My Favorite Calligraphy and Monument at Great Mosque of Xi'an, China

There is a Great Mosque in Xi'an, China, though the main buildings had distinctive flavor of Chinese architecture, amidst Arab characteristics.

I loved a group of wooden scrolls hanging by the entrances to the main hall - gold-filled calligraphy carvings on blackened wood had a pleasing contrast and each character looked like a finely composed picture, perfectly balanced and centered, and full of flowing beauty.  Even the chipping of the black paints became well-integrated elements of the larger canvas.

I also liked very much a pavilion protecting a stele. The basic structure of the pavilion was Chinese, but the decorative abstract motifs were Arab; yet there were figures in the relief, and they looked typical Chinese!







My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 137:  My Favorite Sculptures at Han Yangling (Han Dynasty Yang Tomb) in Xianyang, Shaanxi, China
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 135: My Favoritate Bronze Artifacts at Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an, China

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

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Last Chance to See Terracotta Warriors in San Francisco Asian Art Museum
- Ruins in Sanxingdui (Three-Star Mound) and Jinsha (Gold Sands), Sichuan, China
- Treasure in Liaoning Museum, Shenyang, China
- Art Gallery of Luxun Art Academy in Shenyang, China
- Visiting Four Universities in Austria and Italy
- Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei at Tate Modern, London
- My Favorite Sculptures at Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
- My Favorite Sculptures at Musei Civici degli Eremitani, Padova (Padua)

Calligraphies at San Francisco Modern Art Museum

Upon a friend's strong recommendation, I visited San Francisco Modern Art Museum (SFMOMA) today to see Jay DeFeo's retrospective, which was already on my agenda since my visit to De Young Museum last week when I saw several of her impressive graphic works and remembered one of her monumental paintings I'd seen at Berkeley Art Museum before.  Below are some of her works I saw at De Young Museum:





Her retrospectives were impressive and there were much to admire and even love, though her intellectual way of art making sometimes failed to generate resonance in me but far superior to the better-known Jasper Johns, of whom an exhibit was also organized and was shown at SFMOMA at this time.

However, the most interesting exhibit at SFMOMA at the moment was several large banners of calligraphy hanging in the lobby, from top fifth floor to the second.  They included writings in several languages including Chinese, Arabic and perhaps English, Tibetan, etc.  Individually or in group, they were delicate, solid and ethereal.  Balm to the eyes.