ASIAN ART MUSEUM

We're one of the largest museums in the Western world devoted to Asian art and culture. We're here because we wanna share cool stuff with you, and vice versa. Tumblin' from beautiful San Francisco, in the Yay Area.

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Yes. And we celebrate it errrrday.

(Source: dangerouswaters)

From our masterpiece calligraphy exhibition, Out of Character. Because what is calligraphy without intoxicating/intoxicated poetry? This is a glimpse from a long, epic handscroll by Xiong Tingbi. If you’ve seen this show, let us know what you think.

An auspicious terracotta warrior to wish the SF Giants good luck tonight on Game 7. You’ll be seeing more outfits on our cubicle paper doll warrior, made by creative museum staffer Laurel. Fun people work here.

Xu Bing in front of his epic animation “The Character of Characters,” in our #calligraphy show. It’s amazing. (Taken with Instagram)

This world-renowned highly acclaimed artist will be speaking at the museum tomorrow night (Thursday) with Jerry Yang. Details here.

D’oh! We’re embarrassed that we forgot to wish everyone a Happy Harvest Moon, Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節, Tết Trung Thu, & Chuseok 추석! Guess we were distracted by the warm weather and big full moon yesterday. Enjoy this painting depicting the moon: Miao (Hmong) Women in Bright Moon - II. Bonus: Rabbit and Moon.

SFMOMA has a new international exhibition called Six Lines of Flight. It is thoughtful and full of good stuff like this. We had the privilege to attend the media preview this morning, and though many things caught our eye, this one had a special kind of resonance that we thought you would like too.

By French Moroccan artist Yto Barrada.

At our August 23 after-hours MATCHA event, Dohee Lee illuminated Korean shamanism (interacting with spirits) through her own particular multi-disciplinary framework.
The first photo was a true wow moment. During a mini-performance, Lee sat down next to this fellow, a gent with a visitor guide in his lap, and what ensued was some great visitor participation. He went along with whatever she threw his way, and did not flinch when she got extremely close to his face, noses touching. The tension and suspense was great. When she opened her hat contraption, he took off his hat.
Photos by Quincy Stamper.

At our August 23 after-hours MATCHA event, Dohee Lee illuminated Korean shamanism (interacting with spirits) through her own particular multi-disciplinary framework.

The first photo was a true wow moment. During a mini-performance, Lee sat down next to this fellow, a gent with a visitor guide in his lap, and what ensued was some great visitor participation. He went along with whatever she threw his way, and did not flinch when she got extremely close to his face, noses touching. The tension and suspense was great. When she opened her hat contraption, he took off his hat.

Photos by Quincy Stamper.

Dear mystery artist, thanks SO much for creating this ephemeral piece of magic right next to our staff entrance (McAllister and Hyde). We all LOVE it. Not only has it put a spring in our step, but we’re sure it’s a pleasant surprise for every passerby. Thank you.

ps - excellent use of sticky dots too.

UPDATE: Some people have brought to our attention that this work is very familiar to that of Mademoiselle Maurice. Or Wu Mali.

LATEST UPDATE: Actually the artist(s) is TheUpsideUp. The only thing we know about her/him/them is that they’re super nice and awesome!

Masks from different regions and different time periods. Just one striking aspect of Phantoms of Asia, on view until September 2. Which is basically really soon.

And we’re live! The monks are here right now working on their Tibetan sand mandala. You can see the exquisite gridwork that they’re laying down, the first step in creating a highly detailed mandala. Also pictured: colored sand and instruments.

This is a very special opportunity to see the monks — from a monastery in South India — creating a mandala. They’ll be working through Sunday. Upon completion the mandala will be destroyed, an important lesson of Buddhism (nothing is permanent).