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We are easily bored. But we stayed at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford
University until they kicked us out. And, after that, we wandered around the Rodins and other pieces
in the sculpture garden for at least another hour.
The food at the cafe, which overlooks an invitingly grassy field and a sculpture by de Kooning that we labeled
"The Blob", is excellent. Make sure to try the bread.
One of the current Changing Exhibits, Time Stands Still,
features photographs by Eadward Muybridge,
who invented ways to photograph figures in motion and other innovators in the field.
Muybridge proved that one could take a series of stills and re-display them to mimic motion. A few of his
zoopraxiscope discs are on display. The one I thought most interesting was actually a series of paintings,
not photographs, of monkeys.
Another current Changing Exhibit is the profoundly moving Di Alte Heym: Photographs of Jewish Eastern Europe Before the Holocaust.
Fiz loves the painting of the Stanford family that hangs opposite the entrance to the cafe. She observed
that there is no expression on any face in the painting, not even the faces of the children. She recognized Rodin's
The Thinker because it looks just like she's supposed to look when she's doing the Thinker at gymnastics.
And, there's the bronze, Rodin Building the Gates of Hell. Intriguing concept. I wonder if the Designer of the Universe
subcontracted with him. Rodin's actual Gates of Hell sits out in the garden.
Other galleries feature modern art, archaeological pieces, and artworks from Europe and the Americas.
Admission is free. Worth a visit.
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