Groundbreaking Works by Pop Art’s Biggest Names on View at the Cantor

Pop Art from the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA

August 13, 2014–October 26, 2015

Stanford, Calif.—For the past 50 years, Bay Area art collectors Harry and Mary Margaret Anderson have passionately assembled one of the most outstanding private collections of 20th-century post-war American art in the world. On September 21, more than 100 extraordinary works from their collection— donated to Stanford University—will be on view in a new museum adjacent to the Cantor Arts Center: the Anderson Collection at Stanford University. To celebrate its new neighbor, the Cantor presents an exhibition of spectacular Pop Art works on loan from SFMOMA’s own Anderson collection. The show, Pop Art from the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA, runs August 13, 2014 through October 26, 2015.

Connie Wolf, the Cantor’s John & Jill Freidenrich Director, along with Janet Bishop, SFMOMA’s curator of painting and sculpture, arranged the loan in part so that SFMOMA can continue to display its collection while its building is closed for construction. The 10 works in Pop Art include Robert Rauschenberg’s Collection; a silkscreen self-portrait by Andy Warhol; serial paintings of Rouen Cathedral by Roy Lichtenstein; James Rosenquist’s monumental painting Leaky Ride for Dr. Leakey; Robert Indiana’s iconic Love painting; and major works by Jim Dine, Jasper Johns and Claes Oldenburg. For a full list of works in the exhibition, see "Works in Pop Art from the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA" below.

“These works are of superlative quality—among the best examples of Pop Art on the West Coast,” said Hilarie Faberman, the Cantor’s Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “With this exhibition plus the Anderson museum, we can introduce Cantor visitors and the Stanford community to the ‘best of the best’ in contemporary art works—what would normally only be on view in centers for contemporary art such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco.”

Works in Pop Art from the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA
· Jim Dine (U.S.A., b. 1935), Blue Clamp, 1981. Acrylic on canvas with English C-clamp, 84 1/4 inches. x 96 1/2 x 5 inches.
· Robert Indiana (U.S.A., b. 1928), Love, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 48 1/4 x 48 1/4 inches.
· Jasper Johns (U.S.A., b. 1930), Land’s End, 1963. Oil on canvas with stick, 67 x 48 1/4 inches.
· Roy Lichtenstein (U.S.A., 1923–1997), Mirror 1, 1977. Paint on bronze, 44 3/8 x 25 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches.
· Roy Lichtenstein, Rouen Cathedral Set V, 1969. Oil and Magna on canvas, 63 5/8 x 141 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches.
· Roy Lichtenstein, Mirror #2, 1970. Oil and Magna on canvas, 95 7/8 x 108 3/8 inches.
· Claes Oldenburg (b. Sweden, 1929), Funeral Heart, 1961. Enamel paint, plaster and muslin, 57 x 39 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches.
· Robert Rauschenberg (U.S.A., 1925–2008), Collection, 1954–1955. Oil, paper, fabric, wood and metal on canvas, 80 x 96 x 3 1/2 inches.
· James Rosenquist (U.S.A., b. 1933), Leaky Ride for Dr. Leakey, 1983. Oil on canvas, 78 x 198 inches.
· Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Self-Portrait, 1967. Acrylic and silkscreen enamel on canvas. 72 1/8 x 72 1/8 inches.

Exhibition Sponsorship
The exhibition is made possible by support from the Contemporary Collectors Circle.

Related Exhibitions
To complement Pop Art from the Anderson Collection at SFMOMA, the Cantor presents three more new exhibitions of contemporary art.
· Fatal Laughs: The Art of Robert Arneson (August 20, 2014–September 28, 2015) features groundbreaking works that demonstrate how Arneson (U.S.A., 1930–1992) revolutionized the medium of clay and explored ideas that were often sexual, racial or political in character.
· Bay Area and Beyond: Selections from the Museum’s Collection (August 13, 2014–October 26, 2015) includes works by artists who established the Bay Area Figurative Movement and who have ties to Stanford: Richard Diebenkorn (U.S.A., 1922–1993), Nathan Oliveira (U.S.A., 1928–2010), Frank Lobdell (U.S.A., 1921–2013) and others.
· Well Pressed: Highlights from the Marmor Collection (August 13, 2014–February 2, 2015) consists of objects given to the Cantor by the Marmor Foundation and includes early and late works by Jasper Johns, unconventional approaches to the print process by Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg, and representative lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly (U.S.A., b. 1923), Richard Serra (U.S.A., b. 1939) and Frank Stella (U.S.A., b. 1936).
Read more about Fatal Laughs, Bay Area and Beyond and Well Pressed.

The Anderson Collection at Stanford University
Beginning September 21, 121 contemporary art works by 86 American artists will be housed in the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, a 33,327-square-foot building designed by Ennead Architects located adjacent to the Cantor Arts Center.

The collection is anchored in the work of abstract expressionists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Clyfford Still and Philip Guston, and extends to contemporary painters such as Ellsworth Kelly, Terry Winters, Sean Scully and Vija Celmins. Major postwar movements represented include Bay Area figurative art, color field painting, post-minimalism, California funk art and contemporary abstract painting. This new museum’s proximity to the Cantor Arts Center and the McMurtry Building for the Department of Art and Art History will transform the way the arts are studied and experienced at Stanford. The collection will also provide a rich resource for teaching and research, and become a destination for scholars and art lovers alike. For more information, visit: anderson.stanford.edu.

Pop Art
In the mid to late 1950s, in a climate of turbulence, experimentation and consumerism, “pop artists” in Britain and America began to look for inspiration in the world around them, representing—and at times, making art directly from—everyday items, consumer goods and mass media. They did this in a straightforward manner, using bold swaths of primary colors, often straight from the can or tube of paint. They adopted commercial methods like silkscreening, or produced multiples of works, downplaying the artist’s hand and subverting the idea of originality—in marked contrast with the highly expressive, large-scaled abstract works of the Abstract Expressionists, whose work had dominated postwar American art. Pop artists favored realism, everyday (and even mundane) imagery, and heavy doses of irony and wit.

Pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were also aware of the past, however. They sought to connect fine art traditions with pop culture elements from television, advertisements, films and cartoons. At the same time, their work challenged traditional boundaries between media, combining painted gestures with photography and printmaking; combining handmade and mass-produced elements; and combining objects, images and sometimes text to make new meanings. (From SFMOMA's Web site)

Cantor Arts Center
The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University is a vital and dynamic institution with a venerable history. Founded in 1891 with the university, the historic museum was expanded and renamed in 1999 for lead donors Iris and B. Gerald Cantor. The Cantor’s encyclopedic collection spans 5,000 years, includes more than 40,000 artworks and beckons visitors to travel around the world and through time: from Africa to the Americas to Asia, from classical to contemporary. With 24 galleries presenting selections from the collection and more than 20 special exhibitions each year, the Cantor serves Stanford’s academic community, draws art lovers from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond and attracts campus visitors from around the world. Free admission, free tours, lectures, family activities plus changing exhibitions make the Cantor one of the most well-attended university art museums in the country and a great resource for teaching and research on campus.

Visitor Information
The Cantor Arts Center is open Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. Beginning September 22, the Cantor will also be open on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. The Cantor is located on the Stanford campus, off Palm Drive at Museum Way. Parking is free after 4 p.m. weekdays and all day on weekends and major holidays. Information: 650-723-4177, museum.stanford.edu.

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Notes to Editors
• To arrange an interview or obtain an exhibition checklist, contact Anna Koster, Head of Communications, Cantor Arts Center, 650-725-4657, akoster@stanford.edu
• For high-resolution publicity images, contact PR Assistant Manager Margaret Whitehorn, Cantor Arts Center, 650-724-3600, mmwhite@stanford.edu

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Self-Portrait, 1967. Acrylic and silkscreen enamel on canvas. Collection SFMOMA, gift of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson. © 2015 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Love