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<\/a><\/p>\nMonday I retrieved the ’45,<\/p>\n
stopped in at Sendsips<\/a> for Malbecs and then<\/p>\n wandered off into the bliss of California Springtime until midweek<\/p>\n when we had another of those lunches with friends from distant days which, though less<\/p>\n vinous than the one previous, resulted in a similarly soporific effect.\u00a0 Thursday found us<\/p>\n venturing across three bridges [two shown] to end directly beneath de De Young*<\/a> wherein Kehinde Wiley’s<\/a> 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?]<\/p>\n I do get his point, a point indubitably well taken, but was left, particularly after all the hype and trigger warnings, curiously \u00a0underwhelmed**.\u00a0 On the other hand such undeniable magnificence<\/p>\n 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 <\/a>and [the sadly late] Noah Davis<\/a> come immediately to mind\u2026and they just the narrative apex. This was all most interesting to contemplate over lunch adjacent to the Museum’s<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n until I realized they were the new green roof of the California Academy of Sciences<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n time and landscape marching on. Mining memory, the mild airs now more particulate, the<\/p>\n De Young of yesteryear no longer extant architecturally but ever enigmatic Pueblo Pottery<\/p>\n remains to be seen and so, in good time, back across three bridges [two shown, sort of] –<\/p>\n the lovely bay area – to a most warm Benicia afternoon, nearly May.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n