San Francisco, USA. The city itself is like a museum, and feeling the background of the hippie culture.
It seems to me that “San Francisco” has museum less than “Los Angeles”. One reason must be, “San Francisco” city is compact, not big like “Los Angeles”. There is no case anyway that “I have come to San Francisco to visit the museum”. In the first place, real estate in “San Francisco” is exceptionally high nowadays, guessing, it is very difficult to open even for small gallery.
In addition, guessing this is the place to originate the counter-culture and beautiful city scape. Therefore “San Francisco” city itself is the museum, and is not required to have the specific museum.
“De Young Museum” is in “Golden Gate Park”. A few kilometers north, you will find the “Golden Gate Bridge”, and a mile east you will find the “Haight Ashbury”, a sacred place of hippie culture. It is luxurious place around.
The museum is a huge building in a vast park. The “California Academy of Sciences”, opposite is also a huge building. In addition to the elements of the modern art museum, the museum has elements of the history museum. In this museum, I have impressed the folk artworks at the second floor. It was huge collection, and I have walked around its area repeatedly. It includes very rare statues, masks, object items, I guess it is very difficult to find a museum with this kind of artworks.
The art category seems to focus on works by American artists. When I visited in 2024, the collection exhibition included Ed Rusha, O’Keef, Edward Hopper (Portrait of Orleans), and Warhol. Personally, Ed Rusha’s work caught my eye.
One of the features of this museum is that it holds exhibitions related to photography and fashion.
When I visited in 2017, the exhibition “The summer of Love Experience, Art, Fashion and Rock & Roll” was an exhibition of the 60’s counterculture, with photographs and costumes that conveyed the situation at the time.
When I visited in 2024, there was an exhibition called “Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style”, which featured fashion exhibits. By the way, this exhibit featured costumes by Japanese designers (Ninomiya Kei, Yamamoto Yoji, Miyake Issei).
Also, when I visited in 2024, something like this happened in the American Art exhibition room at the back of the second floor.
As I was walking through the exhibition room, a woman came up to me, stopped, and said, “I can give you the Song Gift.” I thought it was strange and thought about it for a while, then said, “It’s okay”, and the woman left.
After a while, music began to play in the back room. When I walked into the room, I saw the woman talked to me earlier standing in the center of the exhibition room. There was a chair about 5 meters away, and an older woman was sitting on it. That person will receive the Song Gift. Then the woman’s song began. It would be better to call it an opera. I was surprised by how beautiful her voice was. She sang for about 3 minutes. It was a great attraction.
By the way, I remember I heared the same song when I visited in 2017, so it may be a regular practice. If you are offered a song, please don’t turn it down like I did and accept the wonderful song gift.
By the way, there is a viewing platform in this building, which is possible to observe the northern and western part of “San Francisco”. This is very valuable place. I recommend to stop by. There is an aisle at the side of reception and walk forward in the end, there is an elevator. Do not miss it.
The self-service cafe on the first floor was a relaxing space where locals gathers. I am not stick to the interior or design, but it is a wonderful space with a stylish atmosphere, and it is a valuable place where you can feel the local atmosphere.
Visited in 2016, 2017, 2024.
Basic Information
■ Name of Place：de Young Museum
■ Address : 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA
■ Homepage：https://deyoung.famsf.org/
