Revisiting the de Young Museum

The M.H. de Young Museum was first established back in 1895 after the Mid Winter Exposition, was rebuilt into a new state-of-the-art facility in 2005. It went from a handsome,  neo-classical or baroque style building to this modern structure you see below. Takes a little getting used to.



Well, that's what the Legion of Honor is there for - to provide some neo-Classical in a museum.  =)

I'd visited the old de Young many times in the past, starting from primary school on a field trip. I'd been meaning to visit the new de Young since it reopened in '05 and finally made myself go to see, primarily, the Chihuly exhibit.
 


There were a gaggle of visitors this early morning. Mostly to see the feature attraction.



Below, is the Venetian room. One wall of his drawings. The rest of the room filled with his Venetian vases on the wall and a few Ikebana vases that sit on the floor because they're so massive.




The next room of sea art. They produced a nice reflection on the case underneath these pieces.


Chihuly's basket creations. So thin and fragile in appearance. Opposite his baskets is a colorful wall of woven textiles.


A room with his Macchia creations. Each piece was their own world of colors.


A boat of beads, inspired by Najima floats. Some of these beads were quite large, over 3 feet in diameter, each with their own patterns. Some beads incorporated gold-leaf. The big blue one reminds me of Earth.


A boat of glass menagerie. An explosion of colors and shapes.


In the next room, these larger-than-life pieces hung from the ceiling.


The final, long room was like a forest of Chihuly with reeds, beads, fiori and more.


It was a wonderful exhibit. The profusion of colors and shapes was almost a visual overload. It takes a little time to take in every detail while you maneuver around the crowd. I still had to jostle even as one of the early visitors. It's a great thing photography is allowed so we can take home our experience at the exhibit. The museum store also lets you do that too.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 28.

But, not so fast...I have a few images from the rest of the de Young Museum to share with you. Another day.

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