By Jean Packard
All About Art
For serious museum-goers, there are two shows you do not want to miss: “From Corot to Picasso,” at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts on the Stanford University campus; and the Ansel Adams retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
“Corot to Picasso,” open through Sept. 23, showcases 51 paintings and six sculptures spanning the years 1800-1950 on loan from the Smith College collection. This show splendidly demonstrates the transition from realism to abstractionism without pretension. In my opinion, it exceeds the best of expectations. A viewers’ treat to a top-tier collection by any man’s measure.
The show will please the traditionalist and the historically interested transitionalist, as well as the student of the abstract. The works are superbly hung and displayed, with a flow guaranteed to hold your interest for the one to two hours it takes to move through the collection.
Some of the best examples of paint meeting canvas, by world-renowned artists, are included in the show. Odelon Redon, the French mystic, surprises us with a large form of startling orange opaque on an otherwise delicate painting (1905). And there is a portrait by Anne Louise Girodet, whose color tones, brushwork and ingenious detail are exemplified by the finely defined shadows of curly hair on the forehead. The magnificent contrast of flesh tones to the fabric of the subject’s dress (1804) will surely evoke pangs of envy in any aspiring portraitist.
For landscape lovers, there is an outstanding piece by Diaz de la Pena, “Forest Pool” (1862). Here the artist describes sunlight invading the forest with great originality. Also featured is Fernand Leger, the French cubist who for many years taught at Mills College in Oakland. Other well-known artists displayed in the show include Matisse, Monet, Manet, Degas, Joan Mitchell, Cezanne, Franz Kline, Kandinsky and Motherwell.
For information, call 723-4177.
At the SFMOMA, 114 of the finest landscape photographs by Ansel Adams are on display until Jan. 13, celebrating 100 years of the Bay Area artist, born in San Francisco in 1902.
Critics have long argued over the merits of photography as a legitimate art form, but not about Adams’ talent as a photographer.
An interesting catch-the-eye technique gets the viewer’s attention immediately. In the first room only, paintings by G. O’Keefe, Marsden Hartley, John Marin and Arthur Dove are interspersed with Adams’ photos. The mood was exhilarating.
The rest of the show was relatively disappointing. Perhaps the camera devotee will delight, but as an art show it lacked some of the energy that this viewer has come to anticipate in a retrospective.
For information, call (415) 357-4000.
Jean Packard is an artist, teacher and owner of the Packard Art Studio in Los Altos for contemporary art study. Call her at 941-7033 or e-mail packardartstudio@mymailstation.com.
