British Works on Paper 1760–1900 and more

British Works on Paper 1760–1900 is an exhibition at the Legion of Honor, one of the several fine art museums in San Francisco. The architecture is a great piece of art in its own right, enhanced by the serene surroundings of the Lands End (which is a favorite spot for landscape drawings by SF artists) The most notable artists of this exhibition IMHO were J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Edward Lear. In order to preserve the light-sensitive material, the works were shown with dimmed light. On the other hand, there's a big computer screen showcasing five pieces interactively (and brightly) and it's available online here. It might sound strange but I found it actually much more pleasing looking at the pieces on the screen than the real thing! The exception was "The End of the World" by John Martin, which has a very dark tone already and the blood red color really stands out even with the dimmed light.

"A Princely Pursuit: The Malcolm D. Gutter Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain" was another exhibition I was interested in as a big fan of porcelain. I always considered most China made outside of China being inferior to those from China. After all, the Chinese had the most advanced technology for a long time. Nevertheless, some German teapots were actually quite interesting in terms of the shapes (for example, using a human face as the body or the head of a bird as the spout) When it comes to the paintings on the body though, I feel that they were better with nature (especially flowers) as the subject than with people or animals. I think they tried too hard to imitate the Chinese painters' style of people （仕女） but unsuccessfully applied to Western people.

Finally, there were an interactive exhibition of graphic art, which demonstrated several print making techniques, including linocut (linoleum sheet were carved as a surface where paint was applied like a rubber stamp), using metal plate instead of linoleum and engrave on them, and lithography (images were drawn with wax on a flat limestone surface) And there was an example of Japanese woodcut. The Japanese got the woodcut printing technology from China and elevated it to an art form, which influenced many Western artists, including some of the French impressionists. Also, I learned from the docent that woodcut had a strong tie to the Japanese manga culture and old legends were a popular topic (see Ukiyo-e) What an educational visit to the museum!