Purago Marabe and Martin Morububuna, October 2009 Jolika Fellows
Community mural in the Kimball Gallery
Community Mural: Legend of Ilakavetega
By Martin Morububuna Once upon a time there lived Ilakavetega and her two granddaughters. Every day the granddaughters went out to the beach to fetch saltwater for the grandmother. The Boi bird would come to the girls and would sit on the rock and talk to them, and would even say things about their grandmother.
One day the grandmother decided with the two girls to trap the bird and catch it. They set the trap on the rock and the bird sat on it and got caught. The two girls carried the bird home. The chief of the village heard that the bird been caught. He requested the head of the bird to make his magic. The grandmother did not give the head to the chief. The chief ordered his messengers to bring the old woman to him. The chief's magician killed the grandmother and got married to the granddaughters and lived happily ever after.
Artists' Statement: From Paradise to Where??
Papua New Guinea is a very diverse and multilingual developing country. In the unique Melanesian way, we began as a nation of structured cultures and communities. We had chiefs, elders, warriors, gardeners, healers, herbsmen and wisemen. People conducted their everyday routines according to specific expectations and rules of their communities, which varied from village to village.
Every issue and decision—even every penalty—was decided according to those rules. Apart from the hardships of warfare and their nomadic lives, people generally lived abundant, peaceful, happy, hard-working lives... [more]
I recently got to tag along as the mummy of Irethorrou was transported from Stockton's Haggin Museum to the de Young's conservation lab, in preparation for a journey down to Stanford University Medical Center for a CT scan. The mummy of Irethorrou, a 2,500-year-old ancient Egyptian priest from Akhmim, has been in the collections of the Fine Arts Museums since 1917, and had been on loan to the Haggin Museum since 1944.
While I was there I took a few photos showing the behind-the-scenes activities involved in moving a mummy, as well as some photos of him in the conservation lab. My colleague Jill Lynch accompanied him to Stanford and took the photos of him undergoing his CT scan.
Podcast: FAMSF Curator of Ancient Art Renee Dreyfus Talks About Tut in '79 and Now
Our newest podcast features FAMSF curator of ancient art and interpretation Renee Dreyfus, who talks about the 1979 Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition and the current Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. Renee was on the curatorial team for the first Tut exhibition 30 years ago, and now heads up the FAMSF curatorial efforts for the current offering.
John Singer Sargent's La verre de porto (A Dinner Table at Night), 1884, was chosen by FAMSF Docent Candy Hisert. It can be seen at the de Young on the museum's upper level in the late-19th century galleries.
It’s intimate yet enigmatic. We are drawn into the lives of a woman who greets us and a man who is only a profile. Did Sargent want that man out of the picture? Or is this a study of non-communication between husband and wife? Visitors love to talk about this painting.
Today's pick is from Mark Garrett, Senior Museum Technician at the Fine Arts Museums' Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts: Lucretia, ca.1525 by Joos van Cleve. Lucretia can be seen at the Legion of Honor in Gallery 3
This work is special to me because it seems so utterly bizarre for its time. It so graphically represents a surreal limbo between life and death. I love how the transparent veil behind her head floats away. Plus, it's technically an amazing painting on canvas.
