Hello Gorgeous

A much anticipated summer exhibit opened last month at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Gorgeous is a selection of 72 stunning artworks drawn from the collections of the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Although it was organized by the Asian Art Museum and is the only venue for the exhibition- due to SFMOMA’s temporary closure while undergoing a major renovation- MOMA’s collaboration is significant. Designed to bewitch, the exhibition presents works by several different curators that explores the complicated pleasure derived from art. From luxurious ornamentation to austere simplicity, highlights include paintings, sculptures, photographs and design objects from Jeff Koons, Yves Klein, Meret Oppenheim, a 1,000 year-old Indian sculpture of the Hindu deity Durga, and more.

Challenging visitors to confront the extreme ambiguities of beauty, many of the artworks push boundaries as they balance on the tipping point between the seductive and the repulsive. Gorgeous features a mix of objects, spanning more than 2,200 years and dozens of cultures, to bring together artworks that extend beyond conventional notions of the beautiful. It aims to engage visitors in an ongoing conversation about what makes something not merely beautiful but…gorgeous. The curators have assembled groupings which are titled Seduction; Dress Up; Pose; In Bounds; Danger; Beyond Imperfection; Reiteration; Fantasy; Evocation; and On Reflection. All that in one setting. Go get gorgeous.  June 20 – September 14, 2014  www.asianart.org