How to avoid Super Bowl Sunday

Blue Face with White Stripe" (1971), pigmented stoneware and porcelain, by Stephen De Staebler. (Photo: Philip Ringler)

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/how-to-avoid-super-bowl-sunday

Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" coming to San Francisco

I can imagine the lines for this one...

Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With A Pearl Earring” will come to the De Young Museum in San Francisco next January (2013), the first stop on a three-venue American tour of paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, the Hague.

The Dutch museum is sending 35 paintings on a two-year tour, announced Friday, first to the United States, then to two museums in Japan, while it undergoes renovations. “Girl With a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings From the Mauritshuis,” will run Jan. 26-June 2, 2013, at the De Young, then move to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Frick Collection in New York City (where the show will be scaled down to 10 works and presented as “Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis”).

“Girl With a Pearl Earring,” painted around 1665, was last seen in the United States in 1995 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in a 21-picture exhibition focused solely on Vermeer.

Reviewing that “once-in-a-lifetime….or even once-in-many-lifetimes” event, Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote that “sometimes, as in the exquisite 'Girl With a Pearl Earring,’ the sitter in the painting returns your focused gaze. An inexplicable charge rushes through the experience, as when an electrical circuit is suddenly completed.”

The show at the De Young also will include paintings by Rembrandt’s “'Tronie’ of a Man with a Feathered Beret,” Carel Fabritius’ “The Goldfinch” and works by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob and Salomon van Ruysdael, Paulus Potter, Meindert Hobbema and Jan van Goyen.

Steamed whole fish for the Chinese New Year celebrations

Rockfish. Watercolor and colored pencil by Nancy Ewart.

http://www.examiner.com/budget-grocery-in-san-francisco/steamed-whole-fish-for-the-chinese-new-year-celebrations?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Happy Birthday Mozart

Happy Birthday Mozart' - Homage to Mozart for Orff Orchestra composed by Giovanni Andreani and first performed on June the 3rd 2006 by pupils of the Amadeus Music School - Scuola di Musica Amadeus in Albano Sant'Alessandro BG Italy

Celebrate the lunar year

 Bowl with a pair of dragons. Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722). Porcelain with incised decoration, yellow glaze, polychrome enamels. China | Jiangxi province. The Avery Brundage Collection

As the Bay Area's Asian-American population approaches 2 million, its cultural diversity has grown. The Bay Area is now home to Mongolian, Tibetan, Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese populations, each with their own distinctive traditions and celebrations. Many of the celebrations are rooted in Buddhist beliefs, a spirit of sharing, a hope for abundance and prayers of peace. The Year of the Dragon's celebrations were kicked off with the first rain of the year - a good sign because it means abundance.

http://www.examiner.com/museum-in-san-francisco/year-of-the-water-dragon-celebrations-the-bay-area

Year of the Dragon

Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. In the 12 year cycle, this year (4710 on the Chinese calendar) begins on January 23rd, and is the Year of the Dragon.

The dragon is one of 12 animal signs in the Chinese zodiac, but it outranks all others as the ultimate emblem of the Chinese nation and race. Paradoxically, it represents power on the one hand but benevolence and blessings on the other.

The Asian Art Museum blog wanted us readers to comment on our favorite dragons. Well, I couldn't decide on just one. How can there be just one with faced with such beauty? Let Europe have it's St. George slaying the dragon; I'll take ones of China...or Japan... or Thailand...or Cambodia...or Laos..or.. Thailand. I'm not picky about place, only about beauty. 

 

I have always loved Ming Dynasty porcelain and this is a beautiful piece, both for the exquisite blue glaze and the way that the dragon motif compliments the shape of the plate. Ming dynasty, reign of the Jiajing Emperor (1522-1566). Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration and partially blue glaze. In the center of this plate is depicted a dragon in a floral scroll (instead of the usual clouds that accompany depictions of this mythical animal), complemented by a design of two dragons striding through flowers around the edge. This design is repeated on the back.

Facing dragons (Nephrite).1840-1950. I could have sworn that this piece was older but I may have mixed up my labels (corrections welcomed). This is part of the magnificent Brundage collection which forms the core of the collection.

 The design for this textile is rich with symbols. Along the border are bats among clouds, puns for “ May you have good fortune or luck.” Two blue dragons face each other representing a happy reunion, each with a tail that ends in geometric meanders symbolizing longevity. Of the various flowers surrounding the dragons, the day lily stands out as a motif for honoring one’ s mother and wishing her long life.

Images from the Asian Art Museum.

Year of the Dragon

Designation: Deity trees (shenmu) in Taiwan. Artist: Zhang Daqian. Chinese, 1899-1983
Date: 1970. Medium: Ink and colors on paper . Place of Origin: Taiwan | United States
Credit Line: Gift of the artist. Label: Zhang Daqian painted this work during a 1970 visit to Taiwan, where many of his friends lived.

I am more than a bit groggy, having been kept awake until 4:30 AM by my heedless upstairs neighbors (who says that Neanderthals are dead?.)  But while sleep is short, blogging is eternal so here is the Saturday post .

Chinese New Year is here (or almost here). This is the year of the Dragon which is supposed to be tempestuous and eventful. As last year was the Year of the Rabbit which was supposed to be calm and peaceful - and wasn't! - I shudder to think about what we have in store.

The Asian Art Museum blog has a post on the dragon images in their collection and another on Chinese New Year's Food which I am also researching for a future post. They encouraged us to post about our favorite dragons in the collection. There are so many that I love that I don't know where to start.

Unfortunately for me, my collector's eye is not matched by my bare bones budget. But looking is free for the cost of admission and the membership is a great deal.  Although I am a Capricorn and love old things best, this painting caught my eye with its vivid colors and flowing movement. I appreciated the more modern ambiance and the inscription is exquisite.

The inscription by the artist reads:
The clouds of four mountains are endless,
Trees like twisting dragons stretch upward.
They sturdily stand at hundreds of meters high,
It’ s even hard to see the top when I look up together with
young folks.

Trees have been through enough wind and rain, To fill a history of a thousand ages.

Deity trees on Hengguan Road, Taiwan. Painted on Mr. Meng’ s request, in Taipei, the sixth month of the Republic 59th year (1970). Yuan weng [artist’ s signature].

Deity trees, or shenmu, are culturally important natural resources in Taiwan. According to governmental classification, deity trees are at least 1,000 years old and stand over 26 feet tall. Due to their sheer size and age, the trees came to be
respected as sacred natural phenomena and sites of worship to various deities.

http://www.asianart.org/blog/
(image from the Asian Art Museum website)