In
all of my adventures this year, other than to walk past the LA-like edifice (designed
by Herzon & de Meuron WOW look at some of their places!) during an afternoon in Golden Gate Park, I
had yet to visit the de Young Museum.
They were holding an event open to the public Friday night – 75 year
anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge – and I decided to go. I never got around to the gallery where all
the pics of the Bridge were. There was
the San Francisco Society Jazz Orchestra playing lots of my kind of music, in
the central lobby, and ongoing multiple screens recounted that Golden Gate time
back in 1937. Packed to the gills, people were costumed - retro, Jean Paul Gaultier, and some casual
comme moi.
I
perused the upstairs galleries, some rather interesting American art –
particularly the Hudson River School. This Church painting “Rainy Season in the
Tropics” (Psychedelic to me!) Then down
the stairs to the “fashion World of Jean Paul de Gaultier. I always knew Madonna’s costumes with the
cone breasts were bizarre, but never researched where all that came from. (French lyrics were always more intriguing.) HOWEVER,
if you have the chance, this exhibit is fascinating. 30 animated mannequins, including one of
Gaultier himself talking on and on, other mannequins, seemingly asleep, that
suddenly open their eyes, raise their eyebrows, or wink at you. Like the holograms in the Haunted Mansion at
Disneyland. All sorts of incredible
costumes, beaded, feathered, in the boudoir, out of the boudoir. That craze where every woman began to wear
athletic shoes with their skirts to downtown Manhattan jobs. I never knew he was responsible. There were so many videos in the exhibition –
Gaultier is so connected to our techno culture. What humor he has. Should you
be in the Bay, do not miss it.
FInally, you can check out the you tube with the mannequins hoo woo spooky----
