**This class will be taught In-Person**
Embark on a three-week journey exploring the transformative power of art in person at three iconic San Francisco museums: the Asian Art Museum, SFMOMA, and the de Young Museum. Witness how sacred traditions and revolutionary ideas shape our understanding of humanity. At The Asian Art Museum, we encounter ancient China’s dynastic legacies and ancestor worship before coming face to face with the avant-garde art of the digital era. At SFMOMA, uncover the bold ideas and provocative social commentaries that define modern art’s evolution. At the de Young Museum, we encounter the vibrant cultures of West Africa and Mesoamerica, where sculptures and masks reveal sacred social structures and transformative beauty. Together, these visits will weave a rich tapestry of history, belief, and innovation while exhibiting the extraordinary power of art to influence the masses.
This course would meet for three weeks in-person at three different art museums in the city, SFMOMA, The Asian Art Museum, and de Young Museum. Admissions will be arranged.
Week 1 : Asian Art Museum, Explore Neolithic pottery from 5000 years ago, ancient China’s first golden age of the Han dynasty, China’s second golden age in the Tang dynasty and Buddhism's changing faces over the centuries before connecting the ancient ideas with an introduction to digital art.
Week 2 : The De Young Museum, Explore ancestor worship and the “art of becoming” through masks and sculptures of West Africa and the collection of Mayan and Teotihuacan art.
Week 3 : SFMOMA, Explore modern art from German artists Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer to Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock that offer insight to the post WWII era. We will also look at Frida Kahlo’s art made in San Francisco and approach abstraction through Mark Rothko before looking at living artists in the collection
