Postcards From Susan: Larry's Exhibit Redux

Last week we trekked back into SF for the second iteration of the Larry Ellison exhibition at the Asian Art Museum. The theme of the show is "In the Moment", to convey how certain pieces were displayed for only short period of time, only for a party, or only for a an afternoon for an honored guest. Ellison has his own curator, the former director of the Asian Art Museum, who changes out his pieces twice a month. So they did the same with the museum pieces.

The museum was much less crowded that our last visit, so we had more time to spend looking at these two screens showing mountainous villages at either end and waves between them. The lighting changes continuously to show what the screen would look like displayed in a home as the exposure changes throughout the day.

These were two new screens, sunrise and moonrise.

This was a real treat. These two screens were originally bright silver, but have tarnished. The legend went that a courtier dropped the emperor's fan into the water, and the others in the entourage decided to do the same, resulting in a shower of fans falling into and drifting with the water. Apparently it was such a hit that for a few decades it became a custom, probably encouraged by the fan industry.

This was another new piece showing off two more screens of birds.

We were happy to see that our favorite piece from our first visit was still there, the silver screen with the peacock and the crow. The label said that it is possible that the screen was based on Aesop's fable that the feather does not make the bird. We were glad to see it again.

We were also able to see another temporary exhibit, the cylinder of Cyrus, an ancient cuniform cylinder giving freedom to slaves and others, possibly the Jews, and establishing freedom of religion in the 6th century BC. It is small, about a foot long.