Eric Huang – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Fri, 20 Oct 2017 17:19:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Eric Huang – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 ‘Object Lessons’: A crash course in modern Chinese brush painting https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/29/object-lessons-a-crash-course-in-modern-chinese-brush-painting/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/29/object-lessons-a-crash-course-in-modern-chinese-brush-painting/#respond Tue, 29 Nov 2016 20:59:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120434 The Cantor Arts Center is currently featuring a series of exhibitions entitled “Object Lessons: Art & Its Histories,” which is organized around foundational art history courses at Stanford. The exhibits seek to transform the gallery space into a hub for academic discussion and critical thinking about visual art and its cultural contexts. “Object Lessons,” as […]

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Courtesy Cantor Arts Center. Kate Mendillo pick (for 105 Russell) Huang Binhong (China, 1864–1955), Mountain Landscape, c. 1953. Ink and color on paper. Gift of Dr. Shirley Sun (A.B., 1964; A.M., 1969; Ph.D, 1974), 1994.113
Courtesy Cantor Arts Center. Kate Mendillo pick (for 105 Russell)
Huang Binhong (China, 1864–1955), Mountain Landscape, c. 1953. Ink and color on paper. Gift of Dr. Shirley Sun (A.B., 1964; A.M., 1969; Ph.D, 1974), 1994.113

The Cantor Arts Center is currently featuring a series of exhibitions entitled “Object Lessons: Art & Its Histories,” which is organized around foundational art history courses at Stanford. The exhibits seek to transform the gallery space into a hub for academic discussion and critical thinking about visual art and its cultural contexts.

“Object Lessons,” as they appear in the Madeleine H. Russell Gallery, focus on modern Chinese art from the late 19th century to the present day. These works — or objects — generally manifest themselves as a series of paper wall scrolls, emblazoned with ink renditions of traditional Chinese landscapes. Richard Vinograd, Christensen Fund professor in Asian art, selected the works to complement the undergraduate course “From Shanghai Modern to Global Contemporary: Frontiers of Modern Chinese Art.”

“Object Lessons” is clean and minimalistic in its presentation. The walls of the space are plain and free of clutter, drawing full attention to the soft, intricate textures of the scrolls that hang from the walls, equidistant from one another.

The wall scrolls on display are notable for their verticality and the sense of vertical motion they convey, despite the static scenes they depict. Ink strokes spiral upwards to form cliff faces and bamboo shoots in Zhang Daqian’s “Bamboo, Orchids, and Chrysanthemums.” In a 1946 landscape painting, Huang Binhong uses negative space to suggest a winding river that twists and turns its way upward across the surface of the scroll.

Feng Zikai’s “Only the Mirror Knows the Beauty of a Poor Girl” is one of the most delightfully unique pieces on display in “Object Lessons.” Zikai’s roots as a cartoonist are evident in the piece’s meticulously inked lines and pastel colors — a departure from the loose and monochromatic ink strokes of Zikai’s contemporaries. A vignette depicting a lone woman gazing stolidly into a mirror, “Only the Mirror Knows the Beauty of a Poor Girl” is simultaneously playful and sobering (as cartoons tend to be).

A staple of landscape paintings across history is a small, solitary figure situated in the landscape. The presence of the figure imbues the landscape with a sense of sprawling scale and suggests a sort of storyline. Zheng Wuchang’s “Leaning on a Tree and Listening to the Waterfall” places a figure at the base of a waterfall, perched under the branches of a gnarled mass of trees. The breathtaking scale of the piece, coupled with the lone figure, conveys a sense of adventure or the beginning of a perilous journey.

“Finding representation within abstraction” seems to be an apt characterization of the Chinese brush painters’ style. Chinese brush painting has roots in calligraphy and employs many of the same tools and ideologies. In particular, Chinese painters seek to convey meaning through few, purposeful strokes of the brush. This is perhaps best represented by Fu Yiyao’s 1979 landscape painting of a series of towering cliffs. Viewed from up close, the painting melts into loose and indistinguishable ink stains and brush strokes, and the cliff faces seem to hold traces of Yiyao’s hand and energy.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘New to the Cantor’ packs a visual punch https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/24/new-to-the-cantor-packs-a-visual-punch/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/24/new-to-the-cantor-packs-a-visual-punch/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2016 08:00:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118434 The recently opened “New to the Cantor” features some of the most iconic contemporary and modern pieces from the collection, as well as artists who have never been exhibited at the museum before. Together, these elements combine to form one of the most impactful, visually diverse exhibits I’ve seen during my time at Stanford. “New […]

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Dashiell Manley (U.S.A., b. 1983), The New York Times, Monday October 6 2014, national edition Southern California (front page), 2014. Watercolor pencil on canvas. Courtesy of Private Collection, San Francisco. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery.
Dashiell Manley (U.S.A., b. 1983), The New York Times, Monday October 6 2014, national edition Southern California (front page), 2014. Watercolor pencil on canvas. Courtesy of Private Collection, San Francisco. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery.

The recently opened “New to the Cantor” features some of the most iconic contemporary and modern pieces from the collection, as well as artists who have never been exhibited at the museum before. Together, these elements combine to form one of the most impactful, visually diverse exhibits I’ve seen during my time at Stanford.

“New to the Cantor” is all about visual impact. That is to say, the exhibition packs a punch. This is achieved through the scale of the exhibits and the individual pieces on display and the artists’ use of shape language and color.

The towering scale of the works, coupled with the the sprawling area of the Freidenrich Family Gallery, shrinks the viewer and builds a wholly immersive experience.

An untitled work by San Francisco-based contemporary artist Barry McGee stitches together 152 elements of acrylic on panel. The piece is an eclectic shock of pattern and glowing color that explodes across the exhibit’s near wall. Typographic elements that read “FONG,” geometric patterns and graffiti scrawl all make cameo appearances. McGee’s work, like several of the other artists on display, leverages the aesthetic of op art and commercial art, bringing to mind the mid-20th-century pop-art movement. McGee’s origins as a graffiti artist are evident here, and it’s fascinating to see how street art culture interacts with the gallery setting.

The inclusion of iconic 20th century American works makes “New to the Cantor” all the more glamorous. Chuck Close’s Zhang Huan II buzzes with Close’s infamous style. Andy Warhol’s red-faced “Mao Tse-Tung” peers unwaveringly across the gallery floor.

Half of the exhibition is devoted exclusively to the works of Los Angeles-based contemporary artist Dashiell Manley, whose works seem to tie together and even shape the themes in the exhibit. Editorial design, abstract fields of color and an imposing sense of scale are all mainstays in Manley’s composition. In his works, Manley choreographs pastel colors, chaotic scribbles and handwritten typography. As I mentioned earlier in my Cantor preview, Manley’s visual language is distinctly and strikingly his own.

Manley’s “Elegy” series is particularly notable for its texture. The series is distinguished by the use of thick, glutinous paint daubs to create motion across the canvas.

“Elegy for whatever (a haystack lit from the back)” headlines the exhibit. The work just exudes horizontal motion – every stroke of paint represents an energy. Cool colors swim to the right, and warm colors swim to the left. Thick clots of paint appear to be extruded from the canvas surface,which helps to further ameliorate the sense of movement.  

Manley finds inspiration in editorials and current events. The LA artist morphs scripture from The New York Times into abstract, color-infused clouds. He takes iconography from cartoons and superimposes his own streaks of “vandalism.”

Ultimately, “New to the Cantor,” by displaying the new alongside the relatively old, highlights the cyclical nature of design and the timelessness of powerful shapes and mark-making in art.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Cantor Arts Center gears up for the fall https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/07/cantor-arts-center-gears-up-for-the-fall/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/07/cantor-arts-center-gears-up-for-the-fall/#respond Fri, 07 Oct 2016 09:34:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117695 With the new academic year out in full force, the Cantor Arts Center is gearing up for a slew of exhibits to be released in the coming months. Displayed alongside ongoing exhibits such as the previously reviewed “Showing Off,” these upcoming shows range from collections of iconic modern art pieces to the more contemporary and […]

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With the new academic year out in full force, the Cantor Arts Center is gearing up for a slew of exhibits to be released in the coming months. Displayed alongside ongoing exhibits such as the previously reviewed “Showing Off,” these upcoming shows range from collections of iconic modern art pieces to the more contemporary and experimental.

Comics in America

One of the more unique exhibitions currently on view at the Cantor, “Comics in America” highlights the aesthetic of comics, which would be one of the driving forces behind the mid-20th-century movement in American pop art. A medium historically derided as “non-art,” comics are highlighted here as a sophisticated mode of communication. The exhibit draws attention to the interplay between sequential images and dialogue that have become hallmarks of the medium. Some of the works on display include snippets from Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” and Ernie Bushmiller’s “Nancy.”

Highlights from the Marmor Collection

“Highlights from the Marmor Collection” opens Oct. 12 and will feature works from powerhouses of 20th-century American art, from Robert Rauschenberg to Ed Kienholz. While the styles and art-making processes on display vary greatly — from mixed-media collages to large-scale installations — the artists and their respective works are unified by the postwar climate and their commitment to experimentation.

New to the Cantor: Dashiell Manley

A solo exhibition featuring Los Angeles-based contemporary artist Dashiell Manley’s work will be opening Oct. 12 — a refreshing change of pace for the Cantor, whose exhibits often tend towards modern art. In his works, Manley choreographs pastel colors, chaotic scribbles and handwritten typography across large-scale canvases. Manley often combines the traditional canvas with elements of multimedia and sculpture, resulting in a visual language that is distinctly and strikingly his own.

The Wonder of Everyday Life: Dutch Golden Age Prints

“The Wonder of Everyday Life,” opening Nov. 16, seeks to pay homage to artwork from the Baroque era and the Dutch Golden Age. Artworks from this period are distinguished by their stunning drama and dynamism, both in subject matter and in technique. Contorted, muscled figures and sprawling, dark landscapes set the tone for much of the artwork produced in 17th-century Europe. Iconic Dutch artists such as Rembrandt harnessed these visual elements to depict the sensuality of the material world and to contemplate the role of spirituality in modern life.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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In conversation: Barbara Kruger and Alexander Nemerov https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/in-conversation-barbara-kruger-and-alexander-nemerov/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/in-conversation-barbara-kruger-and-alexander-nemerov/#respond Fri, 20 May 2016 06:51:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115457 On the evening of May 16, Barbara Kruger and Alexander Nemerov graced the stage of Cemex Auditorium with a discussion about Kruger’s work and its social implications. The talk is a part of The Ethics of Democracy Series, a program whose goal is to analyze the ethics of democracy from the perspective of scholars and […]

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Artist Barbara Kruger in conversation with Alexander Nemerov at CEMEX Auditorium on Monday, May 16, 2016. Courtesy of Christine Baker.
Artist Barbara Kruger in conversation with Alexander Nemerov at CEMEX Auditorium on Monday, May 16, 2016. Courtesy of Christine Baker.

On the evening of May 16, Barbara Kruger and Alexander Nemerov graced the stage of Cemex Auditorium with a discussion about Kruger’s work and its social implications. The talk is a part of The Ethics of Democracy Series, a program whose goal is to analyze the ethics of democracy from the perspective of scholars and civil leaders across the country.

Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist whose work deals with themes of consumerism, identity and sexuality. She plasters bold typographic elements onto buildings and photographs, leveraging the aesthetics of advertisement and editorial design. In doing so, Kruger’s work serves as an overture to these weighty themes.

Kruger’s style is influenced in part by her past experience as an editorial designer and fashion illustrator. The designer-turned-artist looks to craft meaning from images and text in concert. Within the images, the body is used as a presentational device for the text.

Alexander Nemerov, Chair of the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford, opened the conversation with an image of Kruger’s iconic piece, “Your Body is a Battleground.” The piece is meant to serve as a poster for the March on Washington for women’s reproductive rights, showcasing the ongoing presence of political undertones in Kruger’s work. The aesthetic of the piece is reminiscent of the aesthetic of propaganda for street fashion brands like New York-based Supreme.

“I love the everyday. I love the repetition of the everyday,” Kruger remarked. “I like the moments between events, and it’s during those moments that I create my work.”

Her more recent works take the form of site-specific installations, wherein Kruger works with architecture to create immersive experiences. Departing from Kruger’s earlier photographic collages, these installations forgo photographic images in favor of standalone text and a limited palette of solid colors: black, white and red.

Kruger believes her work has grown in scale because of technological allowances. Indeed, the size of her work in the gallery space is large and imposing, harmonizing with the surrounding architecture. The built environment has a huge effect on how we perceive artwork and the world around us.

Kruger’s large-scale works, such as “Belief+Doubt” in the lobby of the Hirshhorn Museum, are immersive in a way that her more traditional works arguably are not. Other works, like Kruger’s “Don’t Be a Jerk” New York billboard installation, step outside of the gallery space into more gritty urban venues.

On the topic of visual arts in society, Kruger believes the visual arts are marginalized in American culture. She cites recent cuts for arts funding in LA, musing that the visual art community is often perceived as an unfamiliar, closed culture.

For Kruger, the value of art lies in its ability to “make your life feel bigger and richer.” Art is the ability to visualize one’s experience with the world — abstracting the feeling of living and breathing. Art shows people what it means to be alive. By taking a conscious effort to crack the codes and to learn the language of abstraction and conceptual art, Kruger believes people can begin to adopt a more vibrant, examined view of the world.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Mark These Cradles’: An out-of-body experience https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/25/mark-these-cradles-an-out-of-body-experience/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/25/mark-these-cradles-an-out-of-body-experience/#respond Mon, 25 Apr 2016 07:09:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114073 “Mark These Cradles,” currently on view at the McMurtry Building’s Moghadam Gallery, is a solo exhibition featuring the work of Studio Art major Maia Paroginog. An opening reception for “Mark These Cradles” was held at the McMurtry Building on April 22. The exhibit is part of the Department of Art & Art History honors program, […]

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'Mark These Cradles,' as seen at the Moghadam Gallery. Photo by Elijah Moreau.
‘Mark These Cradles,’ as seen at the Moghadam Gallery. Photo by Elijah Ndoumbé.

“Mark These Cradles,” currently on view at the McMurtry Building’s Moghadam Gallery, is a solo exhibition featuring the work of Studio Art major Maia Paroginog. An opening reception for “Mark These Cradles” was held at the McMurtry Building on April 22.

The exhibit is part of the Department of Art & Art History honors program, which allows students to further pursue an artistic field or idea in which they have prior experience and culminates in an on-campus solo exhibition.

Eight lofty canvases, shielded behind the glass windows of the gallery space, comprise the show.

Paroginog stands in front of their exhibition. Photo by Elijah Moreau.
Paroginog stands in front of their exhibition. Photo by Elijah Ndoumbé.

A cursory glance at the exhibit reveals an incredible range and depth of emotion. Some paintings are mellow and wistful, with watered-down clouds of paint billowing across the white expanse of canvas; others are more brooding, heavy with clouds of black pigment.

The exhibit is precluded by a display of Paroginog’s sketchbook, which reveals loose figurative work. The sketchbook is a place for smaller scale experimentation, indicating how Paroginog solves problems with regard to their paintings and their composition. Paroginog bases their abstractions and compositions on the body and placement of vital organs, tracing the contours of the human figure using a combination of paint and graphite.

Paroginog’s artistic process and choice of media is meant to reflect the fragmentation of the human body. The body is stormy and ephemeral, much like the swirls and thick daubs of paint that seem to characterize “Mark These Cradles.” Traces of handprints can be seen smeared against canvas. Paint drips freely downward in a sort of controlled chaos. The employment of these different types of mark-making render the work intensely visceral and human.

The reflective surface of the Moghadam Gallery becomes a part of the show. Photo by Elijah Ndoumbé.
The reflective surface of the Moghadam Gallery becomes a part of the show. Photo by Elijah Ndoumbé.

A distinguishing feature of Paroginog’s work is how the artist makes bold decisions with color. Deep crimson explosions of paint stand for blood and vitality. Complementary blue, orange, red and green hues clash for attention.

Indeed, the idea of complements and contrasts unifies the pieces in the exhibit.  Thick pigment is caked onto the canvas, overlaid onto translucent drips of water-diluted paint. Drips of color appear to crawl towards the bottom of each canvas, while shapes and conglomerates of color are arranged in such a way that they seem to be rising upwards. This clash of rising and falling creates a scintillating sense of tension, and the verticality of Paroginog’s compositions speaks to their experience with global and cultural hierarchies.

Walking through the exhibit, I was frequently greeted by my own reflection in the glass surface of the Moghadam Gallery – my silhouette was gently mirrored in the canvases on display. In creating these works, Paroginog hopes to prompt viewers to consider their own bodies as landscape and as mediums for expression.

“Mark These Cradles” is on view at the Moghadam Gallery until May 14, 2016.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang@stanford.edu.

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‘Figuration/Abstraction’ features Cantor’s best https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/08/figurationabstraction-features-cantors-best/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/08/figurationabstraction-features-cantors-best/#respond Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:08:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113296 “Figuration/Abstraction” is built on the notion of opposites, pitting representational art and painstaking realism against the whimsical, open-ended aesthetic of abstraction. The exhibit highlights works from the Cantor’s permanent collection, sprawling across the walls of the expansive Freidenrich Family Gallery. The exhibit asks us to note the stylistic differences between the works as well as the […]

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Richard Diebenkorn's "Window." Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Richard Diebenkorn’s “Window.” Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

“Figuration/Abstraction” is built on the notion of opposites, pitting representational art and painstaking realism against the whimsical, open-ended aesthetic of abstraction. The exhibit highlights works from the Cantor’s permanent collection, sprawling across the walls of the expansive Freidenrich Family Gallery. The exhibit asks us to note the stylistic differences between the works as well as the historical and personal contexts that motivated these choices.

The representational works on display generally deal with the human figure, such as Duane Hanson’s hyperrealistic resin sculpture “Slab Man” and Alice Neel’s more traditional figure painting titled “The Arab.” The most iconic of these works is perhaps Chuck Close’s “Zhang Huan II,” a silkscreen portrait of a man executed in Close’s signature style. Close carves out values of the face using small, quilt-like squares of paint daubs.

Making my way through the exhibit, the pieces slowly “devolved” from representation to more freeform abstraction.

The abstract works featured in “Figuration/Abstraction” range from cubist works to more contemporary pieces, wherein artists decompose complex scenes into bare-bones shapes and blocks of solid color.

In the exhibit, there appear to be two schools of abstraction at play. The first is best described as freeform abstraction, wherein the marks are loose and reveal the physicality of making. Such works include the ink splatters of Richard Serra’s 1972 piece “Balance” and the tumbling chalk cubes that make up Mel Bochner’s “Onset of Turbulence (#5).” The second is characterized by a more mechanical, geometric style. Among these works is Frank Stella’s “Quathlambda II,” which comprises stacked triangular shapes in parallel to create an almost hypnotic effect.

Bay Area native Richard Diebenkorn is portrayed in the exhibit as a bridge between the two styles, as the artist often jumped between figuration and abstraction. His piece “Window” perhaps best represents this dichotomy. Here, Diebenkorn clearly represents objects like buildings and a chair, but constructs them from brightly colored shapes and angles. Viewed from afar, the painting seems to dissolve into an abstract cacophony of shapes and color.

Richard Diebenkorn’s “Ocean Park No. 94” leans more on the side of abstraction. Reminiscent of its counterpart in the Anderson Collection, “Ocean Park No. 60,” the piece employs line and color in a way that creates a powerful focal point and evokes the atmosphere of Diebenkorn’s beachfront locale, the Santa Monica Bay.

Frank Stella’s “Maxon’s Island,” an eye-popping, fluorescently-colored tangle of irregular shapes, closes off the exhibit in spectacular fashion. “Maxon’s Island” is an explosion of Stella’s imagination. The piece has a childlike, petulant quality to it, thanks to Stella’s unique choice of color and media — a not-so-subtle reminder of the limitlessness of abstraction as expression.

 

“Figuration/Abstraction” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Aug. 29, 2016.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Showing Off’: Exploring East Asian threads https://stanforddaily.com/2016/03/03/showing-off-exploring-east-asian-threads/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/03/03/showing-off-exploring-east-asian-threads/#respond Fri, 04 Mar 2016 07:07:41 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1112072 The experience of viewing “Showing Off” is surreal, like stepping into a giant time capsule. “Showing Off” explores how the design language of East Asian cultures translates to fashion by flaunting an incredible collection of East Asian garments from antiquity. It is especially interesting to note the similarities between garments across different cultures as well […]

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Qing dynasty men's dragon robe. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Qing dynasty men’s dragon robe. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

The experience of viewing “Showing Off” is surreal, like stepping into a giant time capsule. “Showing Off” explores how the design language of East Asian cultures translates to fashion by flaunting an incredible collection of East Asian garments from antiquity. It is especially interesting to note the similarities between garments across different cultures as well as how these traditional costumes transform utilitarian objects into technically astounding works of far art.

Huge, billowing gowns are hung up on elevated platforms around the walls of the gallery space, encased in glass and individually illuminated, heightening the sense of beauty and opulence given off by the pieces on display. The fact that the pieces are displayed in this way, spaced far apart from each other and individually highlighted, gives the garments a sense of timelessness and a certain fantastical charm.

East Asian artwork – fashion included – is known for being aggressively stylized. Commonalities across garments of different cultures include long, imposing silhouettes, imagery from nature and hard-edged iconographic artwork. Visual elements in the clothing designs frequently draw from oriental folklore, including gold-embroidered dragons, winged creatures and spiraling ocean waves. Line work is generally hard-edged and curved.

A prime example of this is the Qing dynasty men’s dragon robe on display. Compositionally, the piece features three dragons arranged in a sharp triangular formation, which is counterbalanced by the repeating round, circular patterns on the garment (e.g. rolling ocean waves and clouds). The result of this juxtaposition is a costume that commands attention and masterfully coordinates all of the intricacies that make up its design.

One of the more subdued pieces in the exhibit, a robe from the Japanese Edo period, forgoes animal imagery but maintains the same propensity for repeating patterns and contrasting textures. The piece, likely meant for everyday wear, combines indigo-dyed cotton with fiber harvested from the bark of Japanese elm trees.

Arguably the two centerpieces of the exhibit, positioned on the back wall of the space, are a pair of garments also from Japan’s Edo period: a dancer’s costume and a winter-themed kimono. Spread out fully across the wall side-by-side, the garments loom over the viewer in an expanse of cool slate blue interspersed with gaudy golden accents. Here, the sheer size of the pieces, combined with the reflectiveness of the material, entrances the viewer and exudes a sense of royalty.

Winter kimono. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Winter kimono. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

My personal favorite pieces from the exhibit were a pair of warriors’ helmets, simply because of how incredible and dreamlike the experience of viewing them was – as if concept art from cartoons and movies had come to life. Originating from feudal Japan, the helmets resemble masks contorted into menacing expressions, with sharp metallic accents jutting out in all directions.

“Showing Off” attests to the power of costume and apparel to immortalize a civilization. Fantastical as it is engaging, the exhibit uses fashion design as a means of reviving the visual languages of old and – if only for a brief moment – bringing us back in time.

“Showing Off” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until May 23, 2016.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang@stanford.edu.

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‘Myth, Allegory and Faith’: The body as narrative https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/19/myth-allegory-and-faith-the-body-as-narrative/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/02/19/myth-allegory-and-faith-the-body-as-narrative/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2016 10:32:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1111125 “Myth, Allegory and Faith” traces the rise of Mannerism, the dominant artistic style in 16th century Europe. Mannerist art usually takes the form of engravings, etchings, woodcuts and chiaroscuro woodcuts, often sporting religious and historical undertones. Mannerism first disseminated from Renaissance Florence and Rome – a hub for masters of illustration and figuration – to France, […]

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Jan Muller's "Minerva and Mercury Arming Perseus." Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Jan Muller’s “Minerva and Mercury Arming Perseus.” Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

“Myth, Allegory and Faith” traces the rise of Mannerism, the dominant artistic style in 16th century Europe. Mannerist art usually takes the form of engravings, etchings, woodcuts and chiaroscuro woodcuts, often sporting religious and historical undertones. Mannerism first disseminated from Renaissance Florence and Rome – a hub for masters of illustration and figuration – to France, the Holy Roman Empire and other European cultural hubs. Consequently, many of the figurative works on display combine small scale with painstakingly intricate detail.

Michelangelo played a key role in the growth of the Mannerist movement, as his work was an exposé of the dynamism and beauty of the human figure. Indeed, Italian and Dutch artists like Battista Franco and Jan Saenredam sought to utilize the figure as a mode of storytelling. The traces of Michelangelo’s influence in Mannerist artists’ work are hardly subtle: Powerful, ideally proportioned figures populate and contort themselves across the walls of Cantor’s Pigott Gallery. In Jan Saendram’s “The Punishment of Niobe,” for example, Saendram completely fills his drawing surface with precisely detailed figures, inviting viewers to lose themselves in the countless overlapping shapes and dynamic lines of action.

A commonality across mannerist works is the use of the human figure as a compositional element. Poses flow into each other, siphoning the eye across the page. Mannerist figures are rarely ever stagnant; rather, the artists utilize “contrapposto,” an Italian term signifying a contortion or counterpose, to create the illusion of movement. In Agostino Musi’s “The Carcass,” the artist frames the figures in the piece with a spiraling, gnarled skeleton of a four-legged creature, which mirrors the arched backs of the figures in the piece.

The Mannerist works on display are distinguished by their immersive narrative quality, particularly Cornelis Cort’s comic book-esque series of ten prints portraying the allegory of Hercules. Cort employs the figure as storytelling, depicting Hercules as an intensely muscled nude figure. Hercules is always shown in action through candid motion shots. Here, Cort demonstrates the Mannerist affinity for action and movement. In “Hercules Chains Cerberus,” the outline of Hercules’ outstretched, club-wielding arms creates a sharp diagonal line that cuts across the center of the piece, creating a sense of explosive vigor.

When working with larger canvases, Mannerist artists often chose to populate the piece with even more figures, as opposed to simply scaling up the figures. French artist Antonio Fantuzzi, in a pair of works entitled “The Clemency of Scipio” and “The Banquet of Scipio,” portrays large-scale scenes that are claustrophobic, chaotic and visually stunning. In both pieces, Fantuzzi uses sheer quantity of bodies to suggest violence and dehumanization – amongst such a large crowd, the characters lose their individuality and degenerate into shapes and patterns.

“Myth, Allegory and Faith” focuses on Mannerism as storytelling and the human figure as a design element. The artists convey their characters’ emotions not just through facial expressions, but through body language and dynamic interplay of shapes. Paying homage to an age of obsessive perfectionism and pin-sharp detail, “Myth, Allegory and Faith” immerses viewers in a world of fantastical settings and meticulously rendered heroes.

“Myth, Allegory and Faith” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until June 20, 2016.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang@stanford.edu.

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‘Bird in the Hand’: A flurry of feathers https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/29/bird-in-the-hand-a-flurry-of-feathers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/29/bird-in-the-hand-a-flurry-of-feathers/#respond Fri, 29 Jan 2016 13:06:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1109960 Featuring a motley collection of paintings, sculptures and on-site installations, “Bird in the Hand” is a new exhibit at the nearby Palo Alto Art Center that plays on the human fascination with birds and aviation. The exhibit focuses on birds as vehicles for cultural expression and as subjects of fascination for artists. The most captivating […]

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Deborah Simon's “Flock.” (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)
Deborah Simon’s “Flock.” (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

Featuring a motley collection of paintings, sculptures and on-site installations, “Bird in the Hand” is a new exhibit at the nearby Palo Alto Art Center that plays on the human fascination with birds and aviation. The exhibit focuses on birds as vehicles for cultural expression and as subjects of fascination for artists.

The most captivating part of the exhibit is the diverse ways in which birds are portrayed, with the works of 48 different artists on display. In some pieces, birds are portrayed as fierce tyrants of the air; in others, they are framed as docile pets and domestic animals.

Some of the most impactful pieces on display focus on the ferocity of the avian species. Deborah Simon’s “Flock” is a 3D installation featuring a torrent of birds alongside models of World War II allied planes strung from the ceiling. The figures cast shadows against the wall of the gallery space, where birds and vehicles of war intermingle and become indistinguishable from one another. An imposing mixed media sculpture, Elizabeth Higgins O’Connor’s “However” is a fantastical winged creature constructed out of found materials. The piece is primal and raw due to the large scale of the piece and the ruggedness of the materials she employs.

Elizabeth Higgins O'Connor's “However.” (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)
Elizabeth Higgins O’Connor’s “However.” (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

Other works, like the headlining piece in the exhibit (Michael Hall’s “I Hold You Tight to Keep You Safe”), focus on the vulnerability and docility of birds. Hall’s painting depicts three birds, immobile, clutched by a human hand. This playfully cynical piece explores the idea that the tighter you hold onto something, the more it tends to slips away.

The myriad of styles on display in the exhibit reflect how birds are portrayed across cultures.  Hung Liu’s oil painting entitled “Fat Bird” incorporates calligraphy, thick contours and flat colors that are characteristic of East Asian paintings from antiquity. Jessica Joslin’s “Zeus and Io,” as its name suggests, plays on tales from Greek mythology.

“Bird in the Hand” seeks to explore the unique visual qualities of bird anatomy and movement. Feathers, with their showy shapes and colors, are often incorporated into decorative garments, an idea that Carlos Villa explores in “Third Coat.” The piece is a large, avant-garde fur coat constructed out of assorted cloth, canvas sheets, feathers, bones and hair. Clashing colors and textures, flamboyant hazel-colored feathers lie against a backdrop of blue-striped cloth framed by ebony fur trim. Dennis Hlynsky’s “Line Birds” is a time lapse video portraying birds’ flight patterns in the sky. Here, bird silhouettes create mesmerizing loops and curves above an otherwise ordinary suburban street.

Laurel Roth Hope's "Queen and La Reina."  (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)
Laurel Roth Hope’s “Queen and La Reina.” (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

Simple but with an incredible number of avenues to explore, the premise of “Bird in the Hand” is strangely refreshing. What makes “Bird in the Hand” such an effective exhibit is the way it leverages both 2D and 3D works to make full use of the gallery space, giving off the impression that the art center itself has transformed into a lively, colorful aviary. Together, the artists prompt us to reconsider the impact that our oft-overlooked feathered friends have on our imagination, our culture and the cities we inhabit.

“Bird in the Hand” is on view at the Palo Alto Art Center until Apr. 10, 2016.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Wanting More’: Reflecting on consumer culture https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/15/wanting-more-reflecting-on-consumer-culture/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/15/wanting-more-reflecting-on-consumer-culture/#respond Fri, 15 Jan 2016 09:33:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1109352 During an era when pop art and consumer culture dominated the American art scene, photography emerged as a means of both artistic expression and cultural criticism. “Wanting More,” a newly opened exhibit at the Cantor Arts Center, is an unassuming but conceptually powerful exposé of consumer culture in America in the mid-20th century. The exhibit […]

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Frank Paulin's "Grant's Bar, New York." Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Frank Paulin’s “Grant’s Bar, New York.” Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

During an era when pop art and consumer culture dominated the American art scene, photography emerged as a means of both artistic expression and cultural criticism. “Wanting More,” a newly opened exhibit at the Cantor Arts Center, is an unassuming but conceptually powerful exposé of consumer culture in America in the mid-20th century. The exhibit also delves into the dual role of photography as advertisement and as fine art.

Much of American art in the 1900s focused on domestic objects and consumer goods, a fact that is perhaps best exemplified by the work of prominent American pop artist Andy Warhol. A superstar of the pop art era, Andy Warhol was known for incorporating imagery from commercial illustration in his paintings. His photographic work “Still Life,” on display in “Wanting More,” features a seemingly random assortment of domestic items emblazoned with the branding “Black Flag.” The juxtaposition of the jarring typeface and the docility and domesticity of the objects alludes to the ways in which mass marketing permeates everyday life.

Indeed, several of the photographic works in the exhibit feature common objects like containers and egg slicers that completely fill the frame of each photo. These works ask viewers to consider the aesthetics of the ordinary rather than the aesthetics of contrived paintings — a far cry from other exhibitions at the Cantor (e.g. “Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed”), which tend to be more painterly.

A key visual theme in the exhibit involves people in urban settings, where the figures in each image become secondary to sprawling advertisements plastered across building faces. Frank Paulin’s “Grant’s Bar, New York” and Elliot Erwitt’s “Southern Charm/Alabama,” both created in 1956, are two such works. The individuals in the photographs are hardly individuals at all; rather, they appear as nameless silhouettes against the white glow of billboards and neon signs.

One of the most haunting pieces in the exhibit, German-born artist Lotte Jacobi’s “Puppenkosmetic” depicts store shelves chock full of identical toy human heads. Jacobi’s employment of repetition furthers explores dehumanization in a mass market culture.

While not as immersive as some of its counterparts due to its small scale — both in terms of the physical gallery space and the size of the works on display — “Wanting More” is a strong commentary on consumerism in the 1950s. Though not outwardly hostile towards mass media and advertising, the exhibit suggests that these ideas have become irrevocably intertwined with our lives. In doing so, “Wanting More” prompts viewers to formulate their own opinions about this era in American history and its implications for today’s fast-paced society.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Top five upcoming on-campus exhibits https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/13/top-five-upcoming-on-campus-exhibits/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/01/13/top-five-upcoming-on-campus-exhibits/#respond Thu, 14 Jan 2016 01:29:23 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1108973 Following up a strong 2015 lineup of exhibitions, from “Artists at Work” to “We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper,” students and faculty in Stanford’s art department look to continue brandishing the talent and diversity of the arts scene at Stanford in 2016. Continuing exhibitions include the recently-reviewed “Empathy,” “Missing Persons” and “Words as […]

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Following up a strong 2015 lineup of exhibitions, from “Artists at Work” to “We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper,” students and faculty in Stanford’s art department look to continue brandishing the talent and diversity of the arts scene at Stanford in 2016. Continuing exhibitions include the recently-reviewed “Empathy,” “Missing Persons” and “Words as Image” exhibits at the Cantor Arts Center, which will be on display throughout early 2016.

To kick off the new year, here’s a rundown of the most anticipated events from the Stanford visual arts scene.

1. “Five”

On display at the newly-opened Coulter Art Gallery starting Jan. 11, “Five,” the spiritual successor to last year’s “Hi5” exhibition, will exhibit the work of five first-year MFA students in Art Practice. The exhibit hopes to bring together the diverse styles and visual languages of the different artists’ works, focusing on the themes of exploration and physicality. The artists – Omar Arason, Mark Baugh-Sasaki, Becca Kahn Bloch, Steven Garen and Boris Oicherman – share a common affinity for mixed-media and sculptural works and often look to tell stories through site-specific installations.

2. “Who We Be”

“Who We Be,” a Cantor exhibit scheduled to open March 30, deals with visual culture as it relates to contemporary justice movements and pop culture in North America. Socially relevant, the exhibition seeks to use visual arts as a means of broaching topics such as race relations and will feature pieces from Stanford’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

3. Frost Music and Arts Festival

The Stanford Concert Network’s flagship music festival, Frost looks to return this year with a brand-new selection of musical artists and a student-curated gallery of artworks. Specific details of the event are yet to be released, but if last year’s event is any indication, Frost is sure to be a celebration of individuality, escapism and the simple joy of creating.

4. “The Wonder of Everyday Life”

Jan de Baen's "The Burning of the Town Hall in Amsterdam." Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Jan de Baen’s “The Burning of the Town Hall in Amsterdam.” Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

“The Wonder of Everyday Life,” on view starting February 24 at the Cantor Arts Center, focuses on the evolution of printmaking during the Dutch Golden Age. Dutch printmaking is defined by dark, brooding values, striking realism and the dramatization of domestic scenes. In particular, prints produced during the Dutch Golden Age adopted the dynamic compositions of the Baroque era and added a sense of grit and realism, characteristics that the exhibit seeks to highlight.

5. “Myth, Allegory, and Faith” 

Hendrick Goltzius's "Apollo." Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center
Hendrick Goltzius’s “Apollo.” Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

Another exhibition focused on the development of Western art styles, “Myth, Allegory, and Faith,” opening Feb. 10 at the Cantor Arts Center, traces the evolution of the Italian Mannerist style into the Baroque style at the end of the 16th century. This exhibit is notable for the high-profile artists whose work will be on display, which range from Renaissance painter Federico Barocci to printmaker Giorgio Ghisi.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Studio art faculty talk: Chagoya discusses process https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/21/studio-art-faculty-talk-chagoya-discusses-process/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/21/studio-art-faculty-talk-chagoya-discusses-process/#respond Sat, 21 Nov 2015 22:10:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1107605 This past Wednesday, as part of programming for the Cantor exhibition “Artists at Work,” Enrique Chagoya, a celebrated professor in Stanford’s Department of Art and Art History, gave a talk at the Cantor Arts Center discussing his own influences and artistic process. Drawing from his experience living in and out of Mexico and from his […]

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This past Wednesday, as part of programming for the Cantor exhibition “Artists at Work,” Enrique Chagoya, a celebrated professor in Stanford’s Department of Art and Art History, gave a talk at the Cantor Arts Center discussing his own influences and artistic process.

Drawing from his experience living in and out of Mexico and from his background as a printmaker, Chagoya creates works that are rife with cartoon imagery as well as political messages and narratives. Well-versed in the language of the cartoon, the Mexican-born artist uses humor to broach difficult subjects such as colonialism and oppression. Charismatic and unreserved, Chagoya’s persona shines through in his work.

Chagoya’s creative passion first took root in Mexico City, his hometown. He first learned drawing and color theory from his father, who was an aspiring wrestler and a firefighter by trade.

On Wednesday, inspired by the exhibition of Diebenkorn’s sketchbooks currently on view at Cantor, Chagoya presented a collection of his own sketchbooks. The pages of his sketchbooks are littered with caricatures of friends drawn as animals and ink doodles, small tidbits of his imagination.

As he playfully described a “sketch war” he had with his friend — wherein they sketched each other as cartoonlike animals — during his talk, Chagoya’s affinity for having fun with his work became ever the more clear.

According to Chagoya, when he gets stumped at a particular point in his paintings, he turns to his sketchbook and allows his imagination to run free. This creates an air of spontaneity and randomness in his paintings as he incorporates disparate elements of his sketches.

Highly stylized figures, flat color and appropriation of other artists’ styles are staple features of Chagoya’s more developed works. He stitches whimsical cartoon imagery together with his own painterly aesthetic. In many cases, Chagoya situates contemporary characters in antiquated works, such as a piece where he superimposes a portrait of Barack Obama on George Cruikshank’s 1819 etching “The Head Ache.”

Chagoya is particularly interested in the topic of cultural diversity, an interest that is reflected in the eclectic mix of styles in his work. This is perhaps best represented by his series of self-portraits, in which he places his own face on the bodies of characters from different cultures and ethnicities.

“We are a species full of differences,” he remarked before the crowd. “We are all immigrants from somewhere.”

The aforementioned series is distinguished by the striking aesthetic of human faces against bright red geometric shapes.

In terms of what he wants his audience to take away from his work, Chagoya mused, “I like to make some level of ambiguity. I don’t want to tell people what to think; I leave the door open for interpretation.”

Chagoya invites his audience to engage with his work, hoping that his use of levity can help people broach serious social and political topics.

 

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Authors of ‘Electric Fashion’ talk creativity https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/09/authors-of-electric-fashion-talk-creativity/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/11/09/authors-of-electric-fashion-talk-creativity/#respond Tue, 10 Nov 2015 06:13:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1106537 This past Wednesday, Frederic Aranda — a celebrated fashion photographer and regular contributor to publications like Vogue and GQ — and Christine Suppes– a garment collector and founder of fashionlines.com — gave a talk at the Stanford Bookstore regarding their recent publication “Electric Fashion.” The book, touted as an incredible photographic accomplishment, is an anthology of photographs […]

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This past Wednesday, Frederic Aranda — a celebrated fashion photographer and regular contributor to publications like Vogue and GQ — and Christine Suppes– a garment collector and founder of fashionlines.com — gave a talk at the Stanford Bookstore regarding their recent publication “Electric Fashion.” The book, touted as an incredible photographic accomplishment, is an anthology of photographs featuring the garments in Suppes’ 30-year collection.

At the bookstore, the duo flaunted a few of the most notable shoots and outfits from “Electric Fashion,” including a series of looks based on the four seasons.

For the spring outfit in the collection, Suppes employs fabric with a natural, woody texture and repurposes flowers as headwear. The autumn look appears brooding and somber, featuring a piece by Chanel rippling with sheer fabric and against an icy, overexposed background.

Aranda’s photography highlights the gorgeous silhouettes and embroideries of different garments. The pieces are, for the most part, shot against dark backgrounds, brightly lit so that the clothing commands attention and its minute details are visible. Alexander McQueen’s gowns, for example, appear airy and fluid, hugging and extending from the contours of the body.

Though Suppes is not a model by trade, she feels the process of modeling for Aranda can be considered “performance art” — a sort of choreography between photographer and subject. She allows herself to become a medium for her clothes and allows herself to be vulnerable in front of Aranda’s camera lens.

Aranda describes Suppes’ style as a sort of fearless fashion. “Sometimes she does not even look at herself in the mirror,” Aranda muses. Suppes has complete faith in the designers and Aranda’s vision of the clothing. Indeed, the Bay Area native is unafraid of showing off her clothes and defying conventions of day-to-day fashion, setting the stage for a more fashion-forward Stanford.

As a photographer, Aranda is purely self-taught. With an academic background in Japanese theater, Aranda first engaged with photography as a hobby and an emotional outlet, taking up the art purely for the love of expression and out of a desire to portray his peers. Preferring the title “portrait photographer” over “fashion photographer,” Aranda’s goal as an artist is simple: “to make people feel good.”

When asked about following his creative passions, Aranda remarked, “It really is a question of instinct and being honest with yourself.”

In the future, Aranda and Suppes aspire to continue to capture the diversity of California.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Gabe Haro: More than just a meme https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/26/gabe-haro-more-than-just-a-meme/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/26/gabe-haro-more-than-just-a-meme/#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2015 05:19:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1105632 Gabe Haro ’18 is a maker. A modern-day Renaissance man, Haro, often seen sporting paint-spattered pants and his signature two-tone hairstyle, dabbles in fields ranging from photo manipulation to mechanical engineering. In his art, Haro strives to marry his diverse interests, exploring the unique visual qualities of digital media, mechanics and technology. More of a […]

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A piece from Haro’s meme installation. (Courtesy of Gabe Haro Art and Design)

Gabe Haro ’18 is a maker. A modern-day Renaissance man, Haro, often seen sporting paint-spattered pants and his signature two-tone hairstyle, dabbles in fields ranging from photo manipulation to mechanical engineering. In his art, Haro strives to marry his diverse interests, exploring the unique visual qualities of digital media, mechanics and technology.

More of a sculptor and a craftsman than a traditional artist, Haro ditches paintbrushes and pens in favor of X-ACTO knives, his laptop and the lens of his DSLR.

Haro’s work is marked by a mix of subtle humor, geometric precision and nods to popular culture. In his own words: “I approach my work with the consideration that technology is an inherent part of my life, and try to reflect this in the inquiry I conduct with my work.” In 2014, Haro undertook a street installation art project dealing with how people interact with the sudden surge of internet memes. Here, Haro positions cutouts of internet memes in real-life settings to explore the interplay between memes and communication.

“My meme installation project started, as much of my work does, from a strange mix of humor and contemplation,” Haro explains. “I thought bringing meme culture to a physical locale would be amusing, and began to discover the rift between physical and virtual, asserting how real both were in my life.”

Haro’s “Survey.” (Courtesy of Gabe Haro Art and Design)
Haro’s “Survey.” (Courtesy of Gabe Haro Art and Design)

In his Rauschenberg-esque series “Survey,” Haro overlays various photographs of cityscapes on top of each other, resulting in crisscrosses of urban shapes and geometries. Haro’s use of color in the series is sparse, but jarring; neon sparks of green and violet light up the collages.

“The main theme of this work is one I have worked with extensively,” he muses. “From the symbols that create our communication to the infrastructure that defines our sense of space, I utilize a wide variety of techniques synthesized digitally to depict these tensions.” Indeed, like his meme installation project, “Survey” is a way for Haro to interact and create dialogue with his environment, from the streets of San Francisco to the suburbs of his hometown in Austin.

“Survey” is currently on view at “Comma And…,” a juried undergrad art exhibition in the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History.

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Haro’s “Yes.” (Courtesy of Gabe Haro Art and Design)

A chameleon at heart, Haro constantly adapts his art-making process based on the changes he sees in the world around him and in the artists that he studies. When asked about his biggest influences in the art world, Haro responded, “From the deconstruction of landscape into geometric compositions by Diebenkorn to the often irreverent, irrational and humorous work of Dadaists such as Duchamp, I try to keep myself open to incorporating and challenging examples of what art history as a whole has to offer.”

Haro takes his collective experiences as an engineer, a craftsman and an adventurer and melds them into a visual language that is uniquely his own. Always dressed in his Sunday best, viewing the world through octagonal sunglasses, Haro allows his unwavering style to shine in every part of his life.

Gabe Haro’s work can be found at studioharo.weebly.com.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Rare Piranesi drawings revive Greek architecture https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/15/rare-piranesi-drawings-revive-greek-architecture/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/15/rare-piranesi-drawings-revive-greek-architecture/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2015 07:22:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1104894 In 1777, Italian printmaker and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi visited the ancient Greek city of Paestum on the Gulf of Salerno, creating a series of studies focusing on three Doric temples in the city. “Piranesi’s Paestum,” currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, displays some of Piranesi’s rare preparatory drawings and sketches from the […]

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Piranesi’s powerful rendition of Doric architecture. (Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center)

In 1777, Italian printmaker and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi visited the ancient Greek city of Paestum on the Gulf of Salerno, creating a series of studies focusing on three Doric temples in the city. “Piranesi’s Paestum,” currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, displays some of Piranesi’s rare preparatory drawings and sketches from the series. The exhibit is both a love letter to Doric architecture and a masterclass in perspective drawing, providing a glimpse into Paestum from – quite literally – Piranesi’s perspective.

Piranesi populates his architectural studies with portrayals of figures and animals, enlivening his environments with an organic quality. Likely from imagination, his portrayals of the figure show an incredible ability to visualize a setting and translate that setting into marks on the page.

For most of the drawings in the series, Piranesi employs largely the same techniques. Black and brown ink, pen and black chalk are spattered onto toned paper. The paper has a rich and varied texture, creased and stained with age, mirroring the crumbling remnants of Paestum.

Piranesi’s experimentation with perspective and multiple vanishing points is the key selling point of the series. Piranesi tends to place his vanishing points off-center to vary his compositions and provide a more dynamic view of his subject matter. This is perhaps best seen in “Interior of the ‘Temple of Neptune,’ Looking East,” wherein rows of two-tiered pillars plunge diagonally across the page and into the ink-wash background. The artist also employs atmospheric perspective as his structures recede into the background, which he indicates by using a lighter ink wash and more sparse chalk lines.

The way the exhibit is curated mirrors the structured composition of Piranesi’s studies. The Italian’s works are evenly spaced around the room, encircling the viewer, as if the viewer is a bystander in one of Piranesi’s compositions.

Similar to its counterpart “Artists at Work,” “Piranesi’s Paestum” places particular focus on Piranesi’s creative process. In a comparison of initial study and completed print, the curator places both iterations of “View of the Interior of the ‘Basilica,’ Looking West” side by side.

Despite being the same scene drawn by the same artist, the two drawings give off completely different vibes. In the preparatory drawing, loose ink splashes carve clouds out of negative space, whereas in the print they are sharply defined. The sketch feels more warm and organic; ink strokes loosely suggest the presence of shadows. In the print, shadows are more dark and ominous, rendered via hatch lines.

Likewise, “Interior of the ‘Basilica,’ Looking Northeast” clearly shows the artistic process of revision. Lines of red chalk shadow the figures in the scene, suggesting Piranesi’s exploration of various poses.

“Piranesi’s Paestum” explores the historical significance of Paestum’s colossal Doric temples and how Piranesi explored these landmarks through his illustrations. Piranesi’s dynamic compositions and command of perspective draw us out of the gallery space and into Greece of antiquity.

“Piranesi’s Paestum” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Jan. 4, 2016.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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“Front Yard/Backstreet” frames cityscapes as fine art https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/07/de_eh-front-yardbackstreet-frames-cityscapes-as-fine-art/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/07/de_eh-front-yardbackstreet-frames-cityscapes-as-fine-art/#respond Thu, 08 Oct 2015 02:06:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1104505 “Front Yard/Backstreet,” is a new exhibit at the Palo Alto Art Center that attempts to re-contextualize the places where we work and live as networks of complex visuals. The exhibit explores the connection between people and their environment, while using the themes of maps and landscapes as the basis for the works on display. Here, […]

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Tanya Geis’s site-specific installation. (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

“Front Yard/Backstreet,” is a new exhibit at the Palo Alto Art Center that attempts to re-contextualize the places where we work and live as networks of complex visuals. The exhibit explores the connection between people and their environment, while using the themes of maps and landscapes as the basis for the works on display.

Here, maps are reframed as fine art, prompting viewers to reflect on the unique contours and colors that comprise them. Artists frequently portray cityscapes as complex geometries of lines and shapes. In “Walking, Week 51 in 16 Panels,” Laurie Frick utilized GPS technology to trace her steps through Brooklyn and mapped her route onto large expanses of laser-cut cotton paper. Craig Dorety and Jim Campbell’s “Inverted Pixel Array — Street Scene” decomposes a cityscape into simplified black shapes and multicolored glowing lights. It is particularly fascinating to consider how the glow of lights themselves overlap and create smaller patterns and hue variations. The work of Frick, Dorety and Campbell delve into the possible intersections between art and technology.

The exhibit goes on to underscore the natural elements in our surroundings, juxtaposing geometric, man-made architecture with the rugged unpredictability of nature. Tanya Geis’s site-specific installation, “TBD,” is painted directly onto the wall of the gallery space using mud from the San Francisco Bay and watercolor paint; Geis’s choice of medium physically carries objects from the natural world into the gallery space. Painted entirely in a monochromatic brown, the piece portrays piles of junk whose shapes seem to suggest insects or other organic creatures. Geis makes a statement about environmental health and the adverse effects of human interaction with wetlands and oceans.

The world comes to life when we actively engage with it; “Front Yard/Backstreet” depicts people as the convergence of the industrial and the natural. In a series of hyperrealistic graphite and charcoal illustrations, Joel Daniel Phillips, artist-in-residence at the Palo Alto Art Center, journalizes his interactions with the Buena Vista Mobile Home community in Palo Alto. Phillips portrays his subjects alongside their mobile homes, accompanied by a selection of shrubbery and potted plants to indicate a sort of harmony between the elements of his drawings.

As part of a community effort to grow the local arts scene, “Front Yard/Backstreet” is accessible to art world newbies; however, the exhibit’s accessibility does not detract from its conceptual and emotional depth. The works on display toy with the idea of balancing opposites and make us consider the strange visual relationships hidden in the world around us.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

“Front Yard/Backstreet” is on view at the Palo Alto Art Center until Dec. 13, 2015.

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Diebenkorn’s sketchbooks revealed to the public https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/01/diebenkorns-sketchbooks-revealed-to-the-public/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/10/01/diebenkorns-sketchbooks-revealed-to-the-public/#respond Fri, 02 Oct 2015 06:13:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1104095 “Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed” is the first ever public viewing of California-based artist and Stanford alum Richard Diebenkorn’s personal sketchbooks. The Cantor Arts Center has successfully digitized all 29 of his sketchbooks, which are arranged chronologically and accessible at the exhibit itself via touchscreen display. Known for toting a sketchbook everywhere he went, Diebenkorn studied […]

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Richard Diebenkorn (U.S.A., 1922–1993), Untitled from Sketchbook #2, page 37, 1943–1993. Felt-tip marker ink on paper. Gift of Phyllis Diebenkorn, 2014.2.39. © The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.
Untitled self-portrait from Sketchbook #2. (Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center)

“Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed” is the first ever public viewing of California-based artist and Stanford alum Richard Diebenkorn’s personal sketchbooks. The Cantor Arts Center has successfully digitized all 29 of his sketchbooks, which are arranged chronologically and accessible at the exhibit itself via touchscreen display.

Known for toting a sketchbook everywhere he went, Diebenkorn studied scenes from life that would eventually form the basis of large-scale abstract paintings like his “Ocean Park” series. By visually journaling his travels around the Bay Area, Diebenkorn explores lines, shape and form in surprising ways that belie the seeming mundaneness of his subjects.

Diebenkorn’s works are displayed alongside those of Edward Hopper, an American realist painter whose influence is readily apparent in Diebenkorn’s works. Both artists document everyday scenes with a loose, painterly quality. Diebenkorn’s affinity for the commonplace and the suburban is perhaps best represented by his 1943 painting entitled “Palo Alto Circle.” The American painter slathers warm oil paint on canvas to indicate rust-worn railroad tracks against a backdrop of suburban architecture. Subdued and rustic, the painting captures the homely ambiance of Palo Alto through its color scheme and through the horizontal lines that dominate its composition.

Diebenkorn is known more for his sprawling abstract landscape paintings than for his renditions of the human figure; nevertheless, the pages of his sketchbook are filled with gesture drawings. His lines are consistently loose and free, dotted with ink splatters, and he often sacrifices anatomical accuracy in favor of energy and movement.

It is interesting to trace the progression of Diebenkorn’s style across sketchbooks. Earlier sketchbooks in the series show Diebenkorn’s experiments with tone and shadow on the figure, while later sketches tend to focus exclusively on the line. In his last two sketchbooks, Diebenkorn starts to gravitate towards shapes and abstraction, playing with ink and its unique qualities as a medium – a distinct mix of control and spontaneity.

While digital archives are important because they provide accessibility to lesser-seen works, they are no substitute for the physicality and thereness of the actual works on display. A page from Sketchbook 10 features a gouache landscape rendered exclusively using colorful geometric shapes, reminiscent of Diebenkorn’s more experimental large scale paintings. In person, the colors in the scene appear saturated and vibrant, and the presence of Diebenkorn’s hand is apparent in the strokes of paint on the page.

“Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed” traces the evolution of Diebenkorn’s style from gestural sketches to hard-edged abstraction. Diebenkorn is notable for his commitment to constantly stretching the boundaries of his art-making practice. In his own words: “Attempt what is not certain,” and “be careful only in a perverse way.”

“Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Feb. 8, 2016.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Artists at Work’: Peering into the artist mind https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/25/artists-at-work-review/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/25/artists-at-work-review/#respond Fri, 25 Sep 2015 10:10:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1103795 Currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, “Artists at Work” pays homage to the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History, blending lessons of art history with those of contemporary art practice.  Featuring the works of American and European artists such as Édouard Manet, J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Hart Benton, the exhibition […]

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Currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, “Artists at Work” pays homage to the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History, blending lessons of art history with those of contemporary art practice.  Featuring the works of American and European artists such as Édouard Manet, J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Hart Benton, the exhibition explores how artists draw inspiration from the world around them and how historical context shapes the way artwork is perceived. By tracing the practices of different artists across time, we can better understand the historical narratives surrounding their works.

The exhibit centers on three thematic ideas: process, place and inspiration.

“Artists at Work” begins with a series of engravings and etchings dating back to the 1600s, which depict artists in the studio studying from live models. It is interesting to note the parallels between contemporary art practice and that of antiquity.

The artist’s hand traditionally symbolizes artistic skill, best demonstrated by a series of gestural works by Richard Serra. In his lithographic prints, Serra dabs seemingly formless blobs of ink and charcoal onto sheets of off-white paper. The looseness of Serra’s strokes calls attention to the unmistakable presence of his hand and his physical involvement with the works.

In stark opposition to Serra, minimalist artist Sol LeWitt sought to combat the traditional infatuation with the artist’s hand. Indeed, Lewitt’s works, such as the aptly-named “Lines in Four Directions,” consist purely of mechanical, geometric shapes that appear printed rather than hand-drawn. The interplay between Serra and LeWitt is evidence of the dialogue that occurs between artists through their artwork.

Landscapes are a natural way for artist to tell stories about and to describe the world. Western landscape paintings, such as William Keith’s “Sunset on Mount Diablo,” employ vivid color schemes and open, expansive compositions to idealize nature. Edouward Manet’s “Civil War” is a hazy charcoal rendering of a wartime environment, notable for its ominous political undertones.

Motion — namely, the human body in motion — has allured and inspired artists for centuries. In particular, the exhibit focuses on the stigma against the female nude and how that stigma has diminished in the past century. Elanor Antin’s “Carving, A Traditional Sculpture” is especially jarring. Antin uses her own body as sculpture, documenting photographically the changes in her body that occur over the course of a 37-day crash diet. In doing so, she places a contemporary and activist spin on a traditional art form.

“Artists at Work” hones in on the social and political ramifications of artmaking. The exhibit focuses on the exchanges that occur between artists and their environments; they learn by watching the world around them and in turn strive to inspire change in the world.

“Artists at Work” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Jan. 18, 2016.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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McMurtry Building inspires new exhibitions https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/16/mcmurtry-building-inspires-new-exhibitions/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/09/16/mcmurtry-building-inspires-new-exhibitions/#respond Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:34:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1103260 To kick off the new school year and to mark the opening of the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History, the Cantor Arts Center will be featuring two new major exhibitions: “Artists at Work” and “Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered.” By highlighting prolific artists from the Western world, the exhibitions celebrate not only the practices […]

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To kick off the new school year and to mark the opening of the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History, the Cantor Arts Center will be featuring two new major exhibitions: “Artists at Work” and “Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered.” By highlighting prolific artists from the Western world, the exhibitions celebrate not only the practices of old masters but also the relationship between art history and art making.

“Artists at Work,” currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, is inspired by the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History in that it seeks to highlight the interaction between art practice and the study of art history. Featuring the works of American and European artists such as Édouard Manet, J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Hart Benton, the exhibition explores how artists draw inspiration from the world around them and how historical context shapes the way artwork is perceived. Expect to see process-based art as well as work containing social and political undertones.

“Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered,” a successor of sorts to “500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum,” focuses on the work of Italian master artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Piranesi, known primarily for his detailed etchings of Roman architecture, is an icon of the 18th century neoclassical era. Like “Artists at Work,” “Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered” draws particular attention to process and working methods, showcasing Piranesi’s notoriously detailed preparatory sketches alongside his completed drawings.

“Artists at Work” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Jan. 18, 2016.

“Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Jan. 4, 2016.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Cantor showcases the work of Italian masters https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/25/cantor-showcases-the-work-of-italian-masters/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/25/cantor-showcases-the-work-of-italian-masters/#respond Tue, 26 May 2015 05:47:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1101440 “500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum,” currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, features nearly 100 Italian artworks from the 15th to 20th century and is the first major exhibition devoted to the collection since the 1960s. The exhibit traces the origins of disegno – drawing – as the foundation for architecture, sculpture and painting, displaying a range of works from elaborate compositions to loosely rendered studies.

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The “Monatti”, illustration to Alessandro Manzoni’s “I Promessi Sposi.” (Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center)

“500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum,” currently on view at the Cantor Arts Center, features nearly 100 Italian artworks from the 15th to 20th century and is the first major exhibition devoted to the collection since the 1960s. The exhibit traces the origins of disegno — drawing — as the foundation for architecture, sculpture and painting, displaying a range of works from elaborate compositions to loosely rendered studies.

Italian artists like Michelangelo and Guercino have a distinct mastery of the human figure. A closer look at the works reveals remarkable subtleties in the anatomy of the figures, whose expressions are alive and believable.

Though the mediums employed generally consist of chalk and ink wash, there is considerable diversity in the artists’ styles. Il Guercino’s “Bearded Monk” carves the figure out of negative space using simple, energetic brush strokes and a singular pen line. Conversely, Lelio Orsi’s design for the facade of Casa Orsi is more developed.  Orsi employs a dynamic composition wherein fully-rendered figures, each with seemingly distinct personalities, circle around the page.

Jacopo Zanguidi’s double-sided sheet of sketches is especially notable. Wrapped with gorgeous ink studies, the front of the page features an ink rendering of the Madonna and Child, while the back is a rough study of a coat of arms. Zanguidi first lays down the figure using precise pen lines before going into tones using brown ink, using tried-and-true methods of drawing to great effect.

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A figure study by Michelangelo. Photo courtesy of Cantor Arts Center

A key selling point of the exhibit is that it provides a glimpse into the design process, giving a sense of the artists’ practice. Disegno was the conceptual foundation of the Renaissance and subsequent Italian cultural movements, as demonstrated by a series of studies done for commissions. For instance, Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo famously produced frescoes for the Foppa chapel in Milan in the late 1500s. In one sketch for the large-scale paintings, Lomazzo portrays two dramatically posed figures on opposite sides of a sheet of paper, roughly penciling in tones and musculature. Lomazzo’s hand is still very much alive, with still-distinguishable hatch marks and guidelines crisscrossing the page.

The exhibition draws particular attention to the breadth of the Italians’ expertise, showcasing their understanding of not only the figure, but also portraiture, lighting, composition and storytelling. In a series of five caricatures by Il Guercino, the artist mixes humor with his sensitivity towards human expressions and emotion. Guercino expertly captures pouting faces, stern bearded figures and mousey-looking scholars absorbed in literature. In a study for his piece “The Last Supper,” Filippo Bellini builds figures out of sienna-toned ink blobs and shadows, leaving lighted areas untouched. Similarly, Giovanni Battista Tiopolo’s “Faith, Hope and Charity,” is notable for its luminous and energetic quality.

“500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum” does justice to the Italian figure drawing practice, placing particular focus on the process itself as opposed to just fully-rendered pieces.

“500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum” is on view at the Cantor Arts Center until Aug. 24, 2015.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper’: MFA students showcase large-scale works https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/19/were-not-in-the-business-of-warehousing-paper-mfa-students-showcase-large-scale-works/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/19/were-not-in-the-business-of-warehousing-paper-mfa-students-showcase-large-scale-works/#respond Wed, 20 May 2015 04:56:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1101216 Currently on view at the Stanford Art Gallery, “We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper” is an MFA thesis exhibition showcasing works from five art practice MFA students: Einat Imber, Christopher Nickel, Felicita Norris, Daniela Rossell, and Lauren Ashley Toomer. The exhibition is a melting pot, featuring ideas across different forms and media to address issues ranging from global communications to psychological boundaries. Process-wise, the works focus particularly on the materiality and texture of cloth, paper and other such surfaces. The aesthetic of the exhibit is as much about materials as it is about the drawings and paintings themselves.

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Painting by Felicita Norris on view at the Stanford Art Gallery. (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

Currently on view at the Stanford Art Gallery, “We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper” is an MFA thesis exhibition showcasing works from five art practice MFA students: Einat Imber, Christopher Nickel, Felicita Norris, Daniela Rossell and Lauren Ashley Toomer. The exhibition is a melting pot, featuring ideas across different forms and media to address issues ranging from global communications to psychological boundaries. Process-wise, the works focus particularly on the materiality and texture of cloth, paper and other such surfaces. The aesthetic of the exhibit is as much about materials as it is about the drawings and paintings themselves.

An entire wall of the gallery space is covered by a sea of irregular shapes, drawn and painted directly onto the wall using various tones and different media. Conglomerates of paint are interspersed with graphite and charcoal scribbles, highlighting the topography of the wall. Here, the gallery space becomes a part of the exhibit itself.

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Imber’s burlap boat commands the floor of the gallery. (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

Imber’s works, which focus on the materiality of burlap, are enormous and imposing. The main floor of the exhibit is dominated by his large-scale burlap boat, which is modeled after an origami paper boat. On the back wall of the exhibit, a series of four burlap banners hang downwards from the ceiling. Strings of frayed cloth stream down from the banners, which have been splashed with a blue gradient using a photo-sensitive cyanotype process. Imber’s process calls attention to imperfections and blemishes in the surface of the cloth, emphasizing its texture and how it contrasts with the sharp, geometric edges of Imber’s designs.

Nickel combines images and sculpture to represent information and communications networks. Sculptures that resemble webs of nodes and edges — reminiscent of graphs or scientific diagrams — frame either side of a series of photographs. The prints show the contours of electrical wires on glowing white backgrounds, and they embody the physicality of virtual information networks.

Other prominent works in the exhibit deal with the human figure in relation to different materials. A series of paintings by Norris features bodies wrapped in various cloths and plastics. Norris’s works are visceral and dramatic, and give off the impression of being trapped or asphyxiated. Paper and cloth are used here as objects of constraint. Toomer’s work, entitled “Figures in Ground (Chroma),” is painted on a series of canvas scrolls laid out across the floor. Toomer’s colorful mark-making loosely suggests the presence of the figure on expanses of white cloth. She shows the body in various poses, making full use of negative space and the white of the canvas to construct her figures.

“We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper” follows up the excellent “Hi5” first-year MFA exhibition with another series of visually and conceptually stunning works.

“We’re Not in the Business of Warehousing Paper” is on view at the Stanford Art Gallery until June 14.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Spirits on Forest’: Philz Coffee becomes a colorful jungle https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/18/spirits-on-forest-philz-coffee-becomes-a-colorful-jungle/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/05/18/spirits-on-forest-philz-coffee-becomes-a-colorful-jungle/#comments Mon, 18 May 2015 19:36:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1101084 “Spirits on Forest,” an exhibition of work by Bay Area art collective Animal Spirit Design, is currently on view at Philz Coffee on Forest Avenue. This past Friday, the café hosted an opening party for the exhibition, where the artists behind the work were available to introduce their illustrations to art enthusiasts and coffee-lovers alike. The works on display feature a range of stylized, contemporary renditions of various wildlife.

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Animal Spirit Design’s work on display at Philz Coffee on Forest Avenue. (ERIC HUANG/The Stanford Daily)

“Spirits on Forest,” an exhibition of work by Bay Area art collective Animal Spirit Design, is currently on view at Philz Coffee on Forest Avenue. This past Friday, the café hosted an opening party for the exhibition, in which the artists behind the work were available to introduce their illustrations to art enthusiasts and coffee-lovers alike. The works on display feature a range of stylized, contemporary renditions of various wildlife.

Animal Spirit Design is a partnership between Asha Raval and Juliana Stoy, whose experience with fashion and graphic design inform their current illustrative practice. Raval and Stoy combine traditional drawing techniques with digital illustration to create colorful, mesmerizing compositions inspired by forms in nature.

The duo’s work at “Spirits on Forest” showcases their iconic visual style through portrayals of animals, some representational and some heavily abstracted. The pieces are spaced evenly throughout the makeshift gallery space, and the casual ambiance of the café serves to further accentuate the loudness of their colors and shapes.

In works such as “Peacock,” “Ocean Jungle” and “Porcupine,” Raval and Stoy construct animals out of irregular, hard-edged shapes, situating them on top of jarring, color-infused backgrounds. Their work can be characterized as a sort of organized chaos, wherein seemingly random forms come together to create crisp illustrations. Other pieces are more abstract and pattern-based; “Cool Jellyfish,” for instance, uses complementary colors and repeating jellyfish contours to create an intricate design.

One outlier among the animal-centric prints on display is Raval and Stoy’s stunning graphic illustration of Kate Moss. The model’s face is painted a singular shade of bright yellow, while her upper body is filled in entirely with crimson floral print. Here, Raval and Stoy exhibit the breadth of their talent and the running motif of natural, organic forms in their work.

“Spirits on Forest” is an excellent way of showcasing Animal Spirit Design’s one-of-a-kind aesthetic. Visitors ought to grab a cup of coffee and ogle at the limited edition prints lining the walls of the space.

“Spirits on Forest” is on view at Philz Coffee on Forest Ave., Palo Alto until July 11.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘The Continuing Allure of Hayao Miyazaki’: Celebrating Japanese pop culture https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/23/the-continuing-allure-of-hayao-miyazaki-celebrating-japanese-pop-culture/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/23/the-continuing-allure-of-hayao-miyazaki-celebrating-japanese-pop-culture/#respond Fri, 24 Apr 2015 05:11:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1099713 This past Wednesday, The Graphic Narrative Project, Stanford Humanities Center and the Center for East Asian Studies hosted a talk about the worldwide appeal of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki and his works have evolved into pop culture phenomena not only in Japan, but also in the west, boasting a slew of iconic, enormously popular characters. The two guest speakers, Frederik L. Schodt and Beth Cary, are the translators behind “Starting Point: 1979-1996” and “Turning Point: 1997-2008,” two volumes of compiled interviews and essays by Miyazaki himself. While translating these works, the duo explored the different facets of Miyazaki’s persona and connected them with the themes portrayed in his animated works.

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Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro." Photo courtesy of GKIDS © 2002 Nekonote-Do - GNDHMT.
Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro.” Photo courtesy of GKIDS © 2002 Nekonote-Do – GNDHMT.

This past Wednesday, The Graphic Narrative Project, Stanford Humanities Center and the Center for East Asian Studies hosted a talk about the worldwide appeal of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki and his works have evolved into pop culture phenomena not only in Japan, but also in the West, boasting a slew of iconic, enormously popular characters. The two guest speakers, Frederik L. Schodt and Beth Cary, are the translators behind “Starting Point: 1979-1996” and “Turning Point: 1997-2008,” two volumes of compiled interviews and essays by Miyazaki himself. While translating these works, the duo explored the different facets of Miyazaki’s persona and connected them with the themes portrayed in his animated works.

Schodt and Cary discussed the process of translating Miyazaki’s books, which involved getting into the head of the Japanese animator himself. To do so, the duo visited the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka (a city located in the Tokyo Metropolis of Japan). The museum’s slogan, “Let’s get lost together,” reflects Miyazaki’s belief in an unmanaged world — he wants children to be carefree and to lose themselves in his works and his imagination.

Miyazaki is characterized as a fiercely opinionated, politically outspoken, imaginative and hardworking individual. Unlike many directors, Miyazaki himself is an artist, originally creating “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” as a manga before transforming it into an animated film. Miyazaki, a modern-day Renaissance man, is actively involved in every step of the animation process, from storyboarding to scriptwriting.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke.” Photo courtesy of GKIDS © 2002 Nekonote-Do – GNDHMT.

Miyazaki’s films are loose and spontaneous, in part due to Miyazaki’s penchant for pencil-drawn animation. Pencil-drawn animation has a gestural and dynamic quality to it because artists can be more expressive and varied with their lines. “The audience has more to interpret and fill in with their imagination,” Cary notes, citing Studio Ghibli film “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” as an example of pencil-and-paper animation.

Themes of self-actualization and ecology feature prominently in Miyazaki’s works. Coming of age stories like “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and Academy Award-winning “Spirited Away” portray young female protagonists as they struggle to find themselves in unfamiliar settings.  Other works, such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Princess Mononoke,” draw influence from Japanese spiritual beliefs regarding the veneration of nature. Miyazaki frequently employs flying machinery to move his characters through the whimsical settings he creates. In his latest film, “The Wind Rises,” Miyazaki modifies and repurposes the aesthetic of Japanese Zero fighter planes, infusing his own romantic, sentimental touch to these machines.

By incorporating flight and fantastical elements into his animation, Miyazaki hopes to offer viewers a respite from reality. As Schodt and Cary can attest to, Miyazaki’s ubiquity as an artist and as a pop culture icon is undeniable.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Arboreal Architecture’: Exploring the visual history of trees https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/16/arboreal-architecture-exploring-the-visual-history-of-trees/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/16/arboreal-architecture-exploring-the-visual-history-of-trees/#respond Fri, 17 Apr 2015 05:05:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1099227 “Arboreal Architecture” is a new Cantor exhibition that characterizes trees as evocative subjects and as architects of human thought. The exhibit traces the artistic representation of trees across time and between various cultures. Trees are used as a metaphor for the knowledge structures that constitute our understanding of the world and as a mode of highlighting cultural differences.

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Jan Georg van Vilet’s “Saint Jerome Reading under a Tree.” Photo courtesy of the Cantor Arts Center.

“Arboreal Architecture” is a new Cantor exhibition that characterizes trees as evocative subjects and as architects of human thought. The exhibit traces the artistic representation of trees across time and between various cultures. Trees are used as a metaphor for the knowledge structures that constitute our understanding of the world and as a mode of highlighting cultural differences.

Built around the concept of exhibition as form, the arrangement of the pieces in itself reflects the connective, unifying nature of trees. The curator actively engages with the works on display, framing trees as diagrams, as embodiments of people, as elements of nature and as metaphor. “Arboreal Architecture” is presented in three sections: “Branching Out,” an evolutionary tree diagram that traces artistic development in various schools; “Heartwood,” which uses trees to embody human engagement with the world around them; and “Widespread,” a mosaic of varying cultures and themes united by the motif of the tree.

In “Branching Out,” pieces are arranged chronologically on a timeline that has been physically painted onto the wall. The works on display, which range from pencil sketches to photographic prints, reflect art movements in their respective time periods. “The Fallen Tree, Fontainebleau,” a realistic 1831 graphite study by Eugene Blery, presents the tree in a dreamlike, ethereal manner. Blery uses subdued, neutral tones to convey a sense of ephemerality. Though a figure is present in the piece, Blery’s composition draws the viewer’s eye towards the smooth contours of the fallen log. Henri Edmond Cross’s “Trees (Arbres),” painted in 1909, pays homage to the Expressionist movement through its experimentation with abstract forms, gestural mark-making and a garish color palette.

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Henri Edmond Cross’s “Trees (Arbres).” Photo courtesy of the Cantor Arts Center.

“Heartwood” frames the tree as a powerful conveyor of emotion, featuring four pieces hung parallel to one another. In Jan Georg van Vilet’s “Saint Jerome Reading under a Tree,” the silhouette of a tree almost perfectly mirrors Saint Jerome’s posture. The Dutch artist’s expressive use of light and shadow gives the impression that the tree is a dark, brooding entity. Conversely, William Trost Richards’s “Study of Tree Bark” is a more delicate representation of the tree, focusing on the texture of the tree itself rather than the gesture.

“Roots Widespread” displays the tree in differing cultural backdrops. East Asian, European, Egyptian and Native American works are featured prominently here, ranging from iconic Japanese landscape paintings to figurines carved out of wood. Here, the exhibit emphasizes the omnipresence of the tree, rooted in our perception of the world.

“Arboreal Architecture” succeeds in that it takes a seemingly mundane topic and places it in different contexts, eliciting the delicate beauty and multifaceted nature of the tree.

“Arboreal Architecture” is on view until July 20, 2015 at the Cantor Arts Center.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Is social media the new gallery? https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/08/is-social-media-the-new-gallery/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/04/08/is-social-media-the-new-gallery/#respond Thu, 09 Apr 2015 05:28:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1098636 Social media platforms such as deviantART, Etsy and Instagram provide an alternative to the traditional gallery space as an arbiter of culture. This new, more accessible mode of art-sharing allows hobbyists and underground artists to get exposure for their work. However, there are polarizing opinions about this new venue. Social media can be characterized as a substitute for the gallery; however, the physicality of the gallery space is key to experiencing visual art and to differentiating the amateur artist from the professional.

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Photo Rahim Ullah/THE STANFORD DAILY

Social media platforms such as deviantART, Etsy and Instagram provide an alternative to the traditional gallery space as an arbiter of culture. This new, more accessible mode of art-sharing allows hobbyists and underground artists to gain exposure for their work. However, there are polarizing opinions about this new venue. The physicality of the gallery space is key to experiencing visual art and to differentiating the amateur artist from the professional. Ultimately, what separates amateur and professional art is not so much an issue of content as it is an issue of context and public acceptance, which the gallery provides.

Although the two platforms — social media and the gallery — perform a similar role, these are fundamentally at odds with each other. Social media sites are a product of their respective communities: Everyone can share and interact with uploaded content. Exhibition curators regulate the work displayed in galleries. The former is based on the concept of widespread access, while the latter values control of public taste.

Increased accessibility to visual art through social media mitigates the esteem of high art. By constraining itself to an elite, niche community, high art distances itself from popular art and elevates the status of those who are accepted in said community. A gallery presence is thereby crucial to building an artist’s persona, serving as an artist’s ethos, in a sense. Additionally, the physicality and impermanence of the gallery space are elements that documentation via social media cannot replicate.

Conversely, the social network encourages artists to depart from the established mainstream culture of fine art, fostering the rise of an underground community. Hobbyist sites like deviantART and Etsy actually possess a greater web presence than cultural institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre.

There are clear advantages to having social media as a means of art-sharing. Works-in-progress posted by artists, on Instagram and YouTube, showcase and provide insight into the creative process, heightening our appreciation for the artists’ imagination and technical ability. Russian grunge artist Lora Zombie, for example, runs a blog on which she posts sketches and short clips detailing how she creates her graphic watercolor-based compositions.

Galleries must integrate online tools into the viewing and buying experience of art in order to stay relevant. Social media is not a substitute for the gallery per se, but instead a means of extending the outreach of the institution beyond a community that is oftentimes condemned for its rigidity and elitist attitudes. Recently, social media has been used to personalize the gallery experience by placing users in curatorial roles and enabling them to participate in virtual galleries.

The stigma against social media art arises from the fact that it is not curated by someone whose job it is to distinguish between amateur and professional artists. But does a piece of art become any less legitimate if it is not displayed in a traditional exhibition setting? Why is it important that the arts maintain an air of exclusivity and privilege?

As galleries optimize the viewing experience for a wider, more active audience, and as artists integrate social media into their work, the gray area between the amateur and the professional blurs. Randy Crisologo, better known by his screen name “itsbirdy,” is an Alberta-based illustrator who rose to prominence through Instagram by sharing his adaptations of Japanese anime culture. Brazilian artist Rafael Mantesso, with an Instagram follower base of over 200,000, often posts small illustrations alongside photographs of his bull terrier, Jimmy Choo. This is a positive development for non-professional artists, who have begun to receive more respect and exposure for their work. But for professional artists, their institution is being fundamentally shaken — hence the backlash from the latter.

The prejudice against the underground, or amateur, art community stunts its growth and marginalizes the work it produces. The implications that the rise of social media has on the future of the art world are numerous. These include a more globalized arts scene, as well as more artists occupying the gray area between the amateur and the professional. The art gallery, undergoing a transformation from a simple art-sharing platform to an interactive space, must accept online tools into its repertoire in order to stay afloat in a social-media driven society.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Animating the Inanimate’: Redefining an art form https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/10/animating-the-inanimate-redefining-an-art-form/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/03/10/animating-the-inanimate-redefining-an-art-form/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2015 04:38:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1097264 This past Friday, the Anderson Collection hosted a talk entitled “Animating the Inanimate,” during which artist Basil Twist spoke about his abstract experiments in puppetry and visual arts. Twist is a San Francisco-born, New York-based puppeteer brought in by the Stanford Arts Institute as part of the Mohr Visiting Artist Program. Twist is acclaimed for performance pieces, including “Symphonie Fantastique” and “The Rite of Spring,” which is a ballet that does not feature any dancers.

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Twist gives a live demonstration of his puppeteering. Photo by Eric Huang.
Twist gives a live demonstration of his puppeteering. Photo by Eric Huang.

This past Friday, the Anderson Collection hosted a talk entitled “Animating the Inanimate,” during which artist Basil Twist spoke about his abstract experiments in puppetry and visual arts. Twist is a San Francisco-born, New York-based puppeteer brought in by the Stanford Arts Institute as part of the Mohr Visiting Artist Program. He is acclaimed for performance pieces, including “Symphonie Fantastique” and “The Rite of Spring,” which is a ballet that does not feature any dancers.

A graduate of the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette — a school of puppetry — in France, Twist believes puppetry is a marginalized and misunderstood art form. He explains that the intention of animating something — not just humanoid marionettes — makes a performance piece puppetry.

Taking after the abstraction that defined American art in the 20th century, Twist strives to emulate pure color and pure shape in his work. He utilizes materials such as cloth, tinsel and paper to explore the concepts of form, shape and motion without anthropomorphizing his “puppets.” The American puppeteer observes that his materials are “not trying to look like anything, just being the materials themselves.” His distinctive approach to puppetry, which features the manipulation of everyday objects, prompts us to view these items in ways we usually do not.

Twist explores color and movement using cloth. Photo by Brian Leahy.
Twist explores color and movement using cloth. Photo by Brian Leahy.

Twist’s creative process involves visualization of movement and experimentation with materials like cardboard and silk — juxtaposing the visual properties of hard and soft materials. By playing around with different media, Twist acquires a vocabulary of visual effects that he can incorporate into his performances. The stage, then, becomes Twist’s playground.

One of Twist’s most acclaimed works, “Symphonie Fantastique,” is performed underwater in an aquarium. The piece intends to create a dynamic show of swirling color and form using materials like feathers, glitter, plastics, vinyl and mirrors. In his rendition of “The Rite of Spring,” commemorating the 100th anniversary of the original ballet, Twist incorporates a full orchestra into his performance to accompany billowing sheets of multicolored silk. The human body does not feature prominently in Twist’s work but rather is a side character in the narrative that he creates.

Twist concluded his presentation by giving a live performance of his puppeteering. With Rothko’s “Pink and White over Red” as his backdrop, Twist commanded the floor, armed with a translucent white expanse of silk cloth. Puppeteering is an art form that engages the entire body, as Twist quickly made apparent. Breathing heavily, Twist coaxed the material to form mesmerizing loops and spirals with powerful swings of his arms. At the end of his demonstration, Twist beckoned the crowd to give the cloth a standing ovation, placing the focus back onto his inanimate performer.

By sharing both himself and his work with students, Twist goes a long way towards shattering preconceived notions of what puppeteering should be.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Hi5’ first-year MFA exhibition: Bridging the gap https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/19/hi5-first-year-mfa-exhibition/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/19/hi5-first-year-mfa-exhibition/#respond Fri, 20 Feb 2015 06:35:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1096101 “Hi5,” an annual group exhibition featuring the work of first-year MFA students in art practice, investigates the overlap between the arts and the sciences. The pieces on display, which include work by Masako Miyazaki, Simona Fitcal, Ashley Valmere Fischer, Justin Wood and Cy Keener, experiment with form and sound to explore humanity and the natural world.

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"The Dead Pearl Diver, 1858," by Justin Wood
“The Dead Pearl Diver, 1858,” by Justin Wood. Photo by Eric Huang.

Hi5,” an annual group exhibition featuring the work of first-year MFA students in art practice, investigates the overlap between the arts and the sciences. The pieces on display, which include work by Masako Miyazaki, Simona Fitcal, Ashley Valmere Fischer, Justin Wood and Cy Keener, experiment with form and sound to explore humanity and the natural world.

Masako Miyazaki’s abstract silkscreen prints experiment with irregular, hard-edged shapes, as well as negative space, to explore various elements of nature. Miyazaki’s work at “Hi5” consists of three series of prints —“Vapour,” “Shore” and “Flame” — each of which are expressions from a palette of just 13 shapes.  “Vapour,” as its name suggests, has an ethereal quality to it thanks to Miyazaki’s use of soft-gray and white hues. “Flame” and “Shore,” conversely, employ more striking color schemes, heavy with solid black areas; “Flame” is particularly stunning thanks to Miyazaki’s use of shimmering metallic colors.

Masako Miyazaki's "Vapour" series. Photo by Eric Huang.
Masako Miyazaki’s “Vapour” series. Photo by Eric Huang.

Simona Fitcal’s “Seduction of Matter” features a video projection of a pulsating, white, three-dimensional plane that undulates with the sound of a crackling audio clip. The video is projected onto three asymmetrical screens of spandex stretched across wooden frames. Fitcal’s piece, in its sheer simplicity, speaks to the nature of our existence by stripping it down to its simplest form: a collective of slowly vibrating masses, experiencing life subjectively through our own imaginations.

Ashley Valmere Fischer documents her experience with the Association for Research and Revitalization of the Industry for Ecological, Innovative and Alternative Housing through “Ardheia,” a photographic essay in which she attempts to capture the coming-together of a community in central France. In particular, the collection of photographs on display shows a group of engineers in their endeavor to build an eco-friendly housing community.  Fischer’s work treads the line between vernacular photography and fine-art photography; she portrays workers in their everyday life so as to better understand the communal bonds we form with the people around us.

“The Dead Pearl Diver, 1858,” a mixed media installation by Justin Wood, tells a story by combining sculpture and digital projection. Viewers, seated several feet away from the piece, click a mouse in order to change the image that is being projected on to a jagged, 18-foot wide expanse of plastic and paper.  The scenes on display are ominous and otherworldly, creating a narrative that the viewer must actively piece together. The disconnect between the sharp geometry of the sculpture and the soft, kinetic forms being projected onto it contribute to the tension in Wood’s piece.

The interactivity of Cy Keener’s piece “A Letter from the Sky”— a foreboding box made of wood and aluminum that dominates the center of the gallery space — sets the work apart from the others in the exhibition. Keener invites his viewers to walk around inside of the piece and to stand amongst the strings of LED lights illuminating the inside of the box. “A Letter from the Sky” was inspired by Keener’s earlier project “Rain Recorder,” which was an instrument used in conjunction with water sensitive paper to record rainfall outside the Stanford Art Gallery for roughly two seconds. In “A Letter from the Sky,” Keener sought to emulate rain with LED lights. By funneling the viewer into a dark metal box, the installation creates an intimate experience with droplets of light — raindrops — that appear to be frozen in time.

The works on display at “Hi5”are largely conceptual and employ a breadth of media to engage with nature and human existence.  Departing from traditional art-making tools, the artists effectively touch upon themes that have been often explored but rarely understood.

“Hi5” is on view until March 1, 2015, at the Stanford Art Gallery.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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The Anderson Collection: Top 5 pieces https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/12/the-anderson-collection-top-five/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/12/the-anderson-collection-top-five/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2015 20:54:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1095478 A testament to the burgeoning arts scene at Stanford, the Anderson Collection is home to 121 paintings and sculptures created by some of the most prominent American modern and contemporary artists — several of them hailing from the Bay Area. Below are five of the most striking pieces on display at the Anderson Collection.

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A testament to the burgeoning arts scene at Stanford, the Anderson Collection is home to 121 paintings and sculptures created by some of the most prominent American modern and contemporary artists — several of them hailing from the Bay Area. Below are five of the most striking pieces on display at the Anderson Collection.

1. “The Beaubourg” by San Francis

One of the only pieces housed on the first floor of the Anderson Collection, it is difficult to ignore the looming presence of San Francis’s “The Beaubourg.” The painting is a splendid, colorful homage to the abstract expressionist movement, which was a painting style of the post-World War II era that deviated from realism and gravitated towards the representation of objects as simple shapes and lines. Like many of his contemporaries, San Francis practiced loose, gestural mark-making, which can be seen in the multicolored drips and splatters that are strewn across “The Beaubourg.” It is interesting to note the contrast between these seemingly formless paint splatters and the geometric forms that crisscross the piece.

2. “Ocean Park #60” by Richard Diebenkorn

"Ocean Park #60" by Richard Diebenkorn. Photo courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.
“Ocean Park #60” by Richard Diebenkorn. Photo courtesy of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation.

“Ocean Park #60” is a product of Bay Area painter Richard Diebenkorn’s progression from representational works to depictions of purely abstract forms — in other words, from accurate depictions of real objects to compositions based entirely on geometric shapes and patterns. In this piece, Diebenkorn plays with composition, lines and color. The artist is known for decomposing scenes from life into conglomerates of lines and shapes, as he does in “Ocean Park #60.” Diebenkorn uses a subdued, cool color palette, alluding to the ocean, though he adds depth to his composition by superimposing red and yellow lines across the upper half of the painting.

3. “Yosemite Falls” by Mark Tansey

Fantastical and dreamlike despite being monochromatic, “Yosemite Falls” captivates through its dynamic composition, with the diagonal shape of the waterfall cutting across the center of the piece. The work is Tansey’s representation of Yosemite Falls, featuring a cascade of cameras and tripods in lieu of falling water. Tansey paints a dark, brooding shadow at the peak of his imaginary falls that gradually peters off, illuminating the scraggle of rocks and branches in the foreground. Homegrown artist Mark Tansey’s near-photographic precision in his painting contrasts with the general trend of abstract works being featured in the Anderson Collection. The artist’s decision to paint “Yosemite Falls” entirely in icy blue creates an ominous, otherworldly vibe by detaching the viewer from reality and into Tansey’s world of perception.

4. “Pink and White over Red” by Mark Rothko

“Pink and White over Red” by Mark Rothko. Photo Courtesy of Henrik Kam.
“Pink and White over Red” by Mark Rothko. Photo courtesy of Henrik Kam.

An American painter and, like Pollock, a contributor to the abstract expressionist movement, Mark Rothko is one of the most celebrated artists of the postwar era. Painted in his signature style — featuring the motif of rectangular forms floating in a field of color — Rothko’s “Pink and White over Red” consists of a white, rectangular spot of paint overlaid on an expansive red background. The piece’s unconventional composition attests to Rothko’s mentality of free self-expression, whereas his bold color choice holds traces of the 1920s Surrealist movement that sought to reconcile dreams and reality.

5. “Lucifer” by Jackson Pollock

As evidenced in “Lucifer,” Jackson Pollock is known for rejecting traditional oil painting methods, instead favoring his own brand of painting that involved dripping and splattering paint to create a dynamic composition. “Lucifer” features large black drips of paint interspersed with hints of complementary colors that were purportedly squeezed directly from paint tubes. The painting, like many of Pollock’s other works, can be characterized as organized chaos. Moreover, “Lucifer,” the title of the piece, suggests total immersion in the lines of the painting and in the depths of Pollock’s psyche.

The Anderson Collection is open Wednesday and Friday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Keith Haring: The Political Line’: Crossing Boundaries https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/04/keith-haring-the-political-line-crossing-boundaries/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/02/04/keith-haring-the-political-line-crossing-boundaries/#respond Thu, 05 Feb 2015 00:06:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094937 On view at the de Young Museum in San Francisco until February 16, “The Political Line” explores the work of maverick American pop artist Keith Haring. Haring’s graphic, large-scale paintings have become icons of politics and New York street culture in the 1900s. “The Political Line” traces Haring’s progression from a subway graffiti artist to […]

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On view at the de Young Museum in San Francisco until February 16, “The Political Line” explores the work of maverick American pop artist Keith Haring. Haring’s graphic, large-scale paintings have become icons of politics and New York street culture in the 1900s. “The Political Line” traces Haring’s progression from a subway graffiti artist to one of the most outspoken artists and social activists of the 20th century, noting the presence of political undertones and satire in his work.

The exhibit is arranged chronologically, a natural extension of the narrow, corridor-like structure of the gallery space. From his early subway chalk sketches to his enormous, paint-splattered tarps and canvases, it is interesting to note how the complexity of composition and color scheme in Haring’s work gradually deepens. Haring’s early work, consisting largely of gestural charcoal sketches, contrast starkly with the expansive paintings that characterized the latter parts of his career. Though the layout of the exhibition is not explicitly defined, there is a noticeable gradient when it comes to the scale of Haring’s works across time.

As the first major Keith Haring show on the West Coast in nearly two decades, “The Political Line” enables viewers to get up close and personal with Haring’s most iconic works. The topography of Haring’s large-scale paintings is surprisingly smooth, showcasing the pop artist’s technical skill. In his painting entitled “The Great White Way,” he juxtaposes religious symbolism — namely the Christian Cross — with the imagery of the penis; etched onto a 14-foot-tall, phallus-shaped canvas, “The Great White Way” exemplifies the artist’s razor-sharp line quality and his penchant for crude humor in his artwork.

Levity and satire are defining features of Haring’s work. Haring’s style is hard-edged with cartoon-like qualities, often featuring bright color schemes loaded with primary colors. Perhaps, paradoxically, Haring uses humor to address heavy topics, such as racism and imbalances of power in a capitalistic society. In his 1968 piece “Prophets of Rage,” Haring depicts a black figure shackled by chains alongside a decapitated white man, making a statement about turbulent race relations in the United States. In other cases, Haring takes cartoon celebrities, such as Mickey Mouse, and portrays them as grotesque caricatures, condemning popular culture. Fiercely opposed to racial intolerance and ecocide, Haring employs graphic, outlandish imagery to draw attention to issues he is passionate about.

“The Political Line” is on view until Feb. 16, 2015 at the de Young Museum.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘She Who Tells a Story’: Art as empowerment in the Middle East https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/30/she-who-tells-a-story-art-as-empowerment-in-the-middle-east/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/30/she-who-tells-a-story-art-as-empowerment-in-the-middle-east/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2015 11:55:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094578 On view until May 4, “She Who Tells a Story” is a new Cantor exhibition that showcases the work of 12 female photographers hailing from Iran and the Arab world. Together, these photographers seek to reconcile the rigidity of Middle Eastern social class structure with the artists’ personal desire to assert their respective identities.

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Tanya Habjouqa (Jordan, b. 1975
, Untitled from the series Women of Gaza, 2009. Pigment print. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Museum purchase with general funds and the Horace W. Goldsmith Fund for Photography. Photography © 2014 MFA, Boston.
Tanya Habjouqa (Jordan, b. 1975
, Untitled from the series Women of Gaza, 2009. Pigment print. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Museum purchase with general funds and the Horace W. Goldsmith Fund for Photography. Photography © 2014 MFA, Boston.

On view until May 4, “She Who Tells a Story” is a new Cantor exhibition that showcases the work of 12 female photographers hailing from Iran and the Arab world. Together, these photographers seek to reconcile the rigidity of Middle Eastern social class structure with the artists’ personal desire to assert their respective identities. The pieces on display have a photojournalistic quality to them, meaning that they tread the line between vernacular photography and fine art. There are clear political undertones in the photographers’ work, most notably the themes of duality, female empowerment and the hijab as a symbol of constraint.

The photographs in “She Who Tells a Story” aim to create role-reversals, placing communicative power into the hands of Middle Eastern women. Newsha Tavakolian’s piece, “When I Was Twenty Years Old,” features bright red, jarring Arabic script superimposed on a photo of a woman clad in boxing gloves. Tavakolian’s garish use of imagery is a rebellion against an institution that deprives women of free expression. Arabic text and the female form serve as symbols embodying the passion and suppressed emotion of the Middle Eastern woman.

The exhibition also highlights the historical implications of the hijab, or headscarf, as a symbol of erasure. The hijab, which Muslim women must wear in the presence of adult males, is controversial because it represents a tradition of female conformity that has long permeated Middle Eastern culture. In particular, a series of photographs by Boushra Almutawakel explores the dehumanizing effect of the hijab on the Middle Eastern woman. Nine iterations of the same family photo are shown, arranged horizontally as if to indicate a timeline. As the female subjects are veiled more and more heavily, the photos become progressively more brooding, illustrating the constraints placed upon women by religious extremism.

“She Who Tells a Story” delves into the social landscapes of Middle Eastern cultures. A series of intimate, seemingly candid photographs of young women lounging in their bedrooms suggests the universality of the human experience. Moreover, the prominence of war imagery is a key feature of the photographs on display, such as Gohar Dashti’s portrayal of a young couple draping laundry on barbed wire. War appears to permeate all aspects of life in Iran and the Arab world.

As fierce as it is poignant, “She Who Tells a Story” provides insight into a part of the world that has historically been misrepresented and misunderstood. By understanding these artists’ work as an overarching political narrative, we can better understand the existence of power dichotomies in our lives.

“She Who Tells a Story” is on view until May 4, 2015 at Cantor Arts Center.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Sneak preview: Upcoming exhibitions at Cantor Arts Center https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/21/sneak-preview-upcoming-exhibitions-at-cantor-arts-center/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/21/sneak-preview-upcoming-exhibitions-at-cantor-arts-center/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2015 07:33:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1094084 Several new and continuing exhibitions will be on view at Cantor Arts Center in the coming months, ranging from collections of Civil War-era photographs to exhibitions of contemporary drawings and prints. Below is a list of upcoming Cantor exhibitions with brief overview of each.

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Several new and continuing exhibitions will be on view at Cantor Arts Center in the coming months, ranging from collections of Civil War-era photographs to exhibitions of contemporary drawings and prints. Below is a list of upcoming Cantor exhibitions with a brief overview of each.

Josef Albers and the Marmor Collection (Feb. 11–June 15)

From February 11 to June 15, pieces selected from the Marmor family’s expansive collection of contemporary American print publications will be on display. The collection features works by a number of high-profile American artists from the mid-1900s, including those of abstract painter and educator Josef Albers.

Imagining the Oceans (Mar. 18–June 29)

Alexander Cozens (England, b. Russia, 1717–1786), Sunrise over a Rocky Coastland, c.1780-85. Oil on paper. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center collection.
Alexander Cozens (England, b. Russia, 1717–1786), Sunrise over a Rocky Coastland, c.1780-85. Oil on paper. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center collection.

“Imagining the Oceans,” on view from March 18 to June 29, explores how the ocean has influenced the creative mindsets of various artists across history. The sheer breadth of the works that will be on display at this exhibition reveals ocean environments as a fixture in the development of human culture. Featuring pieces from a range of different artists, including a romantic fantasy by French etcher Charles Méryon and a ukiyo-e woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Imagining the Oceans” reaffirms the idea that the world around us is a product of our perception.

American Battleground: Photographs of the Civil War, 1861–1865 (Mar. 25–Aug. 17)

The American Civil War was one of the first military conflicts to be thoroughly documented photographically — a fact that “American Battleground,” on view from Mar. 25 to Aug. 17, seeks to highlight. “American Battleground” features not only professional photographs, but also amateur ones, allowing viewers to experience the Civil War through various lenses. The exhibit sheds new light on how individual citizens were affected by the conflict.

Bravo! Music and Theater in Enlightenment Europe (Mar. 25–Aug. 17)

Thomas Rowlandson (England, 1756–1827), Vauxhall, 1785. Etching, engraving, and aquatint. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.
Thomas Rowlandson (England, 1756–1827), Vauxhall, 1785. Etching, engraving, and aquatint. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.

“Bravo!,” also on view from March 25 to August 17, documents the performing arts scene in Europe as it burgeoned during the Enlightenment era. The Enlightenment was a movement that emphasized reason and individualism over piety and tradition. Comprised of 16 prints and drawings, “Bravo!” seeks to capture the growth of theater practice in Europe through the eyes of 18th-century visual artists in order to expose the relationship between the two art forms.

“Loose in Some Real Tropics”: Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” Projects, 1969–70 (until Mar.16)

A continuing exhibition on view until March 16, “Loose in Some Real Tropics” showcases the lesser known works of American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg and encourages us to reflect on the relationship between visual arts and cosmology. Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” series consists of 34 lithographic prints. In particular, “Sky Garden,” the centerpiece of the Cantor exhibit, has the distinction of being the largest hand-pulled lithograph ever created.

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World (Jan. 28–Mar. 16)

Untitled by Tanya Habjouqa from the series Women of Gaza, 2009. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Untitled by Tanya Habjouqa from the series Women of Gaza, 2009. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“She Who Tells a Story,” on view until May 4, showcases the work of 12 female photographers hailing from Iran and the Arab world; the exhibit intends to provide an alternative view on the issue of representation and identity in the Middle East. There are clear political undertones in the photographers’ work. The range of pieces on display seeks to reconcile the rigidity of Middle Eastern social class structure with the artists’ personal desire to assert their respective identities.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Pacific Art League of Palo Alto: A safe haven for the arts https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/14/pacific-art-league-of-palo-alto-a-safe-haven-for-the-arts/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/14/pacific-art-league-of-palo-alto-a-safe-haven-for-the-arts/#respond Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:32:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1093757 Nestled comfortably just off University Avenue, the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto (PAL) is an institution that seeks to showcase the work of Bay Area artists and to facilitate the growth of the local arts scene through a range of educational programs. This month the PAL Members’ Exhibition is showcasing work by local artists […]

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Inside the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. Photo by Eric Huang.
Inside the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. Photo by Eric Huang.

Nestled comfortably just off University Avenue, the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto (PAL) is an institution that seeks to showcase the work of Bay Area artists and to facilitate the growth of the local arts scene through a range of educational programs. This month the PAL Members’ Exhibition is showcasing work by local artists associated with PAL, featuring a collection of paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and sculptures.

The ambiance of the main gallery is wonderful — quaint, calm and laid-back, detached from the bustle of downtown Palo Alto.  Silence blankets the room, bar the rhythmic scratch of paintbrush against canvas, as student artists determinedly hone their skills. The walls of the gallery are crammed full with canvases and framed drawings from a selection of different artists. Showcasing the pieces in this manner highlights the nuances of each artist’s style. PAL instructor Janet Bartlett Goodman’s hard-edged, technical drawings are juxtaposed with various brightly colored, abstract landscape paintings, and freeform watercolor compositions. Visitors are free to browse the assortment of works on display at their leisure as well as observe classes that are taking place.

The corridor gallery of the facility houses a collaborative exhibition of drawings and paintings by Jon Haag and Brian Sal Corral, a pair of Palo Alto-based artists. Haag’s stylized, deliberately composed portraits are a bold complement to Corral’s works, which combine a colorful palette with flowing paint strokes to explore human movement and gesture. In particular, Corral’s Olympic series explores the human figure through gesture and color in order to represent the human endeavor “to lift more and higher.”

PAL is a manifestation of the Bay Area’s thriving arts scene. Spaces like this help cultivate creative minds and allow them to contribute to the distinct local flavor of Palo Alto.

The PAL Member’s Exhibition is on view until Jan. 29, 2015, at 668 Ramona Street, downtown Palo Alto.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Loose in Some Real Tropics’ bridges art and outer space https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/12/loose-in-some-real-tropics-bridges-art-and-outer-space/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/12/loose-in-some-real-tropics-bridges-art-and-outer-space/#respond Tue, 13 Jan 2015 05:06:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1093657 American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” projects, currently on display in the Cantor Art Center’s exhibit “Loose in Some Real Tropics,” are a series of lithographic prints, collages, photographs and drawings that document the impact of technological innovations on American culture during the Apollo era. The pieces were made for “Stoned Moon Book,” a […]

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Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Hybrid, 1970, from the Stoned Moon Series. Lithograph. Lent by Stephen Dull. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Hybrid, 1970, from the Stoned Moon Series. Lithograph. Lent by Stephen Dull. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” projects, currently on display in the Cantor Art Center’s exhibit “Loose in Some Real Tropics,” are a series of lithographic prints, collages, photographs and drawings that document the impact of technological innovations on American culture during the Apollo era. The pieces were made for “Stoned Moon Book,” a document that was never actually published. Consequentially, the artworks produced for the project have rarely been out in the public eye. “Loose in Some Real Tropics” showcases these lesser known works and encourages us to reflect on the relationship between visual arts and cosmology.

Rauschenberg’s work juxtaposes machinery with organic forms and animal symbolism in order to highlight the impact of technological innovation on American culture in the 1960s. The pieces on display have a powerful, industrial quality to them. Sepia-toned collages and graphite sketches are interspersed throughout the room, punctuated by rich lithograph prints that are bathed in primary colors. A recurring theme in Rauschenberg’s work is the contrast between humans and machinery. He superimposes irregular, organic shapes on precise technical diagrams, drawing attention to how technology shapes our interactions with the outside world.

Out of the 34 lithographs that comprise the “Stoned Moon” series, “Sky Garden” is arguably the centerpiece. The print has the distinction of being the largest hand-pulled lithograph ever created, featuring a blend of photographic imagery and painterly abstraction. Raw splatters of ink crisscross the piece, injecting a human element into the machine-like nature of the subject matter.

Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Drawing for Stoned Moon Book, 1970. Photo collage with watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. Lent by Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo by Glenn Steigelman.
Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Drawing for Stoned Moon Book, 1970. Photo collage with watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. Lent by Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo by Glenn Steigelman.

Rauschenberg’s interpretation of the Apollo era provides a very different interpretation of NASA’s achievements in the 1960s. Indeed, the collage and graphite works on the east wall of the exhibit are arranged as something of a timeline. Rauschenberg portrays astronauts not as heroes — as they have traditionally been heralded — but as characters in a larger, overarching narrative.

The objects on display in the middle of the exhibit offer insight into Rauschenberg’s creative process. Pages of Rauschenberg’s notebook showcase the American artist’s familiar scrawl, which consisted entirely of uppercase letters. There is a spontaneous, sketchy quality to Rauschenberg’s writing, intensely reminiscent of his drawing style. Moreover, a series of photographs depicts Rauschenberg at work in his studio, providing some idea as to how he produced these large-scale prints. Looking behind the scenes enables the viewer to better understand Rauschenberg’s thought process and the lens through which he viewed the Apollo era.

“Loose in Some Real Tropics” does the important job of linking visual arts with aeronautics and highlighting the impact that technological growth has on American culture.

“Loose in Some Real Tropics” is on view until Mar. 26, 2015 at Cantor Arts Center.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Guest curator James Merle Thomas talks Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” projects at Cantor https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/06/guest-curator-james-merle-thomas-talks-robert-rauschenbergs-stoned-moon-projects-at-cantor/ https://stanforddaily.com/2015/01/06/guest-curator-james-merle-thomas-talks-robert-rauschenbergs-stoned-moon-projects-at-cantor/#respond Tue, 06 Jan 2015 10:06:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1093223 As part of a campus-wide initiative called Imagining the Universe, “Loose in Some Real Tropics” delves into the relationship between visual arts and cosmology. The Cantor Arts Center exhibit showcases American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” projects, a series of lithographic prints, collages, photographs and drawings that documented the aeronautic milestones achieved by NASA during […]

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Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Drawing for Stoned Moon Book, 1970. Photo collage with watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. Lent by Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo by Glenn Steigelman.
Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Drawing for Stoned Moon Book, 1970. Photo collage with watercolor and colored pencil on illustration board. Lent by Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo by Glenn Steigelman.

As part of a campus-wide initiative called Imagining the Universe, “Loose in Some Real Tropics” delves into the relationship between visual arts and cosmology. The Cantor Arts Center exhibit showcases American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” projects, a series of lithographic prints, collages, photographs and drawings that documented the aeronautic milestones achieved by NASA during the Apollo era.

James Merle Thomas, guest curator for the exhibit, sat down with The Stanford Daily to answer some questions explaining his interest in the Rauschenberg exhibit and the aesthetics of the Apollo era.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What sparked your interest in Rauschenberg’s work, and what inspired you to take on this project of curating the exhibition?

James Merle Thomas (JMT): I actually graduated from Stanford; I completed my Ph.D. in the art history department about a year ago, and my research, when I was at Stanford, was about exploring the relationship between artists in the 1960s and NASA. More generally speaking, I was interested in the connection between art and science in the 1960s. This project evolved organically from my ongoing interest in that time period.

TSD: Why are you drawn to the aesthetics of NASA and the Apollo era, and why is it important that we understand its significance?

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Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Hybrid, 1970, from the Stoned Moon Series. Lithograph. Lent by Stephen Dull. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

JMT: There are two parts to this question. The first is that most people don’t actually remember NASA and the Apollo era firsthand. We experience it only through pictures and films. Rauschenberg’s interpretation of those events does the very important job of showing us a very different kind of narrative. It’s less about heroic astronauts planting flags; it’s more about understanding the look and feel of the whole era. Rauschenberg’s project raises questions about the role that a large federal agency like NASA should play in government and the roles that art and science should play in relation to one another.

TSD: How does the Rauschenberg exhibit relate to some of the other projects you’ve worked on?

JMT: I’m broadly interested in projects that bring together art, politics and technology in some combination. For example, many of my dissertations involved artists like Robert Irwin and James Turrell as they interacted with psychologists who were employed by NASA. There’s a sort of historical part to that. At the same time, I’ve worked for almost a decade now in the field of contemporary art and have organized large exhibitions of contemporary art from all over the world, ranging from African photography to Chinese video art to sculpture by European avant-garde artists. In this case, I wanted to very thoroughly research a project that has not really been understood and bring together all of the different parts (lithographs, collage work, transfer drawings and photographs) into a show.

TSD: Why is it important to note the relationship between visual arts and the sciences, especially cosmology?

JMT: When you start looking closely at the images that NASA produces of the universe, you realize that it’s never a straightforward photograph. At some point, someone needed to make decisions about [the] contrast used and the colors that were assigned to the data, so that we could visualize something. This is a very contemporary way of thinking about aesthetics and art and the way we look at the universe. That’s actually very similar to what Rauschenberg was doing with his work in the 1960s, and it’s similar to the way that maybe someone would make a landscape painting in the 19th century — for example, we can understand the American West through a landscape painting of Yosemite. In that way, I’m really interested in understanding Rauschenberg’s work as a historical narrative.

: Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Cover Page for Stoned Moon Book, 1970. Photo collage with watercolor, press type, acetate, graphite, and colored pencil on illustrated board. Lent by Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
: Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Cover Page for Stoned Moon Book, 1970. Photo collage with watercolor, press type, acetate, graphite, and colored pencil on illustrated board. Lent by Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

TSD: What are some other creative endeavors you plan to work on? Do you have any future plans for projects at the Cantor Arts Center?

JMT: Cantor’s been a wonderful partner, and I’ve welcomed the opportunity to work with them in the past. I have a very good relationship with the Cantor [Arts Center at Stanford University]. I’ve organized some small shows for them in the past, including one for the artist Frank Stella. I organized some of his lithographic prints from the 1960s in a similar, much smaller show a couple years ago. As for future plans, I’m currently working on a book about artists who worked with NASA in the 1960s, and I’m co-producing a documentary film about NASA in the Virgin Islands in the 1960s.

“Loose in Some Real Tropics” is on view until March 26, 2015 at Cantor Arts Center.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Ai Weiwei takes over Alcatraz https://stanforddaily.com/2014/12/02/ai-weiwei-takes-over-alcatraz/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/12/02/ai-weiwei-takes-over-alcatraz/#respond Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:49:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1092736 Housed in a looming federal penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco, “@Large: Ai Weiwei” explores the notion of imprisonment and encourages viewers to reflect on their right to free speech and expression. Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist known not only for his large-scale installations, but also for his scathing criticisms of his nation’s government. […]

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At the Ai Weiwei exhibit on Alcatraz. Photo by Eric Huang.
Sink filled with porcelain flowers; part of the Blossom installation of the Ai Weiwei exhibit on Alcatraz. Photo by Eric Huang.

Housed in a looming federal penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco, “@Large: Ai Weiwei” explores the notion of imprisonment and encourages viewers to reflect on their right to free speech and expression. Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist known not only for his large-scale installations, but also for his scathing criticisms of his nation’s government. Through his work, he endeavors to blur the line between art and political activism. The exhibitions, created specifically for Alcatraz, span four locations across the island, employing a variety of media but united by the common themes of captivity and resistance.

Ai’s work at Alcatraz focuses on the interplay between the environment and traditional Chinese aesthetics. In one installation, entitled “Blossom,” Ai fuses natural imagery with traditional Chinese arts as he scatters fragile porcelain flowers throughout various ward cells in the Hospital building. The installation has an ethereal quality to it. Artificial lighting illuminates each cell such that the flowers emanate an auburn glow that contrasts starkly with the eerie gray of its surroundings. The porcelain trinkets are meant to serve as a symbolic offering of comfort to the imprisoned and allude, ironically, to China’s Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956 that culminated in a government crackdown against dissent.

At the Ai Weiwei exhibit at Alcatraz. Photo by Eric Huang.
Oriental dragon at the entrance of the New Industries Building at the Ai Weiwei exhibit at Alcatraz. Photo by Eric Huang.

The A-Block cells feature a sound-based exhibition that seeks to emulate the feeling of confinement. A single metal stool is at the center of each otherwise empty cell, as a sound clip plays in the background. Viewers sit facing away from the cell door, towards the decrepit back wall, completely immersed in sound that is not fully comprehensible and slightly unnerving.

Situated on the west side of Alcatraz Island, the New Industries Building houses a selection of sculptural and two-dimensional works. An enormous paper dragon, mouth agape, occupies the entrance of the structure and spans its entire ceiling. Meanwhile, a sea of portraits composed entirely of Lego bricks carpets the floor of the adjacent room. The portraits depict former inmates hailing from various backgrounds, suggesting that being stifled by authority is a universal human experience. The portraits humanize the prisoners and give them a sense of identity and relatability. Moreover, the artist’s decision to “paint” with Lego bricks juxtaposes the gravity of the subject matter— incarceration — with the childlike innocence associated with toys.

The fourth component of Ai’s installation, located in the Dining Hall, focuses on building a personal connection between the free and the incarcerated. Viewers write postcards addressed to specific prisoners throughout the world. Though not an art piece in a traditional sense, actively engaging with people who are actually behind bars makes the experience that much more real and intimate.

“@Large: Ai Weiwei” is a natural extension of its environment. Ai plays with the prison setting to expose art as a mode of vying for personal freedom.

“@Large: Ai Weiwei” is on view until Apr. 26, 2014 on Alcatraz Island.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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A chat with Peter Galassi, former curator at MOMA https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/18/a-chat-with-peter-galassi-former-curator-at-moma/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/11/18/a-chat-with-peter-galassi-former-curator-at-moma/#respond Wed, 19 Nov 2014 05:45:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1092251 Having curated over 40 exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA), Harvard graduate Peter Galassi is something of an icon in the traditional art world. After serving as chief curator of photography at MOMA for over two decades, Galassi has since moved on to pursue the next chapter in his career. Galassi […]

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Robert Frank (U.S.A., b. Switzerland, 1924), Detroit, 1955. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Raymond B. Gary, 1984.492.15. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.
Robert Frank (U.S.A., b. Switzerland, 1924), Detroit, 1955. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Raymond B. Gary, 1984.492.15. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.

Having curated over 40 exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA), Harvard graduate Peter Galassi is something of an icon in the traditional art world. After serving as chief curator of photography at MOMA for over two decades, Galassi has since moved on to pursue the next chapter in his career. Galassi was recently invited to curate the “Robert Frank in America” exhibition at Cantor, which runs until early January 2015 and highlights the Swiss photographer’s lesser-known work.

Halfway across the globe in Paris, France, Galassi agreed to answer some questions about his interest in Robert Frank, his artistic preferences and his reasons for leaving MOMA.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Why did you leave MOMA to come to Stanford? In other words, what can you do at Stanford that you couldn’t do there?

Peter Galassi (PG): I worked at MOMA for 30 years, and for 20 of those years I was the chief curator of the department, which meant that I was as much a cultural bureaucrat as a curator. It’s a great museum, and I was lucky to be there, but I’ve had enough of that. I now lead a different kind of life, and I’m not a bureaucrat anymore. As for the Stanford part, I was available — I didn’t leave MOMA to come to Stanford. Connie Wolf was the director of Cantor. When she got to Cantor she was interested in photography, and she did this big show about Watkins and things in the Stanford collections. Robert Frank’s works were in the collections. She got in touch with me and she said, “maybe you’re interested in these,” so I came out and looked at them, and I said “yes, wow, I am interested!”

TSD: Any regrets about leaving MOMA?

PG: No. I had a great time there, but institutions are institutions, and people are people. The institution has to continue to change and grow and so do the people.

TSD: What inspired you to take on this project of curating the Robert Frank exhibit at Cantor?

Robert Frank (U.S.A., b. Switzerland, 1924), Iowa, 1956. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Bowen H. McCoy, 1984.493.38. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.
Robert Frank (U.S.A., b. Switzerland, 1924), Iowa, 1956. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Bowen H. McCoy, 1984.493.38. Courtesy of Cantor Arts Center.

PG: Because of this very special circumstance of how things happened for him. He did this great work in the 1950s, and then he got interested in making movies, so he put all the photography aside, that was like 1959-1960 — around the same time that his great book came out, “The Americans.” Ten years after that, he was still very interested in making his movies, as an independent filmmaker, doing his own thing. It wasn’t commercial, Hollywood moviemaking. He was struggling with that, and then his book became this kind of icon. Nobody had really paid attention to, or had a chance to pay attention to, this work except for the pictures that were in the book.

TSD: What would you say is the most memorable project you have ever worked on?

PG: I’m not sure I know how to answer that! Maybe a show I did in 1987 about the early work of Henri-Cartier Bresson, a photographer also with a small camera, a generation before Robert Frank. I learned a huge amount doing that project.

TSD: Have you noticed any differences between the art scene on the East Coast and the West Coast?

PG: Yeah, there are differences, and I think there’s probably as big a difference between San Francisco and LA as there is between New York and the West Coast. There’s a great photography scene in the Bay Area, and there always has been. San Francisco has always been a great photography town. New York is too, but photography has always had a special place in the Bay Area that maybe it hasn’t had in New York.

TSD: Do you feel that photography is underrepresented in traditional gallery spaces? Why is it important that we understand and interact with photographs?

PG: Maybe, but not anymore. Like any human endeavor, I don’t think photography is especially important compared to literature or painting or music. But it’s something that I fell in love with and got involved with and found rewarding. For me, the most interesting thing is to learn. This Robert Frank project was great for me, because I learned a lot about something I thought I already understood. If I can share that with other people who are interested, then I think that’s great.

TSD: You mentioned in your MOMA farewell letter that you wanted to undertake “ambitious writing projects.” Could you provide some insight into what these projects entail, and what other endeavors you’ll be pursuing?

PG: The ambitious writing project that is the most interesting to me – and that is related to Robert Frank – is about the relationship, in the 20th century, between photography’s ambition as a high art and all of the other things photography does. The word that I use for that is “vernacular,” meaning photography for medical science, or for a real estate agent, or for anything other than “art.” Photography has always had this dual identity. There are all kinds of practical uses of photography, and then there’s photography when it can be an art. The relationship between those two things in the first two-thirds of the 20th century is a very interesting thing, because it keeps going back and forth.

TSD: What direction do you think your future exhibits at Cantor will take?

PG: I loved working for Cantor. Connie Wolf, the director, is terrific, and I loved working with all the other people there, but I might not do another project for Cantor. They had something and they were looking for somebody to do it, and for me it was a great fit. So maybe I’ll do something again, maybe not.

Contact Eric Huang at ehhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Must-see pieces at Cantor Arts Center https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/31/must-see-pieces-at-cantor-arts-center/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/10/31/must-see-pieces-at-cantor-arts-center/#respond Fri, 31 Oct 2014 07:01:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1090998 Since opening in 1894, the Cantor Center for Visual Arts has expanded its collection to encompass a vast breadth of artwork. A blend of the classic and the contemporary, the collection ranges from postmodern American to antiquated ethnic pieces.

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Since opening in 1894, the Cantor Center for Visual Arts has expanded its collection to encompass a vast breadth of artwork. A blend of the classic and the contemporary, the collection ranges from postmodern American to antiquated ethnic pieces. Here’s a rundown of five must-see works—across various cultures and movements—to catch on your next visit to Cantor.

1. “The Accident” by William Geets

“The Accident” by William Geets. Photo by Avi Bagla.
“The Accident” by William Geets. Photo by Avi Bagla.

This painting by neoclassical Belgian painter Willem Geets captivates with its European aesthetic. As a neoclassical painter, Geets contributed to an art movement that sought to revive the art style from Greece and Rome of antiquity. Framed with a fantastic selection of earthy and warm colors, the piece is incredibly expressive. Raw emotion is etched into the face of each bystander in the crowd, evidenced in the children’s overtly puzzled expressions and the exasperated cries of open-mouthed, infant-coddling housewives. The spectators’ fixed gazes and pointing fingers pull the viewer’s gaze across the surface of the painting, towards the titular hero at the bottom-right of the piece.

2. “Blue Clamp” by Jim Dine

"Blue Clamp" by Jim Dine. Photo by Avi Bagla.
“Blue Clamp” by Jim Dine. Photo by Avi Bagla.

“Blue Clamp” is a classic example of American pop artist Jim Dine’s affinity for found objects as motifs in his work, best described as hybrids of paintings and sculptures. The work features a heart dripped onto a canvas, with a single blue clamp jutting conspicuously outward from the center. Complementary reds, greens, violets and yellows create a visceral, rustic tone. Gobs of paint give the canvas a visible topography, accentuating the rawness of the piece while offering insight into Dine’s creative process. The piece captures the essence of the pop art movement because it so clearly deviates from the conventions of sculpting and painting, choosing instead to blur the line between the two mediums.

3. “Last Judgment” by Pieter I de Jode

 "The Last Judgement" by Pieter I de Jode . Photo by Avi Bagla.

“The Last Judgement” by Pieter I de Jode . Photo by Avi Bagla.

As an original print of a late 16th century altarpiece, Pieter I de Jode’s “Last Judgment” commands attention with its needle-sharp line quality and powerful religious undertones. Visibly partitioned into nine sections, the presentation of the piece is reminiscent of a paned window and similar to the panels of a modern comic. Upon closer inspection, the sheer intricacy of the piece becomes apparent. In the upper half of the piece, a vortex of clouds encircles angels who are carrying horns and peering down at a slew of demonic creatures running amok. The murky ambiance of the Ruth Levison Halperin Gallery complements the tension in the piece, which is both brutal and provocative.

4. “Mao” by Andy Warhol

A self-portrait by Andy Warhol at Cantor Arts Center. Photo by Avi Bagla.
A self-portrait by Andy Warhol at Cantor Arts Center. Photo by Avi Bagla.

Andy Warhol’s silkscreen of Chairman Mao, a controversial Chinese Communist leader, is one of the American artist’s most recognizable pieces. Warhol’s portraits of pop culture icons, executed in his signature hard-edged style, propelled him to the forefront of the pop art movement in the mid-1900s. His palette, consisting of garish primary and secondary colors, has somewhat of a dehumanizing effect on the piece. Indeed, Warhol himself expressed an interest in making his artwork anonymous and noncommittal. Texture is minimal, bar a few seemingly arbitrary scribbles and imperfections in the screenprint that together give an impression of defilement. Although the piece is striking, the message it conveys is not immediately evident.

5. “The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin

"The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin. Photo by Avi Bagla.
“The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin. Photo by Avi Bagla.

The Cantor Arts Center is home to one of just 12 bronze casts of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, “The Thinker,” in North America. Originally meant as a likeness of Dante, the sculpture has been heralded as one of the most recognizable in history – it’s one of Rodin’s most iconic pieces. As the centerpiece of Cantor’s Rodin collection – the largest outside of France – “The Thinker” rests ominously between columns of marble, with light falling gently upon its smooth complexion. This exhibition is not just the flagship of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor’s collection, but it’s also an ode to one of the fathers of modern sculpture. Hat’s off to you, Rodin.

The Cantor Arts Center is opened six days a week from Wednesdays to Mondays and offers free admission for all.

Contact Eric Huang at eyhuang ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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