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San Francisco 2019, Day 3, Part 1

Palo Alto, Part 1:  Stanford Morning

On a Saturday in July of 2019, my friend Kevin and I took the train down to Palo Alto, home of Stanford University.  Or so I thought that what Palo Alto was.  I was quite surprised that Stanford University is not actually located in Palo Alto, but rather Stanford, California.  Stanford the place is an unincorporated area next to Palo Alto.

Approaching Cantor Arts Center. Sorry I don’t have a picture that’s actually clear.

Being from New England, I’ve been very confused by unincorporated areas.  In New England, everyplace you can be is either a city or a town.  End of story.  But it turns out that’s not the case elsewhere in the States.  In places like California, you can be in a place that’s neither a city nor a town.  It’s just a place.  An incorporated place, like Stanford.

Now Stanford the university is not named after Stanford the place.  It’s the other way around.  Stanford the place was named after Stanford the university.  And Stanford the university was named after the son of Leland and Jane Stanford.  Leland was one of the Big Four.  Remember them?  After their son died at 15, the Stanfords founded the university in his memory for the benefit of other people’s children.

Cantor Arts Center

Greek dramatist Menander stands–okay, sits–guard outside Cantor Arts Center.

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University is a major art museum on Stanford’s campus.  Originally known as the Leland Stanford Jr. Museum, the Cantor Arts Center was created to display the Stanfords’ impressive art collection.  It was soon the world’s largest private art museum.

“History” mosaic on the façade of the Cantor Arts Center.

The museum got its current name in 1999.  Iris and B. Gerald Cantor were major art collectors and philanthropists.  B. Gerald was the founder of securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald.  Iris is still kicking.

Rodin

Auguste Rodin’s The Three Shades, a bronze sculpted in 1881-83 and 1901-02 and cast in 1980.

The Cantor Arts Center has the largest collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin outside Paris, thanks in large part to the donations of B. Gerald Cantor.  Many of the museum’s Rodin sculptures are located outside in the B. Gerald Cantor Rodin Sculpture Garden.

Rodin’s Martyr, a cast of a sculpture created c. 1885.
Rodin’s The Gates of Hell. Rodin worked on this masterwork for 37 years, until his death in 1917. It depicts a scene from Dante’s Inferno. Who’s that on top? Our new friends, The Three Shades! Right below them is the original version of Rodin’s famous The Thinker.
Hellish detail on The Gates of Hell.
1981 cast of Rodin’s 1887 Jean d’Aire, Burgher of Calais. (More on Calais Burghers later.)

Contemporary Art

Viktoria, a 1999 bronze by Deborah Butterfield. It was cast in bronze from a model made of driftwood. Horses are Deborah’s mane muse.
Okay, so these 3 aren’t so contemporary. But I’m sure they were very contemporary in their day.
Copper and wire sculpture, c. 1954, by Ruth Asawa, a major Bay Area artist.
Soundsuit, a 2015 mixed media piece by Nick Cave (the American artist, not the Australian musician).
Business Man and Lush Life #2, 2008, by Roger Shimomura. Both figures are painted with internment camps in the background. The artist and his family were forcibly relocated to an internment camp by the US government after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
6th Still Life, 2011, by German sculptor Katharina Fritsch.

More Rodin

You know this one. A 1968 cast of Rodin’s The Thinker. I never knew it was an enlargement of a figure from The Gates of Hell. Did you?
A 1971 cast of Rodin’s 1888 bronze Large Clenched Left Hand.

African Art

A contemporary headdress with figures including a Hindu goddess and a mythical mermaid by John Goba, a Sierra Leonean artist.
Most Valuable Player: Microsoft cofounder BILL GATES is highly Blessed, 2011, a painting by Kwame Akoto, a Ghanaian artist and preacher who also goes by Almighty God.
BREXIT, 2016, a satirical painting by Kenyan artist Joseph Bertiers. How many famous Brits do you recognize?

Asian Art

Crossbow finial made of bronze with silver and gold inlay. From 3rd century BC China during the Warring States period.
Death of the Buddha, made of wood with gesso, gold, lacquer, and pigment, from 15th-century China, during the Ming Dynasty.
Gilt copper sculpture of Tsongkhapa, an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, from 18th-century Mongolia.
Part of an installation of work by South Korean artist Do Ho Suh. Cause and Effect (2007), a chandelier, and Screen (2005).
Some of the innumerable figures that make up Screen.
Some of the innumerable figures that make up Cause and Effect.
The 3rd part of Do Ho Suh’s installation, wallpaper called Who Am We? (Multi).
Wooden architectural element from granary, 19th-century, by Toba Batak people of Northern Sumatra.
Figures in pigment on the wood.
Book of Ritual Knowledge, 19th century, also from the Toba Batak people of Northern Sumatra.
Ivory dragon from 19th-century Japan.
Incense burner in nephrite, Qing Dynasty.
A collection of snuff bottles from the 19th-century and early 20th-century Qing Dynasty.

Indigenous American Art

Mexican ceramic figures, 1st century BC to 3rd century.
1985 screen print by indigenous Canadian artist Tony Hunt, Sr.
In the foreground, house posts and lintel with family crests. In the background, painted screen. Both by Calvin Hunt, Tony’s 2nd cousin.

European & American Art

Last Judgment, c. 1510, circle of Hieronymus Bosch, Netherlands.
Coffin for female mummy identified as the Chantress of Amen (Amon), c. 11th-10th century BC, Egypt.
Can you immediately guess that this is a work of Edward Hopper? New York Corner (Corner Saloon), 1913.
Could you guess this is by Pablo Picasso? Courtesan with Hat, 1901.
Your guess is as good as anyone’s. St. Michael the Archangel, 17th-18th century, Peru. The artist is unidentifed.
You know this has to be by a Dutch master. Still Life with Crab, 1654, Abraham van Beyeren.
Alright, time for some fresh air! That’s Stanford’s Hoover Tower.

Stay tuned for more of Stanford (if not Palo Alto).

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]

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