June 2, 2009

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco - An Art Attack for your Soul

For all you museum lovers out there, the Go SF Card will bring tears to your eyes. With the card in hand, you'll be able to check out 18 different museums in the Bay Area for FREE. Yes, admission is free with the card. How awesome is that?



There are so many cool places to see that I know for a fact you won't be able to get to them all. Make sure you look them up and plot out your course of attack. One of the museums we visited was the Asian Art Musuem of San Francisco.


It's right near the Civic Center and is easily accessible by public transportation. The building itself is remarkable to look at. But just across the way is City Hall with it's golden roof. Some may say it's gaudy, but I totally love it. It's like the Taj Mahal of city halls.



The special exhibit while we were there was on the Kingdom of Bhutan, which is located in southeast Asia. They had classes and special screenings but we didn't stick around for that. It was pretty quiet and we were in between presentations anyway. After a quick walk through of that exhibit, we spent more time with the regular collections. This in itself takes you through so many countries that it's a little overwhelming.



Despite the fact that I'm not too big an art lover and definitely don't have any in-depth art knowledge, I still found it to be an interesting way to spend a couple hours. The intricacy and beauty of the sculptures, paintings and craft work is wonderful. Most of the exhibits were attractively lit, and each had a descriptive placard next to it to help explain its significance to people like me. Also, there didn't seem to be massive crowds there. If anything, I found it to be pretty empty except for a couple of school groups.



It's amazing to think that these pieces were made hundreds or thousdands of years ago. Technology and tools being what they were at that time, I can't believe people were still able to produce such lasting pieces of work. The skill involved is incredible. I mean, how long does it take to hack away at a piece of marble or jade before it turns into a scuplture of a buddha? Truly amazing.

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