Event 2: de Young Museum

The de Young museum, I thought, was one of the best museums I have ever been to. Located in one of the beautiful, foggy areas of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park across from the California Academy of Sciences, the museum is well-known in the Bay Area to exhibit some of the most captivating art galleries. Though I wasn't willing to pay the extra fee to browse the "Modernism" exhibit, I did appreciate the many famous and telling pieces that were displayed in the regular galleries.

These two paintings above were in the "Art of Illusion" gallery of the museum and opened my eyes to the real importance of shading and exposure that we talked about during the "Math + Art" section of this course. When I observed these and other paintings in the gallery, I felt like I could grab the objects, as they looked so real. I especially liked the fish painting because the artist so accurately depicted the light reflection to create the impression that one might want to plug their nose to avoid a foul odor.

One of my favorite things in life is observing the magnificence of nature. These two paintings in particular grabbed my eye, as they quite accurately exhibited the beauty of a beautiful mountain morning freshly after a rain and Niagra Falls.

In addition to the mere wonder of the artworks themselves, the de Young museum is purposefully designed to enhance the viewing experience, as natural light and vegetation accompany gallery spectacles.

 

You see the intent behind the museum's design when you take a trip to the top floor observation deck. Here we were able to see a hefty part of the city as well as an aerial view of the courtyard with the Academy of Sciences in the distance. Again, the mathematical elements we discussed in class art heavily incorporated to provide the multitude of beauty that this museum provides.

The de Young also provided room for a history lesson, as we browsed their Native American and New Guinea art exhibits. Additionally, some pieces in the early American exhibit gallery were as old as the first century A.D. The museum works hard to accurately conserve the original format of its art pieces as seen here.

Female Shrine Figure

The last exhibit we took advantage of and appreciated probably the most was the impressionist and abstraction galleries. With pieces by Mark Rothko and Burgoyne Diller, I was captivated by the movement such "simplistic" pieces could evoke in me. I especially appreciated one large piece by Cornelia Parker called Anti-Mass, that was a space of floating, burned wood pieces. I was moved by how the cubic space that the charred remains took depicted the lost nature of the once Southern Black Baptist Church parish that was destroyed by arsonists.

 

Overall, I thoroughly appreciated the de Young museum and would recommend it to anybody who has an extra free day in San Francisco. I like that they change their main exhibits and also have Friday night events with live music for adults, families, and children to enjoy. The concepts of math discussed in lecture was the most prominent element from class that I saw displayed in various ways throughout the museum, from shading to symmetry to the building's engineering design.

Proof of Attendance

Works Cited and Sites Worth Visiting

 Architecture and Grounds. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2014. <https://deyoung.famsf.org/about/architecture-and-grounds>.

 Conserving Louise Nevelson's "Ocean Gate." N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2014. <http://deyoung.famsf.org/blog/conserving-louise-nevelson-s-ocean-gate>.

"De Young Cafe Courtyard." Zahner. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2014. <http://www.azahner.com/images/deyoung5.jpg>.

 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2014. <https://deyoung.famsf.org/about/history-de-young-museum>.

 Friday Nights at the De Young. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2014. <http://deyoung.famsf.org/programs/fridays>.