Tuesday, November 15, 2016

My Favorite Paintings at Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University was known for its amazing Rodin sculpture collections, but its painting collections were also remarkable.

My favorite was a semi-abstract by Richard Diebenkorn, titled Window. This painting was striking in its bold division of the canvas into several flat areas of brilliantly contrasting colors - bright blue, neutral orange and muted green, plus a narrow stretch of varying gray. Some details of depicted objects, large or small, helped to break otherwise monotonousness of each area, and artfully joined them together. The painting also drew viewers in with its many shapes and forms, and enigmatic relationships of planes, and trickery of view points. Those objects, seemingly readily identifiable, but upon closer examination, tended to shift away from the initial impressions. This painting's evocative atmosphere, intriguing composition, and strategic placement of objects, reminded me of mature Matisse in similar interior/exterior setting. This painting was exemplary in both representational and abstract worlds.

Window, Richard Diebenkorn _ 1887
Window, Richard Diebenkorn

My second favorite was a portrait by Max Pechstein, Kurish Bride, I.  This was a boldly outlined and modeled portrait of a lovely young woman, in a simple black and white dress or blouse, adorned with wildflower garland and red and pink scarf, high-cheeked and wide eyed, solid yet sensual, sedated yet hopeful, and almost joyous. One particularly striking aspect was that her face was painted in unnatural and even sickly green, but it complimented well of her dark eyes, ruddy cheeks and scarlet lips. Furthermore, against deep red backdrop, and offset by pale green over light brown, the colors clashed dramatically and excitingly, and made her face commend all the attention. The large area of red background echoed and contrasted her ruddy cheeks and scarlet lips, and the scarf, thus firmly connected to the central figure. A riotously outburst of colors and emotions.

Kurish Bride, I, Max Pechstein _ 1909
Kurish Bride, I, Max Pechstein


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 149: My Favorite Paintings at Anderson Collection at Stanford University
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 147: My Favorite Engravings at Seattle Art Museum

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Anderson Collection at Stanford University
- Paintings at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Rodin and Richard Serra in Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Inside Richard Serra's Sculpture "Sequence" at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Auguste Rodin at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Andy Goldsworthy's Stone River in a Lush Setting
- Four Chinese Masters's Works at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
- Second Thoughts on the Sculpture "The Blind" by Lorado Taft
- Richard Serra Drawing and 2010 SECA Art Award at SFMOMA
- My Favorite Sculptures at Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

No comments:

Post a Comment