Chihuly at De Young Museum, Beethoven Symphony No. 7

H and I planned a cultural weekend. I bought tickets to the San Francisco Symphony during their January sale. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I learned that there is a Chihuly exhibition at the De Young Museum. Since we were already going to the city, we decided to watch the exhibition on the same day.

My first exposure to Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture was his installation in Bellagio in Las Vegas. H remembered seeing his work at Monterey Bay Aquarium and was intrigued as well.

We arrived at the Museum a little after 2pm. Since it was H's first trip to De Young, we walked around the compound a little to admire the copper clad structure. Since the copper skin will turn green due to oxidation (think Statue of Liberty) to better blend with the surrounding park at some later time, I thought it would be nice for her to view the Museum in its current copper-golden shade.

Since our tickets for Chihuly were timed for 3pm, so we had time to wonder around the museum a little. H was impressed by the Mammouth ivory among the America arts exhibits:)

Finally, at 3pm, we entered the Chihuly exhibition. The first exhibit was a series of long thin white tubes with pale red base. The glass took on organic shapes and in the reflection looked like strange, white tree branches.

The next exhibit, I called the "Falling leaves". Here glass were blown into round disc with folds, almost like flower petals. The petals had shades of autumn leaf colors.

The next room was filled with Native American weaved bowls and throw. Among these artifacts were glass bowls, with earth tone. The bowls were not perfect, and I felt like I was looking at hand made bowls from clay, shaped after open gourds.

There was also a room filled with flower petals. These glasses had soft, pastel colors, and the reflection of the glass on the walls looked like a Monet painting.

Another piece was what I called "Purple goo dripping up from tree". Here water droplet shapes of purple glass was placed on dried fallen tree trunks. The droplets seem to be falling up away from the tree against gravity.

There were also 2 wooden boats, one filled with colorful glass balls, the other filled with random shapes. H and I joked that the exhibition had too many art work and not enough space that they resort to bazaar style of presentation.

In another room was a series of heart shaped glass sculpture. Both H and I do not like the series of pointed glass tubes that formed these heart, so we walked through this room quickly.

In the next room, the glass sculpture was placed on a glass see through ceiling. Light shine through the glass artwork, creating a colorful reflection on the ground. Again, H and I felt the display was too busy. It was a good idea, but the exhibit would probably benefited from more space.

Final, the last room consisted of various stand alone display of glass sculpture, set on the ground. Some had pointy tubes, like the heart exhibit, while others have tulip like leaves shapes.

Images from the exhibition from Bayareadragon.com

Overall, we liked the organic shaped of the glass sculpture and the soft natural colors. These shapes and colors transform the glass sculpture into something familiar, but at the same time mysterious. We also felt the some art installation was too busy and if the pieces were spread out more, we could enjoy individual glass pieces better. Here's a review by Mercury News, as well as SFGate.com.

After the exhibition, we took the elevator to the top of the tower. There, we enjoyed the areal view of Golden Gate park and the San Francisco skyline.

After visiting De Young Museum, H and I walked around Golden Gate Park a little before dinner.

Since we are going to Davies Symphony hall after dinner, we stopped by Indigo for a quick pre-concert meal. There, we enjoyed a grilled salmon with herbed orzo and spring vegetables, as well as a pan roasted pork tenderloin with corn, mushroom and broccoli rabe. H felt the tenderloin was a little tough and the sauce too sweet. I liked the herb orzo and fresh vegetable in the salmon dish, as well as the straight forward preparation of the fresh wild salmon. More about the restaurant at Yelp!

The program for the concert was Seht die Sonne by Magnus Lindberg, Chansons de Jeunesse by Debussy and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Seht die Sonne was a modern piece, but had some elements of classical "depart and return" tone system, so it was fairly pleasant. We did not enjoy the Debussy piece as much.

Beethoven's 7th symphony was a big, exciting, fast paced piece of music. The conductor had only one little pause between the four movements and the final movement was a exhilarating whirl wind of music. We left the concert hall on a high note. Here, a critic disagree with my take on the concert.

Our last stop of the night was at my favorite wine bar in San Francisco: the Hidden Vine. After a day filled with exhibition and performance, we came here for a little port wine tasting to savor the sweet life:)