The Cantor presents 8 new shows. French art flourishes with 400 years of master French drawings plus works by Manet, Matisse, and Redon. Prints from Fontainebleau continue on view. See details below. Let us know if you need more info or images. 

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University
June–July 2013
   New Exhibitions
   Continuing Exhibitions
   Programs
   Ongoing from the Collections
   Visitor Information
 
NEW EXHIBITIONS


Manet and the Graphic Arts in France, 1860–1880
June 12–November 17
The death and destruction in the streets of Paris during the Insurrection of 1871 affected many artists who lived through it or even fought in it, as did Edouard Manet (1832–1883). This exhibition examines how printmakers, draftsmen, and photographers depicted the factors that led to this traumatic event as well as the conflict itself and the changes it brought to Paris. The central image, Manet's powerful lithograph Civil War, is shown with 13 works on paper by Félix Bracquemond (1833–1914), Maximilien Luce (1858–1941), Charles Marville (1813–1979), Félix Hilaire Buhot (1847–1898), and others. 


Faith Embodied: Saints from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
June 12–November 17
The 16 prints in this exhibition explore the different strategies artists employed to represent the deeds, miraculous visions, and martyrdoms of the Christian saints. The works also demonstrate how the depiction of saints varied, from images focused closely on the body to others that tell an engrossing story, as art and daily life became increasingly secular. The works included in this installation range from a rough woodcut published in the late 15th century to the delicate and visually complex etchings characteristic of the 17th and 18th centuries. 


Storied Past: Four Centuries of French Drawings from the Blanton Museum of Art
July 3–September 22
This exhibition, organized by the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas at Austin, presents 55 exemplary French drawings that chronicle the development of the medium from the Renaissance to the opening of the 20th century. It is especially strong in 17th- and 18th-century drawings that were highly influenced by the curriculum of the prestigious Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. Also noteworthy are 19th- and 20th-century works by draftsmen reacting against the academic tradition; these artists deliberately took a more realist approach to examine the social, economic, and political changes transforming modern France. Related lecture by Cantor curator Elizabeth Mitchell, July 18, 5:30 pm (details below). Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/storied-past.html


Inspired by Temptation: Odilon Redon and Saint Anthony
July 3–October 20
The great French symbolist artist Odilon Redon (1840–1916) often paired his art with literature to create an art of the imagination. Three of Redon’s most famous lithographic albums were inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874). Based on the legend of a third-century monk who retreated to the desert to contemplate God, Flaubert’s story describes the fantastical events that transpire over the course of one night in which Anthony is assaulted by erotic visions and demonic apparitions. This exhibition presents all three of Redon’s albums—a total of 41 individual lithographs. Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/redon.html 


Drawn to the Body: French Figure Drawings from the Cantor Arts Center Collection
July 3–September 22
Beginning in the Renaissance, the most important skill for a draftsman to master was drawing the human body. The body was the basic element from which artists built most images, from complex narrative compositions to refined portraits. This exhibition showcases a selection of 17th- to 19th-century French drawings from the Cantor’s collection and explores approaches to depicting the human form used by artists such as Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), François-André Vincent (1746–1816), and Pierre Puvis de Chevannes (1824–1898). 


Shifting Sands: The Beach and the Desert in 20th-Century Photographs
July 17–October 13
Many American and European modernists chose to photograph beaches and deserts as an antidote to urban or industrialized landscapes. Artists Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902–2002) and Edward Weston (1886–1958), among others, approached these different and yet strangely similar landscapes in many ways: they could be evocative settings with distinct historic and symbolic associations, or backdrops defined by their pure and stark visual textures. Approximately 20 photographs on display.


Ad Men: Advertising in Contemporary Art
July 17–December 1
Since the consumer explosion that followed World War II, numerous artists have trained in commercial work and adapted advertising themes and techniques to their art. This exhibition features a dozen works from such artists—Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, James Rosenquist, and Roy Lichtenstein, among others—and examines the processes, techniques, and subject matter of advertising and commercial art. 

Matisse Jazz
July 31–September 22
In 1943, French artist Henri Matisse was 74 years old and bedridden when he began the portfolio that eventually became Jazz. Limited in his mobility, Matisse cut out forms from colored papers that he arranged into collages. His assistants then prepared the collages—most of which were based on circus or theater themes—for printing in the pochoir screenprint process. This exhibition features all 20 prints from the edition of the portfolio held in the Gunst Collection in Special Collections at the Stanford University Library. Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/matisse-jazz.html

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS


North Africa and the Holy Land in 19th-Century Photographs
Through June 2, 2013
During the 19th century, photographs served as surrogate experiences for Americans and Europeans unable or too daunted to travel. Photographs were also used by scholars as official records of archaeological expeditions and by the devout to explore places mentioned in the Bible. This installation presents 16 vintage photographs from the Cantor's collection, offering a range of subjects including city views, picturesque views of holy sites, ancient architectural wonders, and studies of significant artifacts. 


Buying and Selling: Early Modern Economies of Labor, Merchandise, Services, and Shopping
Through June 2, 2013
European artists of the 17th and 18th centuries took great interest in depicting aspects of modern life, including commercial exchange and a rapidly expanding market of material goods. The 17 prints and drawings in this exhibition offer views of different types of workplaces and showcase a range of workers at their tasks, from the skilled goldsmith to the lowly butcher and rat catcher. 


Buying and Selling: Stanford Student Filmmakers on Bay Area Economies
Through June 2, 2013
Short documentary films by Stanford MFA and MA students provide a contemporary counterpart to the themes illustrated in the exhibition Buying and Selling: Early Modern Economies of Labor, Merchandise, Services, and Shopping (see above). Two installments, seven films each


Revisiting the South: Richard Misrach's Cancer Alley
Through June 16
The latest photographs in Richard Misrach's profound body of work document the far-reaching ecological erosion and economic deprivation of the local, and mostly poor African-American, communities along "Cancer Alley," the Mississippi River corridor from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. The exhibition's 19 large-scale images engage the viewer with serene pastoral scenes, meandering watercourses, and misty bayous; but the petrochemical industry is omnipresent in the rusted pipelines, contaminated water, mammoth tankers, expanses of concrete, and towering smokestacks. The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/misrach.html


Lee Friedlander: The Cray Photographs
Through June 16
In 1986, Cray Research, Inc., then the world's leading supercomputer producer, commissioned influential American photographer Lee Friedlander to undertake a project featuring its factory in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. This exhibition features the 79 resulting vintage gelatin silver prints. Images include landscapes, architectural studies, and fascinating close-up shots of the factory workers as they focused on intricate and complex tasks. 
Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/friedlander.html


Dotty Attie: Sometimes a Traveler/There Lived in Egypt
Through June 16
Dotty Attie is known for her reproductions of European Old Master paintings paired with text—pieces that poetically reveal the voyeuristic narratives in Western visual and literary arts. Her portfolio Sometimes a Traveler/There Lived in Egypt calls particular attention to the exploitation of the North African female body and its place in European Orientalists' imaginations. Sixteen works on display


More Than Fifteen Minutes: Andy Warhol and Celebrity
Through June 30
As a Pop artist trained in advertising, Andy Warhol was obsessed with fame and the media. This exhibition features prints, drawings, and Polaroid photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Mao Tse Tung, Mick Jagger, and other contemporary icons, exploring ideas about fame, ephemerality, and the legacy of Andy Warhol. Approximately 24 works on display 


Hauntings: American Photographs, 1845–1970
Through July 7
The 24 spellbinding photographs selected for this installation allude to the ghostly quality and ephemeral nature of photography; in them, time rolls in rear-view mirrors and ocean waves or across the sky in a passing phenomenon, a dirigible floating in the clouds. 


A Royal Renaissance: School of Fontainebleau Prints from the Kirk Edward Long Collection
Through July 14
As part of the cultural policy of King Francois I of France, several prominent engravers of the time recorded the multimedia ensembles embellishing the king's magnificent royal residence at Fontainebleau. Disseminated internationally, their prints publicized the cultural efflorescence that the king had fostered. More than 30 examples have been selected from the collection of Kirk Edward Long to illustrate the sophistication, eroticism, and extravagance of this courtly style. Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/fontainebleau.html
 
Border Crossings: From Imperial to Popular Life
Through August 4
How are the boundaries between social classes and identities challenged and transcended? This exhibition explores this question. Eighteenth-century Chinese paintings demonstrate how artists outside palace walls reproduced the subject and styles of imperial court paintings in order to fulfill commissions by patrons of a rising social class. A Japanese woodblock print examines how cross-dressing actors in Kabuki theater became trendsetters for the world off-stage. And through his photographs, Chinese contemporary artist Cang Xin steps into different professions and identities. Forty-four works on display. 
Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/border.html

Wood, Metal, Paint: Sculpture from the Fisher Collection
Through October 13
This installation includes pieces by Martin Puryear, Sol LeWitt, Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre, and John Chamberlain. The six works on display are especially significant because they serve as examples of the innovations that established the reputations of these artists. Press release: http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/fisher-collection.html

PROGRAMS

Diane Arbus and Howard Nemerov: A Resemblance
Thursday, June 6, 5:30 pm, Cantor auditorium, FREE
Pulitzer prize-winning poet Howard Nemerov and renowned photographer Diane Arbus were brother and sister. The two were close, but their creative lives were very different. Or were they? In this talk, Stanford professor Alexander Nemerov, the son of Howard Nemerov and the nephew of Diane Arbus, discusses the connection between his father and aunt as well as his connection to each of them. Registration required; email  for details. Space is limited.

Healing Our Heroes
Thursday, July 11, 5:30 pm, Cantor auditorium, FREE
Stanford Med Writers Forum presents readings of original work honoring veterans by the Pegasus Physicians at Stanford. Readers include Audrey Shafer, William Meffert, Kendra Peterson, and Saili Jain.

Curator Lecture: Elizabeth Mitchell
Thursday, July 18, 5:30 pm, Cantor auditorium, FREE
Elizabeth Mitchell, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, speaks about the drawing tradition in France, touching on works presented in both Storied Past and Drawn to the Body: French Figure Drawings from the Cantor Arts Center Collection.

FOR FAMILIES 
Sundays: 
Docent-led Family Tours: 12:30, 1, and 1:30 pm. Docents lead family-friendly gallery tours. Explore the special artworks on view, then create your own inspired art. FREE
Drop-in Art-Making: 1–3 pm, Moorman studio. Experiment with art materials and techniques in sessions taught by professional art teachers. FREE
Focused Drawing in the Galleries: 12:30 to 5 pm. Spend time as a family exploring the galleries and sketching your favorite artworks. FREE
Daily: 
Art Packs: Young artists can check out art packs stocked with colored pencils and sketch paper and spend time in our galleries drawing. Children return the packs when they are finished and take their drawings home. FREE

ONGOING FROM THE COLLECTIONS
The Cantor's collections span the history of art from ancient China to the 21st century. Selections from the collections and long-term loans are on view in many of the Cantor's 24 galleries, sculpture gardens, and terraces, including:
Rodin! The Complete Stanford Collection
Expanding Views of Africa
The Cantor Arts Center's Contemporary Collection
Living Traditions: Arts of the Americas 
The Robert Mondavi Family Gallery for 19th-century Art of Europe and America
The Life and Legacy of the Stanford Family
and outdoors:
Stone River by Andy Goldsworthy http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/archived_acquisitions_goldsworthy.html
Sequence by Richard Serra http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/serra-sequence.html

 VISITOR INFORMATION
- FREE Admission
- OPEN: Wednesday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm and Thursday evenings until 8 pm     
- CLOSED: Mondays and Tuesdays 
- LOCATED on the Stanford campus, off Palm Drive at Museum Way
- Phone 650-723-4177     Web http://museum.stanford.edu
- FREE PARKING on all weekends plus after 4 pm weekdays.  Pay parking ($1.50 per hour) at other times.
- Maps, directions: http://www.stanford.edu/home/visitors/maps.html   
 
You can contact me, or you can contact Anna Koster (Head of Communications at the Cantor Arts Center, 650-725-4657, ) if you have questions. 
 
Margaret Whitehorn
PR Assistant Manager
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
650-724-3600, mmwhite@stanford.edu