Art Focus Lecture Series 2013
Art Focus lectures offer members and non-members opportunities to expand their knowledge of art through lectures, seminars, and workshops with faculty, curators, art experts, and artists.
Art Focus lectures are open to all with a discount for Cantor members. If a lecture is oversubscribed, members will be given priority. Drop-in attendance is offered for $30 on the day of a lecture if space is available. No advance reservations are possible for drop-ins. Payment by check or cash accepted at the door.
For more information or to become a member please call the Membership Office at 650-723-3482 or click here.
All lectures take place in the Cantor Arts Center auditorium from 4:15 to 6:15 pm.
California Beautiful: Architecture, Design, & Painting
Art Loves Technology: When Hollywood Ran Off With Silicon Valley
Grand Landscapes of The Golden West
Contemporary Architecture in Japan and China
The Bauhaus School
CALIFORNIA BEAUTIFUL: ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, & PAINTING
This series examines the rich cultural heritage of California as expressed through architecture and art. From the merger of indigenous cultures and Spanish colonialism through the influx of European culture and Asian influence in the 19th c., we will trace the evolution of a uniquely Californian vision as captured in the Mission Revival and Craftsman styles and the light and aesthetic of California Impressionist painting.
• Romance of the missions: The beginnings of a cultural identity by the missions and their legacy in the Mission Revival style including the Stanford University campus
• Great architects: Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, and Greene & Greene
• California beautiful: The Aesthetic Movement (Arthur and Lucia Matthews) and the California Impressionist painters
Denise Erickson is a professor of Art History at Cañada College and a celebrated local lecturer.
Thursdays, March 7, 14, and 21
Cantor Arts Center Auditorium
4:15 – 6:15pm
member: $75, non-member: $90
Registration Form
ART LOVES TECHNOLOGY: WHEN HOLLYWOOD RAN OFF WITH SILICON VALLEY
From peanut butter and chocolate to Buzz and Woody, great things happen when two different worlds collide, and the collision of art and technology is no different. Examples can be found all around us, from the cineplex to the apps on our phones. While many people don’t associate art with technology, the truth is they can be deeply interwoven, and when they work together well, innovation often happens.
Bobby Podesta is Head of Creative at ToyTalk, Inc., a San Francisco start-up that blends art and technology to create family entertainment. Before that, Bobby spent 14 years at Pixar Animation Studios as a story artist and animator, most recently as supervising animator on Toy Story 3. He received his B.F.A. in Film from the California Institute of the Arts. He has created award-winning short films, comic strips, and enough hand-drawn Christmas cards to line any respectable mantle.
Thursday, March 28
Cantor Arts Center Auditorium
4:15 – 6:15pm
member: $25, non-member: $30
Registration Form
GRAND LANDSCAPES OF THE GOLDEN WEST
Explore the sweeping majesty and quiet beauty of California landscape paintings from the rich period between 1850 and 1930. Several of the artists covered have significant works on view in the Cantor’s own galleries.
• California Landscapes in the Hudson River School Style 1850-1890
Artists Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith painted grand subjects in the detailed illusionistic manner of the eastern Hudson River School while attempting to project transcendental spiritual values.
• California Marine and Mission Paintings 1860-1920
Marine life of San Francisco as portrayed by W.A. Coulter Gideon, Jacques Denny, and Joseph Lee, missions as depicted by Henry Chapman Ford, Edwin Deakin, Chris Jorgensen, and plein-air painters.
• California Landscapes of the Tonalist and Impressionist Periods 1890-1930
The Tonalist movement in landscape, as influenced by French Barbizon artists and James McNeill Whistler, permeated the California art world of the 1890s. The transition to the Impressionist style is traced in the works of John Gamble, Granville Redmond, Guy Rose, and others.
Alfred C. Harrison, Jr. started as a private collector of 19th c. American paintings, and later assumed ownership of the North Point Gallery in San Francisco. In addition to lecturing on and creating exhibitions of early California art, Mr. Harrison has assembled a significant research archive on early California painters.
Wednesdays, April 10, 17, and 24
Cantor Arts Center Auditorium
4:15 – 6:15pm
member: $75, non-member: $90
Registration Form
CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN JAPAN AND CHINA
World-renowned buildings like the Dior Store in Tokyo and the CCTV complex in Beijing will be examined along with larger movements in contemporary architecture such as micro houses in Japan and the destruction of the hutongs (traditional housing units) in Chinese cities. Explorations of the work of Chinese and Japanese architects and international firms will reveal how Asian architecture is at the forefront of architectural thinking.
Tom Beischer is in his 9th year of teaching at Stanford. He is a lecturer in architectural history and theory in the departments of Art and Art History and Civil and Environmental Engineering. He received his B.A. at Stanford, and his Ph.D. in History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture at MIT.
Thursday, May 2
Cantor Arts Center Auditorium
4:15 – 6:15pm
member: $25, non-member: $30
Registration Form
Founded in Germany after the First World War by internationally renowned architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus School became a unique center for modern design and architectural ideas. Teachers included Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, and Mies van der Rohe. We will explore the innovative modern designs of the Bauhaus artists and designers, their utopian project in teaching and learning, and their unprecedented impact on art and design throughout the western world.
Brigid Barton is a professor emerita in Art History at Santa Clara University where her specialty was European Modernism. She continues to lecture for Stanford Continuing Studies, Santa Clara University’s Olli Program, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and teaches periodically at Stanford in Berlin.
Thursday, May 9Cantor Arts Center Auditorium
4:15 – 6:15pm
member: $25, non-member: $30
Registration Form
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