Flower Power at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco

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“If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”– John Phillips (sung by Scott McKenzie)

“A lovely spring night

suddenly vanished while we

viewed cherry blossoms” - Basho Matsuo

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Summer of Love in San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum is presenting “Flower Power,” an “original exhibition of pan-Asian artworks that reveals the powerful language of flowers across times and cultures.” The exhibition runs through October 1, 2017, so hurry!

The Asian Art Museum describes “Flower Power” as an exhibition that “features historic and contemporary works of art from across Asia that explore the symbolic potency of botanical imagery to express universal human values. From large-scale installations representing climate change concerns to interactive works of art promoting peace to sensory-igniting multimedia, Flower Power offers a sanctuary for contemplation and reflection.”

This all sounds so serious! While the exhibition does indeed provide thought-provoking material and works for contemplation, the description above doesn't capture the whimsy, creativity, and beauty displayed by these works. Creativity abounds in the contemporary installations before one even enters the main portion of the exhibition. A visitor is invited into the museum by stepping along giant 1960's-style, Gerbera daisy-like flowers that trail along the sidewalk and inside the museum to the beginning of the exhibit. An artist inspired by the book, “The Gift” by Lewis Hyde, focused on art as a gift by encouraging visitors to take fresh-cut Gerbera daisies to give to strangers upon departing the museum. A fourth -generation printmaker worked with a team of volunteers to install thousands of woodblock-printed cherry blossoms on two-dimensional images of tree branches that inspires a visitor to contemplate what climate change may mean for these trees. All this can be found in the main common areas of the museum.

Once entering into the exhibition rooms, one finds flowers gloriously depicted in all sorts of forms. The exhibition delves in the symbolism of six significant blooms: the lotus, plum blossom, cherry blossom, chrysanthemum, tulip, and rose. The flowers are depicted through paintings, gilded screens, porcelains, sculptures, film, and cloth, including a fantastically embroidered kimono. My companions and I had great fun trying to identify every type of flower found on rare porcelain bowls. While I confess that I could not remember today which flower symbolizes what, I can remember being astonished by the beauty, variety, and cultural relevance of the flowers depicted.

For information about the Asian Art Museum, please refer to the following website: http://www.asianart.org

photos by Erin Mahaney