The Museum of Asian art in San Francisco is one of the must-see museums in the town. It is situated quite near to the Civic center and more than eighteen thousand pieces of fine art are exposed permanently in the arranged collections. Some of the exhibited articles are about six thousand years old. The arts and objects are collected from the entire Asian continent. Entering the museum, visitors can enjoy beautiful objects as paintings, furniture, sculptures, armor and textiles, and also there are represented objects from China, India, Turkey, the Philippines and Japan showing the culture of these countries through the centuries.
The museum was founded by virtue of Avery Brundage, a millionaire from Chicago who admired the art of Asia and he appeared to be the biggest collectors. The Society for Asian Art established and registered in 1958 with the purpose to gain this collection of Avery Brundages. In 1966, the museum started its existence as a part of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum that was located in Golden Gate Park. Avery Brungade continued to be one of the most important contributors to the museum and after his death in 1975 the museum inherited the rest of his Asian art collection. The total number of art objects that he donated to San Francisco reached more than seven thousand.
In 2003, when the museum’s collection became very large and the facilities of the Young Memorial Museum became insufficient even for its storage, the Asian Art Museum moved to its new location, the former city library of San Francisco and in the same year opened for second time on March 20. The building, located opposite to the Civic center of San Francisco, was renovated under the supervision of Gae Aulenti, an Italian architect very famous for that time. The first action was undertaken in by Dianne Feinstein, a Mayor, in 1987 with her proposal about the revitalization of the Civic Center which comprised the replacement of the museum to the building of the former library and with the contribution of $15 million made by Chong-Moon Lee, an entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley. Suzanne Labarre described in her article A Bold New Look For SF Art Museum, In Jittery Economic Times, 2011, how the museum came into possession of a new logo, upside down letter A, that was introduced to the public in 2011, launching museum’s new identity that had to suggest the new idea of new perspective for getting close to the art of Asia. She wrote that “in mathematics, an upside down A denotes ‘for all.’ This reflects the museum’s desire to open to a wider community." (Labarre, S., n. p.)
In March 2016, the Museum of Asian Art announced the plans for building additionally a new pavilion (new wing) to its already existing building. Antonio Pacheto described the reaction of the society and the administrative actions that had to be undertaken for the purpose, in his article wHY-designed Asian Art Museum moves toward approval, 2016 in The Architect’s newspaper, He wrote that “the project aims to add a single story, $25 million wing to the landmarked 1916 Beaux Arts structure for “cutting edge” contemporary art.” (Pacheto, A., n. p.) Further he described the elevation of the wing as a structure that would be “wrapped in criss-crossing bands of aluminum and topped by a roof patio and canopy.” (Ibid) He added that the wing would contain a “long-span exhibition hall as well as mechanically ventilated art conservation facilities.” (Ibid) The reaction of the public was not positive because of mixing two architecture styles and the fears that the modern one would be ugly along with the refined old building.
As it was mentioned, the permanent exhibitions are set out on the museum’s second and third floors while the first floor of the museum is kept for temporary visiting ones which idea is quite functional. A beautiful Japanese tea house, manufactured in Kyoto, Japan, was exhibited on the second floor. The story said that it was disassembled, transported and assembled again in San Francisco with the help of Japanese carpenters. The visitors have the possibility to get acquainted with the famous Japanese tea ceremony.
The Chinese art objects were located on the third floor where a beautiful vase, manufactured according to the Cinnabar lacquer technology attracted the visitors with its beauty and refinement. As it could be seen on the note on the wall, it was manufactured 1700 – 1800 during the rule of the emperor Quanlong from the Qing dynasty.
As it was seen the surface of the object was rough, it was made of potter’s clay and covered with numerous layers of red lacquer. By special lacquer-carving technique, dragons and ocean waves were carved showing that the carving technique had reached high and sophisticated levels at the time. Obviously the vase was not a religious, ritualistic or cult vessel but it had only decorative character and maybe it was used for flowers, water, wine, etc. i. e. it had quite decorative and practical use. The motives with the playing dragons had been a very favorite motive for the members of Qing dynasty and maybe it was owned by one of them. The author was not identified as the manufacturers of such objects did not practice to put down their names as it was already popular in Europe at that time. The vase was displayed in a group of objects from the same epoch and the same character, classified by the features of culture, typical for that period.
As a conclusion we may remember that the Qing dynasty was the last of royal dynasties of China which was in power from 1644 until February 1912, the date of abdication of China’s last emperor, Puyi, the infant. This period was marked with rapid and deep changes in China. Qing emperor had to overcome many challenges as the arrival of foreigners and Christian religious missionaries, rebellions across the Empire that weakened their power. It was the time of invasion of western capitalism along with the western culture.
Works cited
Labarre, S., 2011, A Bold New Look For SF Art Museum, In Jittery Economic Times, The Architect's newspaper, Web Accessed on July 23, 2016
Pacheco, A., 2016, wHY-designed Asian Art Museum moves toward approval, The Architect’s newspaper, Web Accessed on July 23, 2016
