I’ve been a big fan of the Teaching Company ever since I purchased the course Bach and the High Baroque some years ago. Now Laura and I are awaiting the arrival of the 8 DVD course A History of European Art. I have not taken a formal history of art class since I studied European art by correspondents as a high school student.

I want to thank Chris for turning Laura and me onto Wendy Beckett. Last night, we watched a segment from Sister Wendy – The Complete Collection (Story of Painting/Grand Tour/Odyssey/Pains of Glass): DVD on the “golden ages” of European painting: the time of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Poussin. My Matisse kick has stimulated for me a more general interest in the history of Western painting. Although I bombed out with Netflix: Artists of the 20th Century: Henri Matisse (which I found to be too dry), I still held out hope that a TV series or multimedia lecture series would be still a great way to learn more about Matisse and art in general. Since I have enjoyed Bach and the High Baroque, I turned to the Teaching Company for more but was disappointed to find that there is currently no course on modern art. When I mentioned my search to Chris, he reminded me of Sister Wendy.

We found Sister Wendy’s comments to be stimulating. I am already looking at Rembrandt and Velázquez in new ways. (I didn’t know that much about the them to begin with, so art veterans might have a different take on Wendy Beckett.) The two paintings that stick in my mind from last night are: Rembrandt: Bathsheba at Her Bath:

and

VELAZQUEZ, Diego: Las Meninas:

While Deborah
and I were hanging out that the SF Asian Art Musuem yesterday, she asked me
why I had chosen to become a member of the museum. Since I don’t remember anyone
ever asking me that question and because I hadn’t completely thought through
the reasons myself, I struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer. Certainly,
the museum has an excellent collection of Asian art, perhaps
the best place to get an overview. And I do have a thing for museums and
for sharing the experience with others. (I invested in a contributing membership
level, allowing me to bring up to 3 adults with me.) But why this museum and
why now?

My hope is that over the course of this next year (or couple of years), I’ll
be able to immerse myself in the study of Asian, particularly Chinese, art.
Quite honestly, I don’t know the best way to do so, especially with the contraints
I have of time, energy, knowledge, and motivation. I pictured reading about
Chinese art and then going to the musuem to view real-life examples. I know
that it takes discipline and planning to get beyond the dilettante level of
engagement that I can easily settle into. So one or two visits ain’t going to
cut it for any serious study — and hence the membership. Beyond the vague notion
of studying Chinese art through visiting the SFAAM a number of times and attempting
to read books like Art
in China (Oxford History of Art) (which I never did get through, alas),
I had no plan.

Now I do have the good fortunate to work with Chris who is passionate and knowledgeable
about the visual arts (among other things!). In his
recounting of a visit he made to the museum, Chris wrote about an exercise
I’d love to do — if only the musuem could be designed to facilitate it:

I have a suggestion, just one example, to bring objects alive, to encourage
closer looking, to breakdown a bit the experience of discrete cultural sampling.
Because, as the many wall labels keep pointing out, these many cultures did
have various influences on each over over the years, especially through Buddhism,
I would’ve loved, for example, to see a display of Buddhas from many regions
and periods. What if one could explore Buddhas from India, Thailand, and Japan
in the same room, and to note the similiarities and differences, rather than
reading and trying to remember wall labels and history from galleries on different
floors? How about comparative studies of pottery or textiles? How about some
way of stimulating some critical thinking and close looking by not treating
objects that they have only one context – the specific culture in which they’re
created – and then treating each object that within that specific culture the
object stands on its own, too? I had this feeling during some very difficult
parts of the museum, for example in the Tibetan galleries.

Chris mentioned the museum’s website, which I hope will grow in depth. What
one might not be able to do in a physical gallery might be possible with a virtual
one. I’d love to be able to pull up an electronic catalog of the works in the
museum, make my own theme collection, annotate the pieces….(Oops, that’s the
Raymond, IU Technology Architect talking about the Scholar’s
Box…)

Now that I’ve told you more about how I plan to use the Museum, I need to get
to the question that I had set out to answer originally: why Asian Art? Becoming
a member of the SFAAM is one (perhaps misguided) strategy in "finding my
roots", a goal to which I’ve alluded but have never written at great length.
I look back at my childhood or my teen years — or even to the events of yesterday
— and I see so often how I don’t really understand the "whys" or
the context of my family, why we behave the way we do, and more fundamentally
who we are or who I am. Clearly, there must be more direct ways to learn about
my heritage than looking at a bunch of scrolls or musing on the origin of a
particular Ming vase. There are –and I’m pursuing some of those avenues too
(the subject of future posts, I’m sure….) But still, as a Chinese-Canadian
man highly educated in North American countries, I feel this gaping hole in
my background. I can tell you about the intricacies of Christian theology, quantum
mechanics, human rights issues, how to dress for a wedding, what forks to use
at a formal dinner — but am hard-pressed to tell you the significance of red
in a Chinese restaurant, why my family loved orange trees, and why Chinese calligraphy
is such a big deal. It’s not unusual for me to think back on my childhood days
and wonder why did we do the things we did. When I was a kid, I just thought
it was odd behavior, probably particular to my own family. Now I think why I
didn’t ask more questions to figure out why.

The Art Musuem seems to be more than any other institution in the area friendly
to people like me: educated (according to North American standards), but more
or less ignorant of the traditions that are represented in the musuem. The rigid
pedagogy of the Musuem to which Chris refers is probably a reflection of the
low level of knowledge of the musuem’s typical visitors. Yet the SFAAm also
has depths to be plumbed, with opportunities for serious
group study as well as fun
outings with hip young people (will definitely unhip people like me fit?).
Somehow, I imagine that as I learn about the art of China, I’ll start drawing
in other threads –history, language, cultural customs — that will in concert
fill in some of the gaps in my own background, bringing wholeness and balance
and wellness to my being.