…represented, among them Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, Wayne Thiebaud and Joan Mitchell, joining Motherwell et al. The crown jewel is Pollock’s horizontal drip painting “Lucifer” (1947), one of his most important works. The Andersons are said to have turned down an offer of $50 million for “Lucifer,” made in the mid-1990s by music mogul David Geffen. The canvas that once hung over Putter’s girlhood bed is easily…

…nside one of these intricate pieces made from dismissed or cast-off objects such as plastic toys, pipe cleaners, and varicolored faux-fur. But over the years, Cave’s project has expanded; it also now focuses on the inspiration of movement, dance, and expression based on what’s heard from inside. An Alvin-Ailey-trained dancer, Cave often performs in the Soundsuits alone or with friends and collaborators, as shown in the exhibit’s…

…ormed in. The energetic vibration of each single, insignificant article is magnified by how Cave chooses to bind them together. Each found object is transformed through the combination of color, history, function and sound. They force a reaction based on the viewer’s personal history. There is something familiar about the experience of seeing them even for the first time. In a gallery filled with people, this experience becomes a joyful and…

Over the past decade, many university leaders and donors have come to the same conclusion: investment in the arts is essential to building a competitive institution in an increasingly global world. This year, around half a dozen new museums and arts centres are opening on campuses across the country, from Columbia University in New York to Rice University in Texas. They come on the heels of recently completed projects at Stanford in California,…

If you’d been dragging your feet on getting to Palo Alto for the Anderson Collection’s Nick Cave exhibition (of Soundsuits, not Bad Seeds fame), now is the time. In addition to person-sized sculptures made for shimmying, the free collection displays Abstraction and the Movies March 1-17 only. Curated by current Stanford undergrad Carlos Valladares, Abstraction and the Movies pairs works from the Anderson Collection with images and posters from f…

…f primary colors to embellish the almost childlike depiction of himself. Conversely, Arshile Gorky used graphite and pastels to capture a stern and serious visage. Ellsworth Kelly employed ink on paper to portray himself in a contemplative pose, while Franz Kline’s dark, pensive face is branded with a large black “K.” All provide insights into the persona of the artist, which increases visitors’ appreciation of the art wor…

…s included in the public collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Pérez Art Museum Miami, among others. He also serves as assistant professor of painting and drawing at California State University, Bakersfield. The artist, who is based in L.A., will have access to the rich intellectual resources of Stanford’s campus while engaging with students, faculty and the community over the course of the fa…

…tanford’s golden last spike as part of a carved foam sculpture where it pierces a buffalo skull. It is inscribed with the Crow insult “You are without relatives,” but more closely means that an individual is nothing without family or community, Red Star explained, adding “It’s the opposite of capitalism and what these [railroad] benefactors were trying to do.” Railroad lines hold personal meaning for Red Star, who grew up on the Apsáalooke reserv…

…semblages of plant specimens, identification cards, letters, portraits, ceramic fragments photographed or copied and layered together. Here is the hand of the artist again, white-gloved, placing and arranging. In the bottom left corner of Brass Bells, a group of white men and women are pictured with coffins and human skulls, the photograph layered over another of a beaded necklace against a blue backdrop, a partial view of a person posed in lands…

…As the planet rotated and followed its orbit around the sun, the displacement between the original positions of the stars and the spheres drew an invisible spiral of Earth’s spinning motion. Since the early 1970s, Albuquerque has created an expansive body of work, ranging from sculpture, poetry, painting, and multimedia performance to ambitious site-specific ephemeral projects in remote locations around the globe. Often associated with the Light…