Day 1: Sunday, May 20, 2018

As today was my first full day in San Francisco, I decided to go to the Asian Art Museum first instead of the planned Legion of Honor/de Young Museum.

The Asian Art Museum is located at 200 Larkin Street, across from the San Francisco City Hall building. The building itself is grand and impressive, with a large Asian-style statue in the front of its main entrance.

I started looking at exhibits on the third floor. The museum is organized in chronological order, starting with the oldest art on the third floor. Having taken Asian Philosophy last semester, I was super excited to be able to learn even more about these cultures.

There were a couple takeaways from the Asian Art Museum:

  1. I found it interesting how all the Eastern cultures had influenced each other in some way, yet each culture made their own "spin" on the art. For example, as Buddhism spread across the continent and made its way into various countries, artworks portraying Buddha followed. Thai-style statues of Buddha usually included a spike-shaped radiance projecting on top of the head. In Chinese statues of Buddha, Buddha is more "human-like," with softer, rounder features, but with similar hand-positions as the Thai-style Buddha statues. 
  2. I noticed that I enjoyed looking at art made with/from fabrics. As someone with a sewing background, I had learned about all types of needle work and fabrics, so I really appreciated the fine needle-work required in some gorgeous pieces of art. 
  3. I gained a greater appreciation for jade. As a child, when my mother took me to Taiwanese Art Museums, I would often see piece of artwork carved from jade, but failed to see why jade so appreciated. Today, my mom explained to me why jade was so highly valued and what made it so beautiful, and I finally saw what she saw. Jade is often used in Chinese art, so it was nice to finally be able to appreciate it. 

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