Saturday, December 30, 2017

"Gods in Color" Exhibition at Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco

A quite unique exhibition titled Gods in Color: Polychromy in the Ancient World (October 28, 2017 – January 7, 2018), in San Francisco's Legion of Honor Museum, allowed viewers to explore classical sculpture "restored" in their original vibrant colors.

According to the exhibit, some ancient artifacts still retained their original colors, while some colors were determined through chemical analyses to identify numerous preserved elements of bronze polychromy. "Ancient sculpture and architecture from Greece and Rome will be revealed as intended—garishly colorful, richly ornamented, and full of life—along with original sculpture from the Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome..."

DSCN9991 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0008 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0011 _ Gods in Color

To the thoroughly conditioned modern eyes, the idealized beauty of antiquities of purity, was wildly disrupted by bursts of bright and gaudy colors, if not violated. To be fair, when sculptures were yanked out of their natural settings, pure ones were easily to appreciate than multicolored ones, which might be more in harmony with sumptuous and brilliant settings of the origins.

DSCN9992 _ Gods in Color

DSCN9993 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0018 _ Gods in Color

DSCN9995 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0019 _ Gods in Color DSCN0020 _ Gods in Color

DSCN9996 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0023 _ Gods in Color

DSCN9994 _ Gods in Color DSCN9997 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0012 _ Reconstruction of an Ionic capital, Agora of Athens, 2016 (c 430BC) -Gods in Color

DSCN0024 _ Reconstruction of a lion, 2012 (c 550BC) - Gods in Color
Reconstruction of a lion, 2012 (c 550BC)

DSCN0027 _ Torso of Hermes 2nd C., Recon. B of the Cuirassed Torso, 2005 (c 470BC), Herakles - Gods in Color
Torso of Hermes 2nd C., Recon. B of the Cuirassed Torso, 2005 (c 470BC), Herakles

DSCN0030 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0034 _ Chois Kore, 2012 (c 520BC), B of the Peplos Kore, 2005 (c 330BC), C of the Peplos Kore - Gods in Color

DSCN0037 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0048 _ Scarcophgus - Gods in Color
Alexander Sarcophagus

DSCN0039 _ Recon. of the battle betwn Greeks & Persians from Alexander Scarcophgus, 2007 (c320BC) - Gods in Color

DSCN0040 _ Recon. of Alexander the Great from the Alexander Sarcophagus, 2013 (c 320BC) - Gods in Color

DSCN0035 _ Gods in Color

DSCN0041 _ Figurine, 2nd C BC, Figurine, 2nd-1st C BC, Figurine of Eros, 3rd C BC, Figurine, 3rd or 2nd C BC - Gods in Color
Figurine, 2nd C BC, Figurine, 2nd-1st C BC, Figurine of Eros, 3rd C BC, Figurine, 3rd or 2nd C BC

DSCN0042 _ Red-figure volute krater, c 330-320 BC - Gods in Color
Red-figure volute krater, c 330-320 BC

DSCN0047 _ Funerary lekythos with a young woman, c 375BC - Gods in Color DSCN0043 _ Grave stele of Poseides and his wife, c 275BC - Gods in Color
Funerary lekythos with a young woman, c 375BC - Gods in Color (l) & DSCN0043 _ Grave stele of Poseides and his wife, c 275BC (r)

DSCN0046 _ Head of a horse, c 1st C BC - 1st C - Gods in Color

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The exhibition also included a collection of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian antiquities, illustrating a range of painted colors, which are still visible on some of the artifacts.

DSCN0049 _ Relief from the tomb of Mentuemhat, C 660BC - Gods in Color
Relief from the tomb of Mentuemhat, C 660BC

DSCN0050 _ Relief of a gift bearer, c 490-470BC - Gods in Color
Relief of a gift bearer, c 490-470BC

DSCN0051 _ Winged genius, 883-859BC - Gods in Color
Winged genius, 883-859BC

DSCN0053 _ Gods in Color DSCN0052 _ Lion-shaped rhyton (libation vessel), c 1900-1800BC - Gods in Color
Egypto-Roman painted linen burial shroud (l) & Lion-shaped rhyton (libation vessel), c 1900-1800BC (r)

At the end of the show, samples of intensely colored pigments employed by the ancient people concluded this fascinating exhibition.



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Friday, December 15, 2017

My Featured Painting - Colony

My painting Colony depicted a roughly sketched tight grid, in which several skeletal ants nervously roam around these low barriers. The whole painting was awash in a cold and almost sinister bluish green, and the insects were barely discernible at the first glance, as they seemed to have merged with the thin grids underneath their wiry bodies. The painting was a bit starling as it presented the ants in close-up, and they looked rather monstrous in their enormities.

Colony / 屬地 / Kolonie  
Colony
Oil on Canvas
22" x 28"
Completed in 2011

This painting is currently in a Group exhibition Color Speaks (Sep. 23, 2017 - Jan. 20, 2018), in the vibrant art district of Downtown Berkeley.

Originally posted on matthewfelixsun.com

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