Fall, a season experienced in other climates as crisp weather, woolly sweaters, crunchy leaves and autumnally-appropriate spiced drinks. Here in the Bay Area, September is much the same as August, except with more exciting visual art events on the calendar and a slight spike in temperatures. Don’t know where to start for a healthy dose of excellent art? Here are eight suggestions for not-to-miss exhibitions, installations, public art projects an…

…pottery and medicinal clay to 3D-printed joints and pajamas that restore athletes’ muscles, the use of ceramics for objects rooted in decoration, ritual and utility is as old as it is expansive. The practices of four living artists whose exploration of the medium provides commentary on its past and insight for the future are presented in Formed & Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University. An exhi…

…erman’s resignation in late November. The university has been circumspect about personnel matters, but did issue a press release at the time indicating that a transition team “will work closely with stakeholders from across the campus and community to situate the museum for ongoing success.” Mitchell and Brezinski discussed their new roles and goals in recent email interviews with this news organization. When asked if the Cantor…

…anford. Bay Area figurative art is a particular strength of the Anderson Collection and the second Park painting is an important acquisition. A collection of essays about the painting by Nancy Boas, Helen Park Bigelow and John Seed will be available in the galleries and online at the time of the opening. The Anderson Collection reopens to the public on Sept. 22 after being closed several months for maintenance. The permanent collection is being c…

…ch artworks a lot, not understanding the value placed on artists like Rothko. But seeing such pieces in a museum in front of you feels very different than looking at images online after Googling the artist. These large canvases and colors, though they are just large patterns, weigh on you, and that weight was calming. It almost had an aura that transcended my mind from my real life, making me not ponder about the events of my daily life for a bit…

…crafted female torso entitled “Largo-May,” executed in copper and steel, by Saul Baizerman. Somehow, it works.  Looking at a legacy It is these unpredictable combinations that distinguish the Anderson Collection from most museums. There are explanatory labels that provide the public with more in-depth art historical information, but, for the most part, viewers are encouraged to just use their eyes. One can move from space to space, we…

On September 21, the Anderson Collection building opened at the Palo Alto campus of Stanford University—our frequent partner-in-crime when it comes to celebrating the West. Designed by the same team that created Stanford’s stellar Bing Concert Hall, the structure houses 121 works of modern and contemporary American art, all donated by Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson. Of course, we’re most excited about the pieces that have a Western flavor:…

…knew too well. Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums: The Stanford University Libraries presented to the public for the first time at the Cantor Arts Center the full riches of albums they received decades ago in which the luckless but relentless Carleton Watkins recorded the prising open of the American West by alien forces both commercial and cultural. Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art From the Weisel Family Collection: The de Young Mus…

…re on par with the objects at other great museums, but the intimacy here is fairly unique,” he says. Anh-Minh Le is a Portola Valley freelancer. E-mail: travel@sfchronicle.com Museum highlights Jason Linetzky, the Anderson Collection’s founding director, recommends allotting about 90 minutes for a visit. Here are just a handful of the museum’s highlights: “Jackson Pollock’s ‘Lucifer’ is something that people come to see. It previously hung over P…

…ht-provoking and challenging suits are constructed in ways that refuse to reveal gender, age or race. They offer complete anonymity. To imagine yourself in them is to turn the collective sharing of memories into a personal epiphany. The Anderson exhibit includes eight Soundsuits, three video works and a recently completed documentary about Nick Cave titled “Here.” There also is an interactive felt wall where visitors to the gallery ca…

…o Alto, would make sense to add to that list. But not so, says Glimcher. “There was no significant presence by a commercial gallery in Silicon Valley,” he explains. “When an amazing thing comes on the market, (art collectors in the area) can’t always get on a plane and go to New York to see them. So now that really amazing thing will come to them.” And there is certainly evidence of an increasing appetite for contemporary and modern art in the su…

…d earlier than paintings found upstairs in the permanent collection. “These works give visitors a sense of where the artist came from and help to contextualize (i.e,, Guston) or provide a deeper look (i.e., Diebenkorn). In the case of Guston, where else can you find a 30-year cross-section of amazing works to help contextualize the two permanent collection works (dated 1962 and 1977)?” When asked if he thought it was important for vie…

…y themselves as plain folk to befit their shared nickname “Hunk and Moo,” but they were sophisticated and timely in their collecting of artworks that were often abstract and beyond comprehension. They were also generous in both loaning and donating pieces to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Five years ago, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University opened next to Cantor Arts Center, the main…

…ation, the Anderson exhibition space — 16,000 feet on two floors — has been reinstalled for the first time since its opening. This includes a curated exhibition by Jim Campbell, the San Francisco lighting artist known for his six-story installation “Day for Night” at Salesforce Tower. For the Anderson show, Campbell built a new work titled “Rhythm Studies” composed of nine LED panels. It hangs in the first-floor window and can be seen day and nig…

…was of star light entering from the North Pole through the Earth axis exiting at the South Pole. By creating an invisible shaft of light that would poetically come through the centre of the Earth and through the rotation of the Earth, it would form an invisible double strain of DNA. Her early sketches depict the alignment of our bodies and DNA with the celestial bodies and the relationship between the Earth and the sky, where humans are the conn…