de Young Museum

After a morning at the Legion of Honor and glimpses of the Golden Gate through the fog, we made our way to the de Young Museum, which sits in Golden Gate Park.

The de Young and Legion of Honor are part of the "Fine Art Museums of San Francisco" which meant we were able to enjoy both for the price of one!

(Note: you will have to pay for a whole new ticket if you want to see the special exhibition at the de Young)

While we opted out of the Ed Hardy Tattoo exhibit, we made our way up to the second floor galleries that house art from the Americas and Oceania.

Slit-drum, Papua New Guinea, 20th century

Long hallways direct you to glass walls that overlook the museum's grounds — providing a birds-eye view of outdoor sculptures.

This floor had a few smaller exhibitions on display, one of which was Lisa Reihana's In Pursuit of Venus [infected], which demonstrates the inaccurate European romanticization of Polynesian discoveries (I'll do a separate post on this one, very well worth a look see!).

Diana, Federick William MacMonnies, 1889.

The Niagara River at the Cataract and Horeshoe Falls from the High Bank, Gustav Grunewald, 1832.

Sunlight and Shadow, Albert Bierstadt, 1862.

A whole room dedicated to trompe l'oeil — I was only somewhat in disbelief at this amazing room!

On the ground floor, more exhibitions awaited.

Hovor II, El Anatsui, 2004.

Detail of the woven bottle caps and wire

Bull Profiles, Roy Lichtenstein, 1973 (pay attention to their facial expressions)

I failed to capture the title of this one, do you know what it is?

Glass Gallery

Fruit Still Life, Flora C. Mace & Joey Kirkpatrick, 1997.

Sopratutto, Mary Ann Zynsky, 2007.

Lettre sur les aveugles, Frank Stella, 1974.

David' Hockney's Four Seasons

And then it was onto the outdoors — I had seen a Turrell sign and had to find it!

Inside the Turrell installation

Sfera con sfera, Arnaldo Pomodoro, 1963

Before leaving the museum we took the elevator to the de Young's observation deck, which boasts 360 views of the city and can help you get your bearings.

You can see downtown all the way in the distance

See how the museum corridors jut into viewpoints?

Opposite the de Young sits the California Academy of the Sciences.

I would also recommend to walk around the Golden Gate Park if you're up for it after the museum. It's a lovely area and well worth a stroll!