At the art museum

In collecting material for blog postings on recent exhibitions at the Cantor/Anderson galleries at Stanford, I came across a staff page with an excellent photo of Matthew Tiews, Associate Vice President for the Arts at Stanford:

I first knew Matthew as the Associate Director of the Stanford Humanities Center, a position that calls for a serious scholar who is generally knowledgeable about the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, and is also an able administrator, good at working with people, and (very important) with a solid sense of humor. Now Matthew oversees the arts programs and the arts complex at Stanford, which has developed into an entire campus neighborhood, or zone (three museums, a very spiffy concert hall, and more).

So I wrote Matthew about my Stanford art museum postings (which I thought might interest his staff), and now I’m reporting all this to you.

First thing: I have a (big) Page on this blog with an inventory of my postings on art: some are just appreciations or critical examinations of particular artists, some are announcements of books, some are reports on exhibitions at Stanford, as well as at UC Davis and in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City (of course), and many other places.  I have no credentials in art criticism or art history, of course, so these are just the personal reactions of an educated person to artworks.

But specifically on the Stanford museums, in reverse chronological order:

from 3/3/17: “Abstraction and the Movies”, a show on Abstract Expressionist artworks paired with films

from 2/24/17: “Dash Manley”, a show highlighting three series of paintings by Dashiell Manley

from 2/12/17: “Three exhibitions”, on Dutch Golden Age prints; Andy Warhol; and the lingzhi mushroom in East Asian art

from 12/31/16: “Surrealists, but especially Jess”, show “The Legacy of Surrealism”; also discussion of an earlier Willie Cole “Anxious Objects” exhibition

from 11/23/16: “Two Stanford adventures”, show “California: The Art of Water”

from 11/4/16: “Into the Cave world”, on Nick Cave and his Soundsuits

from 8/15/15: “Stickwork”,  on outdoor sculpture using natural materials, including Andy Goldsworthy’s “Stone River” at Stanford

from 3/30/15: “Jacob Lawrence”, on the chronicler of black life at the Cantor

from 2/26/12: “Two photographers”, one of them Walker Evans at the Cantor

from 11/19/11: “Rex Slinkard”, show “The Legend of Rex Slinkard”

from 11/2/11: “Tom Seligman”, on the Stanford museum director

(I remind you that the Stanford museums are free to the public; Stanford takes its art-educational mission seriously. Closed on Mondays. But the Rodin Sculpture Garden and the New Guinea Sculpture Garden are out in the open air, open all the time. And pieces of public sculpture are sprinkled all over the campus.)

One Response to “At the art museum”

  1. arnold zwicky Says:

    A note about the photograph: It’s a wonderful photo of Matthew — presenting him as a person of authority, but also in a work setting, wearing an artist’s somewhat rumpled reconception of business dress.

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