Saturday, March 1, 2008
Golden Gate Park: de Young Museum


On Friday we decided to get out of the house and take the train up to Golden Gate Park. One difficult Muni ride later (which forced everyone to de-train and find the next station) we finally made it to our destination.

After eating our lunch in the outdoor theater seating, we spent most of our day at the newly remodeled de Young Museum. The previous building was rocked so hard during the Loma Prieta earthquake, they decided to rebuild and make it more seismically safe. The facade is composed entirely of copper and meant to turn green over time in an effort to blend with the trees, at least that is what the art docent told us. She lead us and a small group on a tour through 20th century contemporary art. Some of what she interpreted about each piece was interesting but Chris teased that her statement that "all the artists were trying to communicate something to the viewer" was kind of B.S. Having said that, he did like an abstract installation of burnt wood. Without any background info, it just looked like a mass of materials shaped into a cube but it was actually composed from the remains of an African-American church that had been burned down. So a little context proved to be a good thing.

Overall, we found the new building to be more interesting than the art inside. I think in the future we'll be more likely to go to the SF MoMA but it was just nice being together.











Posted by Kelley at 4:47 PM | 0 comments