"Looking East" Exhibition at SF Asian Art Museum

San Francisco Asian Art Museum is exploring "How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh and Other Western Artists" with its current special exhibition "Looking East". 



The exhibition was not a gimmick as one might suspect but it is also pointless to determine which pieces influenced which. I would only venture to showcase those pieces made strong impressions on me, either they are by western or Japanese artists.  Some of them are very delicate and others exciting and the rest humorous and delightful.




Still life with azaleas and apple blossoms, Charles Caryl Coleman


Kajikazawa in Kai Province, Katsushika Hokusai


Night Herons (Nachtreiher), Otto Eckmann


Silver Herons (Zilverreigers), Theodorus van Hoytema


Five Swans, Otto Eckmann


Landscape with two Breton Women, Paul Gauguin


Port of Saint-Cast, Paul Signac


Haystack (sunset), Claude Monet


Vase of flowers, Henri Matisse


The Silver Screen, Frank Weston Benson


Maternal Caress, Mary Stevenson Cassat


Postman Joseph Roulin, Vincent van Gogh


Actor Onoe Kikujiro Il as Takiyasha-hime, Utagawa Kunisada & Actor Matsumoto Yonesaburo, Utagawa Kunimasa


The artist's grandmother, Emile Bernard


Meditation, Alfred Steven


Fig leaves, Edna Boies Hopkins


Bradley: His Book, William H. Bradley


Cover of Love (Amour), Maurice Denis


Family Umbrella, Helen Hyde


Jane Avril & Caudieux-Petit Casino), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec


Painted horse escaping from a votive plaque, Totoya Hokkei & Hunting, William Nicholson


The Jockey, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec


Illustration of the Opening Ceremony of the Union Horse Racing Club's Racetrack around Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park, Hashimoto Chikanobu


The square at evening, Pierre Bonnard


Woman in Bed, Profile (Femme au lit, profil), Toulouse-Lautrec


Child with lamp, Bonnard, Looking East, Asian Art Museum



Street corner seen from above, Pierre Bonnard


English Woman (Engländerin), Emil Orlik


[Courtesan as the immortal] Fei Zhangfang, Okumura Masanobu & Laziness (La Paresse), Félix Edouard Vallotton


Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake, Utagawa Hiroshige I


Standing courtesan, Keisai Eisen



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My Featured Painting: Dichotomic "In Distant Country"

One of my paintings selected in a recent exhibition at Berkeley Central Arts Passage, Today's Artists Interact with Major Art Movements from the Renaissance to the Present, is a painting of part cityscape and part animal figure study.

 
In Distant Country / 在遙遠的国度 / In fernem Land
Oil on Canvas
22″ x 28"
Completed in 2011

The left side of the painting, in shades of washed-out gray, depicts the Old St. John's Hospital, an 11th-century hospital in Bruges, Belgium while the right side zooms in one of the omnipresent swans and the symbol of that ancient city, painted in intensely saturated rich hues. I conceived this painting while visiting Bruges, when I was quite intrigued and even moved by the stark contrast of immobile and somewhat faded history and threadbare nobility, and the living creatures full of grace, energy and slight menace.

Furthermore, I named this title to ensure that the German title In fernem Land is the first line of the most celebrated aria by the title character in Wagner's opera Lohengrin, a mysterious knight arrived in a boat drawn by a swan, narrating his mythical original and his frustrated hope by lacking of faith he demanded from a woman he loved and rescued, whose child-ruler brother was turned into that swan and his disappearance had triggered a chain of events.

The medieval building and the medieval story interwoven, the purity and menace of this lofty bird, along with the historical baggage of Wagner, conspire to add extra meanings to this rather deceptively simply painting.

Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com

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My Favorite Artworks at Ca' d'Oro, Venezia (Venice)

Almost every major old mansion, or Ca', as called by the locals, in Venice, are an impressive museum. Ca' d'Oro, is the most iconic of them all, famed for its Gothic columns, arched windows and fascinating asymmetrical façade, and it not only boast artifacts demonstrating the life in the begone era, it also houses some impressive artworks as well.





My favorite work my saw during my 2012 trip was a painting from the workshop of one of my favorite Renaissance artists, Andrea del Sarto, titled Madonna and Child with St. John, which had all the hallmarks of the said great master, particularly the pale green, blue and pink tones of draperies, and those rosy cheeked, plump figures announcing the advent of mannerism, which outgrew the naturalism of Renaissance.


Madonna and Child with St. John, Andrea del Sarto's Workshop, Ca' d'Oro

My second favorite was a sculpture of a nude male torso, which situated in the middle of a courtyard whose walls and floor were covered with very intricate and elaborate mosaic, and contrasting wonderfully against those complicated background with its restrained classical simplicity.

 

My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 109: My Favoritate Artwork at Ca' Pesaro, Venezia (Venice), Italy
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 107: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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