Monday I retrieved the ’45,

stopped in at Sendsips for Malbecs and then

wandered off into the bliss of California Springtime until midweek

when we had another of those lunches with friends from distant days which, though less

vinous than the one previous, resulted in a similarly soporific effect.  Thursday found us

venturing across three bridges [two shown] to end directly beneath de De Young* wherein Kehinde Wiley’s grand and grandiose paintings and bronzes were opulently installed in appropriation of a Western Canon I was never really very fond of to begin with. [Louvre, anyone?]

I do get his point, a point indubitably well taken, but was left, particularly after all the hype and trigger warnings, curiously  underwhelmed**.  On the other hand such undeniable magnificence

again had me wondering just WHAT it is about South Central LA that keeps bringing us so many astonishingly masterful black artists of such immense ambition and conscience….Kerry James Marshall and [the sadly late] Noah Davis come immediately to mind…and they just the narrative apex. This was all most interesting to contemplate over lunch adjacent to the Museum’s

comparatively modest sculpture garden on a day where air and light brought back memories of a San Francisco once mine although looking west two unfamiliar hillocks had me flummoxed

until I realized they were the new green roof of the California Academy of Sciences…

time and landscape marching on. Mining memory, the mild airs now more particulate, the

De Young of yesteryear no longer extant architecturally but ever enigmatic Pueblo Pottery

remains to be seen and so, in good time, back across three bridges [two shown, sort of] –

the lovely bay area – to a most warm Benicia afternoon, nearly May.

*That link to the De Young has a nice nine minute film of Kehinde and friends.

**Given the sheer gorgeousness of the portrayals the trigger warnings and fainting rooms seemed wishful thinking at best…