The museum has much more attractions of course. One of them is the lovely garden surroundiet by a very green & lush vegetation - with sculptures in it. You can sit there with a glass of Californian Chardonnay -priceless!

Let the pictures speak for themselves

Enjoy