oyster-sauce

(All photos courtesy of http://deyoung.famsf.org/)

OLMEC: COLOSSAL MASTERWORKS
OF ANCIENT MEXICO @ DE YOUNG

This past Saturday, I was able to take a trip to the de Young Museum (which deserves a post of its own by the way. The building itself is beautiful!) to see the Olmec show. The Olmec civilization was the oldest of the Americas, dating back to about 1500–400 BC and was situated in and around modern-day Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico.

Out of stone boulders, they carved enormous heads (like the one above) that weigh up to a whopping 24 tons (48,000 lbs!) The heads that are included in the show are in pristine shape....every curve of the eyelids, lips and cheeks is simply breathtaking. To counter this, there are other sculptures/masks not more than an inch tall, with the most detailed features. There's one carved out of jade that I unfortunately wasn't allowed to take a photo of...but is embedded in my memory. Gorgeous!

Read more about the show here.