Peter Paul Rubesn, Massacre of the Innocents (around 1610), collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Photo: Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Legion of Honor gives a sweeping portrait of the Old Master Peter Paul Rubens when he was a young man, returning to Antwerp from a formative eight-year journey in Italy in 1608, in the exhibition Early Rubens (until 8 September). The show, the first to specifically look at this moment in the artists career, has an impressive but digestible array of around 30 paintings and 20 works on paper. It is also a mini history lesson of this time in Antwerp during the Twelve Years Truce, when the city was recovering from decades of violence and the Catholic Church was eagerly commissioning art to replace works destroyed by iconoclasts. Standout pieces range from the beautiful but brutal Massacre of the Innocents (around 1610); to the pleading, gorgeously-lit Daniel in the Lions Den (around 1614-16), apparently the favourite work of school children visiting the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which has lent the work; to a bizarre and arresting cut-out of a giant angel (its original shape) made for the Church of Saint Walburga.
Kimono Refashioned at the Asian Art Museum “is not a kimono show”, the museums director and chief executive, Jay Xu, says in a statement for the exhibition (until 5 May), but demonstrates “how a simple item of clothing can contribute to meaningful exchanges of ideas” through around 35 mens and womens outfits from the 19th century to the present, on loan from the Kyoto Costume Institute. For instance, the kimono was among the foreign influences for the trailblazing early 20th-century French designer Paul Poiret as he made clothing that rejected a restrictive, corseted style, like a silk crepe dress (1920-30) on view. A silk dress from London (around 1875) has the typical corseted waist and large bustle of Western dresses at the time—but was made from a dismantled kosode (the precursor of the modern kimono). The largely chronological show does take the liberty of deliciously juxtaposing the dress with a pair of embroidered and studded Christian Louboutin boots from 2017.
Take a trip 100 miles north of the city via the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) exhibition
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