The book’s title may sound like fiction, but Gold, Silk, Pioneers & Mail is a work of true scholarship written by Robert J. Chandler, Ph.D. and Stephen J. Potash.
By Paul Duclos
Published: March, 2011
The book, published by Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library, deals with the bygone days of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. It is a rousing page-turner, which comes as a surprise because, among other things, primary-source materials surviving these voyages are rare. The authors note that millions of people entered and exited California by steamer between 1849 and 1869.
“Life aboard steamers was to be endured and not written about,” the authors note. “Men for the most part went east on business and returned. They tolerated travel as one of those things that could not be changed.”
“Pulp Fiction: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave” at the Legion of Honor
For more than fifteen years, the Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave has been producing a completely original body of work that is quite easy to explain but very difficult to categorize. Her central project has been to recreate exquisite, life-size historical costumes entirely from paper. Taking inspiration from the rich depictions in early European paintings, iconic costumes in museum collections, photographs, sketches and even literary descriptions, de Borchgrave skillfully works paper to achieve the effect of textiles: crumpling, pleating, braiding, feathering and painting the surface.
The artist’s exhibition “Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave” is on view February 5 to June 5 at the Legion of Honor as part of the Collection Connections series. Fine Arts Museums director John E. Buchanan Jr. said of the exhibition, “I am proud to say that this exhibition, so appropriately presented in the galleries of our Legion of Honor museum, is the first to offer an overview of the artist’s most important bodies of work: from the white dresses and Papiers à la Mode to the Fortuny and Medici collections and her newest creations.” A special section focuses on the making of a new work inspired by a seventeenth-century Italian portrait in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Mario Duse: Pt. Richmond Photographer
Ancient buildings, gnarled trees, waving grasses by the sea—places left unchanged for centuries—are the subject matter for this gifted artist. Duse, who lives in San Francisco, has a studio by the Bay in Pt. Richmond and travels the world to capture new images. He prefers to use a medium format camera along with 120 film because it allows for a sharper, more saturated image.
“I shoot in natural light only, at various times of the day and from different angles, a process akin to meditation,” Duse said.
The photographs are printed on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper and mounted and matted to museum standards using only the finest acid-free materials. In addition to his studio location, Duse’s photographs can be found on the City’s streets and at juried art fairs nationwide.
For more, visit marioduse.com.
