Ukiyo-e at the Asian Art Museum

I was at the Asian Art Museum yesterday to see the exhibit Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World 1690–1850. The works contain a lot of pictorial details about the clothes, objects & manners of this subculture. I was impressed by the great colors & especially the depictions of the kimono fabrics. The paintings of Katsushika Hokusai rise above the decorative nature of most of the exhibit. I really liked his elongated Phoenix screen in comic-book colors & the reflective composition of Li Bi Admiring a Waterfall. He's also represented by a pair of cool hand-painted paper lanterns with dragons snaking around them.

I usually don't have the patience to sit through videos in the galleries, but this time I watched with interest the video about the British Museum's painstaking restoration of a Ukiyo-e screen. I learned that these screens have paper hinges that cleverly allow the panels to hinge in either direct.

I also took a quick peek at Zhan Wang's humorous
shiny silver model of San Francisco built from restaurant supply store merchandise.