International Art Museum of America — Attraction in San Francisco

I don't know what this is all about. Around 80% of the work displayed is by one person, the H.H. Chang Dorje Buddha III, or some such. His works span a number of different styles, from the amateurish Chinese calligraphy to the incompetent Impressionism impressions to the embarrassing Van Gogh ripoff to the fake rock paintings. The most inscrutable are the fake rock frames, some of which appear to weigh hundreds of pounds, most look like they are crafted of Muppet poop, and several framing lenticular photos of cave scenes, one with a tableau of an Orange hippo-man/Mr. T with a bandolier harassing a hobbit on a horse. What is this place? Admission is free, many of the rooms are unused, the translations of text are stilted, and almost all of the work is by one 'artist,' described in adulation, an artist not heard of in the West. Yes, this is some sort of cult and/or tax write-off conspiracy. And it is free and weird. The downstairs looks like a life size shoebox diorama of a pastoral scene. Go see this place before the IRS...

Interestingly, most of the marble paintings were pixelated upon closer examination. So much of the art weren’t original paintings and copies because we saw two exact same pieces: the one in the lobby area is the exact same piece as one in the upper museum area.

Lots of beautiful Asian art, but some artist placards were misplaced. For example, in the frame art section of the museum, a painting within a beautifully crafted frame (the frame should have been the main artwork for the placard in that section) was mislabeled as a painting titled “Phoenixes” but it was simply a cheap, tacky, 3D-like plastic image of flamingos like the ones elementary students used to receive as school bookmarks—the ones where the image seems to move by changing your angle of vision. Was quite disappointed in this museum because I wasn’t expecting to have to pay to see mere copies/prints of paintings. Makes me question the authenticity of the Asian art that is on paper (not canvas) too. Surprisingly large space for a museum despite its...

I was waiting for my emergency passport pickup at 3:30 pm that day, and had a couple hours after lunch to hang around in that area. When I was thinking where I can kill the time while waiting, this museum jumped out in google maps. It turned out to be a great experience for me, there are only me and maybe one or two people in the museum that day, so I can appreciate those exhibits quietly, especially those masterpieces of Chinese famous painters, like Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Li Keran, etc, if you know Chinese art history, you know what they mean. I highly recommend this place if you happen to have some time in this area. BTW, the lady in the front door is very nice, she welcomed me and gave me a introduction, and the lady in gift shop can speak Chinese, we had a short chat in Chinese after I finished my watching, she was very nice as well, she even gave me a bookmark as a gift. Anyway, it is definitely a very good place deserving to...