Wagner Murals

While studying for this chapter I had looked up information for the looted murals. I was interested in how the murals look like so I landed on the de Young Museum website. Here are some of the murals that were part of the looting from the site of Teotihuacan. These murals were purchased by Harald Wagner on 4 different occasions both in Mexico and in the United States. Harald Wagner intended to sell these to make a profit at first but then because of marketbility issues he decided to donate them to the De Young Museum in San Francisco as part of his will in 1974.

Bird with spear, sound scroll, and shield. It is believed that the sound scroll may suggest that the bird is singing.


Coyotes with a deer in the middle



More information on Harald Wager, more murals, the looting and Teotihuacan in general can be found here:
http://www.famsf.org/teotihuacan/index.html

Teotihuacan

I love Teotihuacan. This city, empire, secret society, or whatever you want to call it was amazing. The city is filled with mysteries, tales, and legacies. I find it very interesting that one of the biggest mysteries is the nationality of the people of Teotihuacan. It’s fascinating how educated the Teotihuacanos were with astronomy as their buildings were designed by the movement of the stars. I find myself asking many questions as I read this chapter and watched the video of Mexico’s great pyramids. One of the biggest questions for me was why did they abandon something they had put so much effort into. Also there were hundred of thousands people there so how could the decision be so unanimously to leave everything behind. My only guess is that it had to be for religious reason because I know how devoted ancient people could be to their Gods. I love how there are two sides to Teotihuacan. A very dark tale about the sacrificial of the humans and on the other hand Teotihuacan is believed to a utopia for its people. In other words, this was paradise on top of death or hell.


One of the most fascinating sites of Teotihuacan is the Pyramid of the Sun. It is ENORMOUS! This is a pyramid found along side of the Avenue of the Dead. I would love to visit this site one day because of all the sacred secrets behind this society.



And of course I could not leave out the Pyramid of the Moon, another breath taking view. These two pyramids are the two biggest structures in Teotihuacan.


Here's the Avenue of the Dead.

The Olmecs

I love this giant colossal head. It looks as if it had been restored or renewed by the museum because alot of these heads were found partially destroyed or damaged. I don't see any animal prints or paws around his head. Facial features are the same as most of the colossal heads of Olmen...slanted eyes, big flat nose, strong cheek bones, and fat lips.




Here's another colossal head with lesser details. The details are not as strongly carved in like the last one. But again, same facial features of a classic Olmec ruler or someone of high rank.



I want to take a moment to compare the Olmec jade figures to the Chinese ones as they are both similar. As I've learned that the Olmecs valued jade highly just like Chinese people. People in China still view jade as a very valuable stone and it represents prosperity and luck. I couldn't help but to think that the Olmecs have some kind of Asian relation to them. Also judding by the colossal heads and some of these figures the Olmecs really mind me of an Asian culture.

Undirected blog

Some other pictures I took during my visit:

Frida Kahlo

So I went to the SF MOMA today for the Frida Kahlo exibit. Luckily, I had preordered my ticket online the day before because it was sold out when I got there. I got in a little early so I had time to check out the other galleries also but almost everyone was there for Frida Kahlo. I recommend paying $3 extra for the audio tour because it makes your experience so much better. You get a much better understanding of her life and her work because admittedly I came there without knowing anything. I learned so much within that one hour it was amazing. Honestly I came there pretty tired and sleepy because I didn't get any sleep the night before but once I began the tour it woke me up completely. One concern I have is that I wasn't able to get any picture inside her gallery because it was against policy. I did take a few in the lobby and outside the museum though so I'll just post those. The images of her artwork will be from Yahoo images.

The beginning


Me outside

Me Inside




Here's a painting she did of herself with a steel rod as her spine to represent all the surgeries that she's had. She also had nails pinned all over her body to represent her pain and her face expression is really sad. This was one of the many depressing paintings that I had to see today.



This is a painting of her nanny and Frida reflcting her childhood. They look very distant as portrayed in the nanny wearing the ancient mask and Friday is not caressing her like a baby should.


Frida portaying herself lying in a pool of blood from all the pain and suffering she's endured. This is really gruesome and scary, it kinda gave me goosebumps when I first saw it.


A real life photograph of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.


Here's one of Frida laying in bed after a miscarriage of he baby. Another unfortunate event in her dramatic life.


There was a painting that I liked alot from the show that I could not find online. It was one that shows the earth holding on to Frida while she's holding on the Diego as a baby. I find it interesting that was how she viewed him. I thought she portayed him as a dominant figure in her other paintings but in this special one she showed another perspective of her husband.

Mexico in images

The following images are from Flickr.com or Yahoo images. If any of them belongs to you and you are unhappy about me using it then feel to contact me. Thanks.

This is my image of Mexico as of now and hopefully by the end of this class I can learn alot more about their artwork as well as culture.



Cancun! The picture speaks for itself. This place is beautiful.




Here's a photo of a Mexican woman dancing in a what I would assume is a traditional colorful outfit. I love the vibrant colors of this painting.


A fun image of a Mexican bullfighter.



A very homely painting of the Mexican marketplace. The painting was done with very warm and earthy colors which give it a welcomed looks.



A collage of photos of the Tijiuana and San Diego border that I find very interesting. You can see a clash between two very different cultures from the people to the artwork on the walls.

It's Me

The following images are from Flickr.com or Yahoo images. If any of them belongs to you and you are unhappy about me using it then feel to contact me. Thanks.

The five following images below are things that best describe me.








My mom has sacraficed everything for me. She's definately the one person that I love the most in this world.



Anything is possible with faith.



I love sports and the 49ers is my favorite team. I love being at Candlestick Park.



This is the most peaceful place for me. I like going to the beach and just sit there to take my mind off of things.



I am a big musichead. I can get down with all types of genres. I listen to it 24/7. I am listening to music now. It is very theraputic for me.