
Maori circa 1890, at DeYoung museum
The De Young Museum has a great little show about Gauguin that includes Oceania, Europeania, paintings, prints, ceramics and wood carvings.
People who’ve been around long enough might notice that the museum’s Maori figure from 1890 is likely the source of much of the logo, corporate ID and merchandise of the still thriving Trader Vic’s chain. Since the museum is publicly funded, maybe we can garnish some of their revenue stream (garnish in the sense of put a court order on top of, not in the sense of a slice of pineapple beside my pork ribs) by siccing the City Attorney on them. Matt Gonzalez of the Public Defenders’ Office is also good at this type of thing. Granted, We The People of the 415/650 might repatriate some of that back to the indigenous Maori NGOs.
I may have to ponder (but not plunder) this closer to home, with a Mai Tai at local Chef Chu’s.