Introduction to Fisher Collection and the 75th Anniversary Exhibit at SFMOMA

Last Saturday, I visited San Francisco Modern Art Museum for the Calder to Warhol: Introducing the Fisher Collection exhibit. There are 160 pieces from the 1,000 plus Fisher Colletions on display. There were many impressive works and the profile and prestige of SFMOMA will increase dramatically once a new wing is build for this incredibly rich modern art collection.

Several of my favorite artists are included and I am glad that I am able to share a sample of their works here:


Alexander Calder 1898-1976

I love Agnes Martin's subtle sense. All her works exuded delicacy and mystique.


Night Sea, 1963, Oil and gold leaf on Canvas, Agnes Martin 1912-2004

Cy Twombly's abstract paintings worked like landscape. The 1971 Untitled [Rome] demonstrated his mastery perfectly. The endless strokes of the crayon looped like layers and layers of grass and the shapes and depth of the work was simply amazing.


Untitled [Rome], 1971, Oil-based house paint and crayon on canvas, Cy Twombly 1928-


Note I, from the series III Notes from Salalah, 2005-7, Acrylic on wood panel, Cy Twombly 1928-

The explosive energy and great color harmony on Lee Krasner's Polar Stampede was incredible.


Polar Stampede, 1961, Oil on canvas, Lee Krasner 1908-1984

Georg Baselitz, on the other hand, dazzled the viewer with brutal force and beauty.

Elke im Lehnstuhl (Elke in Armchair), 1976, Oil on canvas, Georg Baselitz 1938-

Several large formatted works by Sigmar Polke were all amazing. I like the one below most:

The Spirits That Lend Strength Are Invisible I (Tellurium Terrestrial Material), 1988, Sigmar Polke, 1941-2010

Though I was never a fan of Warhol, I had to concede that his Mao was incredibly rich and beautiful, made more disturbing by the subject of the work, the cr

Mao, 1972, Silkscreen ink on canvas, Andy Warhol, 1928-1987

Several Richard Serra were included and the simplicity of the work below was the most beguiling.

Richard Serra, 1939-

Lastly, I was treated by several large works by the great Anselm Kiefer. Amongst the living artists, Andy Goldsworthy creates a universe, while Anselm Kiefer decimates a universe. Every piece of his included was an incomparable masterpiece.


Welundlied (Wayland's Song), 1982, Anselm Kiefer 1945-


Die Meistersinger, 1982, Anselm Kiefer 1945-


Sulamith, 1983, Anselm Kiefer 1945-


Unternehmen Seelöwe (Operation See Lion), 1983-84, Anselm Kiefer 1945-


Margarethe, 1981, Oil and straw on canvas, Anselm Kiefer 1945-

There were also witty and whimsicle works. I love this sculpture in the cafe:


Sometimes, visitors contributed to art creation:



Finally, I rate the most haunting piece as the eleven-minute video "Passage" by Shirin Neshat:


Passage, 2001, Single-channel video projection with sound, 11:30 min., Shirin Neshat, 1957-


The show ends on September 19, 2010. Don't miss it!

SFMOMA is also showcasing its own collection in their The 75th Anniversary Show. I'll discussion that exhibit in my later entry.

Weep for Ancient City Walls of Xi'an

A disturbing news rattled many people in China. A developer has put forward a vaguely worded plan to "improve" the ancient city walls of Xi'an, built in the Ming Dynasty (Renaissance time in the west), with price tag of 12,000,000 Yuan (1,770,960 USD). Their plan includes installing life-sized sculptures atop on the fortification and along, posing as attackers and defenders of the fortress, and adding laser lights to add colors to the somber gray bulk of the fortification.



This plan had met storm of criticism in China yet if the developer is well connected, one can be sure to see the dismaying modernization of the city wall.

China has a habit of tearing down authentic old relics and build grandiose replica of the old, such as the Liulichang, a famous district in down-town Beijing that is known for a series of traditional Chinese stone dwellings housing that sells various craftwork, artistry, and antiques. It was one of Beijing's traditional old quarters. Yet, after a major modernization effort, nothing authentic was left. It is plain forgery.

The ancient city wall of Xi'an will be a theme park, one can find in any movie studio. Instead of the timelessness one might fee as in the following pictures,





You will see more of this, I'm afraid:



According to Wikipedia:

The fortifications of Xi'an, an ancient capital of China, represent one of the oldest and best preserved Chinese city walls. Construction of the first city wall of Chang'an began in 194 BCE and lasted for four years. That wall measured 25.7 km in length, 12–16 m in thickness at the base. The area within the wall was ca. 36 km². The existing wall was started by the Ming Dynasty in 1370. It encircles a much smaller city of 14 km². The wall measures 13.7 km in circumference, 12 m in height, and 15–18 m in thickness at the base.

Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst: 
- Last Chance to See Terracotta Warriors in San Francisco Asian Art Museum
- Famed Terracotta Warriors and Their Intriguing Successors
- Ruins in Sanxingdui (Three-Star Mound) and Jinsha (Gold Sands), Sichuan, China

New App for Museum Goers

On April 19th, I posted "GPS for Art", wishing for certain mobile devices for museum goers.

Apparently, some of them have been realized.

An article on New York Times website states:

Among the crucial questions that occur on visits to the American Museum of Natural History: How did man get from a knuckle-dragging primate to a majestic bipedal creature? How did the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex use its tiny forelimbs to subdue its prey? And how do you get to the nearest bathroom? If you have an Apple mobile device, a new application created by the museum can help you with all of those queries.

In a news release the museum said its American Museum of Natural History Explorer application, available free from the iTunes store, is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and connects to the institution’s wireless network to put information at visitors’ fingertips. In addition to providing a GPS and turn-by-turn walking directions to any of the exhibitions, theaters, shops, restaurants and bathrooms in the building, the application also provides additional details on more than 140 displays (including the blue whale, of course), customizable tours, a fossil treasure hunt for the kids and connections to Facebook and Twitter.

It sure will be very convenient; however, I do hope people would study the exhibit more, instead of being drawn into the tiny screen. The danger is there and real.

Mao's Last Dancer?

A friend of mine mentioned a movie he just saw - "Mao's Last Dancer". Since the protagonist shared the same heritage with me, my friend wondered if I would like the movie but when the credits started to roll, he realized that I would not like it, since the movie was too uplifting.

I have to admit that he was right. I am always leery of uplifting art creations.

I was vaguely aware of the story. In order to give it an unbiased account, here I copied the synopsis of the movie from IMDB.com "A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet. "

When I first heard of the story and learned the synopsis, I felt that the title, based on his autobiography, was misleading, sensational and masochistic.

Mao had died for three years when he defected and this insistence of linking himself to Mao is real troublesome. One can never be sure if how proud he is being Mao's dancer. If it is metaphoric speaking, Mao still commands legions of dancers in the world and he is hardly the last. Is he still Mao's dancer? Or simply retired? I wonder if the movie will answer.

To cap my mistrust, my friend told me that the real-life character, Li Cunxin, has become a motivational and inspirational speaker.

On his official website, Li claims:

As a motivational and inspirational speaker, Li’s unique real life story works so effectively with corporations and conferences’ various themes and objectives. It is a story that can touch people deep in their hearts.

Touching people's heart, perhaps. But how his story could motivate me? I honestly do not know.

Motivational and inspirational speaker as a career should never have existed. Human conditions and struggles are unique and chance opportunities often play tricks too. Pretending that everyone can aspire to and achieve same goal, claimed many such speakers, were deliberate cheats and sadomasochistic.

My friend was right. I would stay clear from such emotional manipulations.

"Travel the World" Exhibit at Artist Xchange Gallery, San Francisco

Artist Xchange Gallery, San Francisco has selected three paintings of mine to be part of the "Travel the World" theme exhibit in August.


La Seine © Matthew Felix Sun


La Seine, II © Matthew Felix Sun


Street Scene, Roma © Matthew Felix Sun

Artist-Opening - Friday, August 6th, 2010.

Location:
Artist-Xchange Gallery
3169 16th Street
San Francisco
CA 94103
(415)-864-1490

Regular Business hour:
Mon-Sun: 1pm - 7pm

Map

"Work of Art" on Bravo

A friend called my attention to a reality show "Work of Art" on Bravo Channel posted online by RealtiyTVFan.org. This competitive series brought together 14 aspiring artists to compete for a solo show at Brooklyn Museum and $100,000, "Survivor" style. Each week they are presented with a new challenge to prove their talent and skills.

I watched a some segments from a few episodes.

First challenge was to create a portrait of one of their competitors.

Another one asked the contestants to create book cover designs and one of the contestants has to read the book while working the the design, since he had not read it before.

Another episode asked them to create a shock piece.

So, here is the contour of the show.

The problem I have is that great art is not necessarily created within limited time frames. The examinations academies adopt usually are the tools to detect talents and potentials and this show does not bother to make the distinction of these aspects.

This show is more entertainment than enlightenment. What we do need in the US is something similar to The (British) Turner Prize, a contemporary art award that was set up in 1984 to celebrate new developments in contemporary art.

The prize is awarded each year to 'a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding'.

Artist Ross Bleckner summarized well in his article:

Sarah Jessica Parker's show on Bravo, Work of Art, is a joke. Albeit an inside-the-art-world kind of joke.

And the irony, or the joke if you will, is that the teacher-judges know that art, let alone "great art," will never be the result of a series of televised assignments; work produced in a classroom of sorts. I wish the show was called "artists get in a room and try to get a show at a museum that no one will care about or ever go see, but one of them wins $100,000 and some Prismacolor pencils." Not exactly the "opportunity of a life time" as Bravo has it, but closer to reality for these unsuspecting hopefuls.