Campus Stories - Art & Art History

Photo by DeWitt Cheng.
Campus Stories

Wax works by local artists

Stanford Art Spaces announces its January-February 2015 art exhibitions: The Spiritual Landscape by Mari Marks and One Day at a Time: Thirty Years in the Studio by Howard Hersh. Both are accomplished Bay Area artists: Marks lives in Berkeley, and Hersh in San Francisco. Both employ the medium of encaustic, i.e., powdered pigments bound in…

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Blooming Fibonacci
Campus Stories

Blooming Fibonacci

These 3-D printed sculptures, called blooms, are designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. The placement of the appendages is determined by the same method nature uses in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotation speed is synchronized to the strobe so that one flash occurs every time the sculpture turns 137.5º – the golden…

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Photo: Steve Castillo
Campus Stories

Architect David Adjaye tells Stanford audience how he designs civic spaces to create community

Architect David Adjaye is international both in his heritage and in his career. Between his childhood and his working life he has spent considerable time in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the United States. He has built houses for Kofi Annan and, pro bono, for displaced residents of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward; he also…

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Happy 2015!
Campus Stories

Happy 2015!

We are looking forward to everything 2015 will bring in the arts at Stanford – new exhibitions at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford Live performances at Bing Concert Hall and beyond, engagement with the Anderson Collection at Stanford University – and of course the enormous variety of performances, events, exhibitions and programs put on by…

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Photo by Linda Cicero
Campus Stories

Photographer Robert Frank drops in on a panel discussion of his work

The event was supposed to be an in-depth discussion of the Cantor Art Center’s special exhibition Robert Frank in America, with three panelists providing analysis of select photographs. For the lucky guests who got in, it lived up to the description, and then some. Robert Frank dropped in to participate. Frank visited the exhibition with his wife, June Leaf, a few days before…

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Seen – and heard! – on campus
Campus Stories

Seen – and heard! – on campus

It’s hard to believe finals are right around the corner – what an exciting fall quarter! We have seen an amazing roster of high-profile artists and creative industry leaders on campus. I realize it may be difficult to keep up with them all – so for those keeping score at home, here are a few:…

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A trio of Stanford Art Spaces exhibitions
Campus Stories

A trio of Stanford Art Spaces exhibitions

Stanford Art Spaces is pleased to announce its November-December 2014 art exhibitions: Elementals, oil paintings by Katie Hawkinson; Steel Dreams, painted, welded sculptures, along with drawings and collages, by Joe Slusky; and Sacred Geometry, paintings of geometric polyhedrons by Stephen Wilmoth. Hawkinson (who, incidentally, teaches at Stanford Continuing Studies) and Slusky are a well-known Berkeley…

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Alex Tamkin
Campus Stories

November State of the Arts – Imagining the Universe

“Imagining the Universe” is a collaborative campus-wide program bringing together a broad array of partners on campus and in the Bay Area.* The cosmos has long inspired our imaginations – fueling research, reflection, and creative response. There’s a lot to be learned from this vast topic. That’s why the series will host exhibitions, performances, public…

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Imagining the Universe: Cosmology in Art and Science series launches with words
Campus Stories

Imagining the Universe: Cosmology in Art and Science series launches with words

OCT. 27 – Out of this world: Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics Author Italo Calvino’s whimsical view of the universe will be explored at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 at Stanford Humanities Center as part of Stanford’s “Another Look” book club and in conjunction with the series Imagining the Universe. Acclaimed author Robert Pogue Harrison, professor of…

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Stanford’s new player piano collection brings sounds of history to life
Campus Stories

Stanford’s new player piano collection brings sounds of history to life

The Golden Age of player pianos has dawned on the Farm. Stanford University recently acquired the Denis Condon Collection of Reproducing Pianos and Rolls, a private collection of more than 7,500 rolls and 10 player pianos – among the most important of its kind. Experts in the field are working along with faculty and staff…

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‘Stanford in New York City’ to launch autumn 2015
Campus Stories

‘Stanford in New York City’ to launch autumn 2015

Stanford will accept applications in early December for the inaugural quarter of Stanford in New York City, an undergraduate program in which students will use the city as their laboratory – taking courses; working in internships in the arts, design, architecture and urban studies; going on field trips and attending cultural events. The program, designed…

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L.A. Cicero
Campus Stories

Windhover contemplation center now open

When visitors walk into Windhover, the first painting they’ll see is Big Red, a large abstract oil painting of a kestrel flying in a red sky, a work that artist Nathan Oliveira returned to again and again over the 25 years it stood in his studio. Oliveira, who died in 2010, was an internationally acclaimed…

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Welcome Back!
Campus Stories

Welcome Back!

On Sept. 21 the Anderson Collection at Stanford University officially opened its doors, following a week of celebratory events. Over 3,000 visitors enjoyed this amazing new campus resource during the opening weekend. And then the next day classes started – and Professor Pamela Lee’s Abstract Expressionism seminar held its first session in the Anderson Collection…

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Opening this month!
Campus Stories

Opening this month!

The Anderson Collection at Stanford University has been packing as well – crating 121 exemplary works of modern and contemporary art and moving them from the Andersons’ private collection to their new home in Stanford’s arts district. The team has been working hard all summer long receiving and installing the works – by Jackson Pollock,…

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Photo: Veronica Marian
Campus Stories

Stanford library’s punk poster art collection revives ’80s musical history

The Stanford University Libraries host an impressive set of archival music collections ranging from 16th-century lute music to Dixieland jazz. Now, an unlikely cast of characters joins their ranks, as San Francisco punk stalwarts like Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys cozy up next to the likes of Jascha Heifetz on the library shelves. Unlike…

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Photo: L.A. Cicero
Campus Stories

Stanford art historian explores the shocking yet affirmative power of gay imagery

News coverage of recent milestones in gay rights routinely includes images of happy same-sex couples kissing in celebration. But according to Stanford art historian Richard Meyer, visuals of same-sex kisses and other gay images do much more than illustrate happy moments. In making formerly private content public, such scenes “help to create queer culture by…

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