Golden Gate Park -The Younge Museum

We went to the Young Museum because they had a special exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. it was incredible how these San Franciscan artists without any outside influences other than a liking for Native American culture invented this whole productive scene. They invented the counterculture from nowhere. The posters may have advertised San Franciscan bands such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company, but to suggest that the scene was not influenced by the Byrds , Band, and Dylan is beyond credible ; let alone that nobody was listening to Sergeant Pepper or Pet Sounds. To me it was a major efflorescence of creativity but in the context of a wider, international youth movement which did not get a mention. Near the end of the exhibition there was a grudging mention in one sentence that the art had been influenced by the pre-Raphaelites and by Aubrey Beardsley. It was clear it had been curated by some-one who had probably never dropped acid.

So disappointed by this we turned to the permanent collection.They have the best collection of Teotihuacan art outside Mexico where the city was built in the first century BCE. These panels are from the base of room frescoes.

They had a special exhibition of African Art of the American South. I liked Joe Light's work.

and was completely knocked out by El Anatsui's Hover II

 although as he's lived mostly in Ghana and Nigeria it was a stretch he was included. It's made entirely of  metal bottle cap covers sewn together with wire and in places made 3 dimensional with chicken wire

but the pictures don't really give a sense of scale

Outside there is a Gustave Dore vase brought over for a World's Fair 

and a Keith Haring Sculpture

The Gallery has a viewing tower with 9th floor panoramas of the park.