Looking for something to keep me off the Internet on Wednesday, I took a field trip to the Cantor Arts Center on the Stanford campus. After a calming 20 minute walk from Caltrain, I ate at the museum's tiny cafe & then wandered the 2 floors of galleries at random. The collection's variety surprised me. I came across such diverse objects as Rodin drawings, a finely carved Egyptian stela, a Henry Fuseli painting, Japanese netsukes & photos by Edward Weston. There are some really fun pieces currently on display, such as Duane Hanson's slovenly realistic Slab Man & William Kentridge's anamorphic Medusa drawing, which needs to be viewed in a cylindrical mirror. A massive walk-through Richard Serra is behind the museum.
There are also some real howlers. In the 1890s, Mrs. Stanford put her jewelry up for sale to raise funds for the University, & she had Astley David Middleton Cooper paint a wall-sized portrait of them, complete with lot numbers. As it turned out, she was unable to find buyers. Truly reprehensible is The Accident (1899) by Willem Geets, which depicts a Medieval Belgian crowd watching a man strip down before he jumps into a canal to rescue a drowning child.
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