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Large Clenched Left Hand

Rodin was fascinated by the expressive capabilities of hands. He modeled hundreds of them, using them both as independent sculptures and as parts of more complex pieces. By carefully modeling their musculature, proportion, texture, and balance, he demonstrated that hands could convey profound emotion, from anger and despair to compassion and tenderness. When Rodin composed a new figure, he often experimented by attaching to it hands made for earlier pieces in order to explore the possibilities the new combinations might reveal. This working method also encouraged Rodin’s interest in the fragment and also inspired his exploration of the notion that figurative sculpture need not depend on a whole figure to communicate meaning. Large Clenched Left Hand has fascinated hand surgeons for decades. A few years ago, The Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University collaborated with a hand surgeon at Stanford’s Medical School to examine what could be diagnosed...

October 28, 2016

Spotlight

Symposium Highlights Catalyst Role of Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center

[caption id="attachment_2410" align="alignleft" width="300"] Photo includes (standing) panel moderator Dr. Andrea Hevener, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology & Diabetes, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine; second from right is Gail Greendale, MD, Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology and Research Director for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center.[/caption] The Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center sponsored a “Catalyst” symposium on women’s health research this past spring. It was attended by 80 UCLA scientists and included panel presentations on current research and a poster session where 20 researchers described their current research projects and findings.To further their work, three poster presenters were each awarded $2,000 by the Director’s Fund of the Center. A medical student and public health student were also recognized for their work. “We were thrilled to receive support from the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute, funded by the National Institutes of Health, for this first of its kind...

October 28, 2016

News

The Fallen Caryatids

In the early 1880s Rodin created two female figures, each in a spiral pose, each either falling in within herself due to the heavy load she bears (one totes an huge stone on her shoulder, the other has an equally-sizable urn) or each springing into action despite her burden. These figures are descendants of Greek caryatids, architectural columns in the guise of female figures who bear the weight of a building's architrave on their heads. We thank North Carolina Museum of Art Curator David Steel for reminding us in his beautiful volume about Cantor gifts to his Museum that these two works speak not only to Rodin's times but also to ours. Steel quotes this passage in Robert Heinlein's 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land: There Jubal Harshaw, the “neo-pessimist philosopher,” waxes eloquently about Rodin's sculpture: “This poor little caryatid has fallen under the load. She's a good girl -- look at...

August 17, 2016

Spotlight

American Ambassador and American Hospital of Paris Honor Iris Cantor for Her Contributions to Healthcare for Women

[caption id="attachment_2278" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Top block of photos:top: Karin Charnoff-Katz, M.D.; Bernadette Toomey; Sharon Jacquet; Iris Cantor; Anne Moore, M.D.; Sam Selesnick, M.D.; Alexander Swistel, M.D.bottom left: Iris Cantor and Honorable Jane D. Hartley, U.S. Ambassador to France.bottom center: Susan Mascitelli, Iris Cantor, Ryan Fisherbottom right: Honorable Howard H. Leach, former U.S. Ambassador to France.[/caption] Iris Cantor, Founder and President of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, is recognized around the world for essentially redefining clinical health care for women — the result of her determination to move the medical establishment toward compassionate healthcare customized to each gender. This past June Iris visited Paris as guest of honor of American Ambassador Jane Hartley, the American Embassy, and the American Hospital of Paris. She was honored for her years of dedication to women's health around the world. Most importantly, her visit commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Iris and B. Gerald...

August 17, 2016

News

Rodin: Portraits of a Lifetime, Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections now on view at Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa

Residents and summer visitors to Cedar Rapids have the opportunity to see the Foundation's circulating exhibition, Rodin: Portraits of a Lifetime, now on view at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art until September 11. Part of a museum-wide celebration of portraiture, the exhibition's stop in Cedar Rapids is part of its three-year nation-wide tour. “The Rodin exhibition offers people a rare opportunity to see work by the most important sculptor since Michelangelo," said Sean Ulmer, the Museum's Executive Director. "Rodin redefined sculpture and ushered in the modern era. In many ways, he did for sculpture what the Impressionists did for painting.” Commenting on the long-term friendship between the Cantor Foundation and the Museum, Foundation Executive Director and Curator Judith Sobol noted that the Museum hosted a large Cantor Rodin respective in 1991 and has also been a "favorite place for loans. We are delighted that the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art continues to...

August 16, 2016

News

Cantor Foundation Celebrates NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Fiftieth Anniversary

Iris Cantor and the Board of the Cantor Foundation joined with hundreds of friends, alumni, and supporters in celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. The April 4 event at Jazz at Lincoln Center raised a gala record of scholarship support for the much-admired school. The Cantor Family and the Cantor Foundation have been long-term and ardent supporters of Tisch. Previous Cantor support has included a Cantor Scholarship Fund and the creation of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Film Center. Most recently Iris Cantor announced her support for the construction of a state-of-the-art proscenium theater at the School. The performance space will be named the Iris Cantor Theater. As you can see by the photos, Tisch has a great many admirers! ...

May 11, 2016

News

San Antonio Museum of Art Celebrates Opening of Rodin: The Human Experience, Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections

A week of events marked the early March opening at the San Antonio Museum of Art of the Foundation's large traveling exhibition, Rodin: The Human Experience, Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collec-tions. Beautifully installed in one of the Museum's remodeled galleries -- the Museum is in a nineteenth-century brewery building -- the show opened with two days of receptions and a public lecture by Judith Sobol, Executive Director of the Cantor Foundation, who also curated the show. In San Antonio the show was installed under the expert stewardship of SAMA Curator of European Art Merribell Parsons and her team. (Merribell, Judith, and Cantor Foundation Vice President Ryan Fisher are left-to-right in the top left photograph, above.) It's always fascinating for us to see how different museums present our shows. The San Antonio Museum of Art wove the experience of this Rodin exhibition into a museum-wide multisensory tour it...

May 11, 2016

News

Rodin’s Portraits of a Lifetime Draws Large Crowds at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina

Rodin’s glorious seven-foot tall figure of Claude Lorrain currently reigns over the elegant small art gallery at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The largest bronze in the exhibition Rodin: Portraits of a Lifetime: Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections, it has been a crowd pleaser since the exhibition opened to the public on February 11 in the University’s David McCune International Art Gallery. The exhibition includes many iconic Rodins, including Bust of Jean Baptiste Rodin (the artist’s father), Heroic Bust of Victor Hugo, Monumental Head of Balzac, Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose, Bust of Mrs. Russell, and The Creator, thought by many to be a self-portrait. Gallery Director Silvana Foti beams about the exhibition. “We are a gallery that you wouldn’t think would be able to get a show like Rodin. This type of exhibit would usually be in a museum with a huge staff,...

April 18, 2016

News

The Benedictions

In 1894 Rodin was invited to design a monument to labor for the 1900 Exposition Universelle. It was to be as enduring a symbol of the coming 1900 Exposition as the Tour Eiffel had been for the Exposition in 1889. Rodin proposed a 100-foot-tall tower – reminiscent of Leonardo’s staircase at the Château de Blois – on a 24-foot-wide base. A center column was to be covered in bas-reliefs depicting “respectable” laborers. At the base would be two figures: Night and Day. Atop the tower would be The Benedictions, described by Rodin as “two winged geniuses who descend from heaven, like a beneficent rain, to bless the work of men.” Rodin’s depiction of these two creatures emphasizes their lavish wings, as if their size was necessary to slow down the descent from heaven. The wings provide this piece with a generous art nouveau sensibility, very au current during the last decade...

March 21, 2016

Spotlight

Iris Cantor Gift Transforms Theater Possibilities at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts

Iris Cantor’s latest transformative gift was announced recently by New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Mrs. Cantor’s generosity will support the construction of a state-of-the-art proscenium theater at the School. The performance space – part of a planned multi-use building on Bleecker Street whose construction is due to start this year – will be named the Iris Cantor Theater. Tisch School of the Arts has been a long-time recipient of philanthropy from the Cantor Family and for the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. “Education is the foundation of our intellectual existence, teaching us to challenge convention and push beyond boundaries. The arts remind us of what it means to be human -- a mission never more important than it is today,” said Mrs. Cantor. “With this most recent gift to NYU, I hope to reaffirm all the tremendous progress made by the Tisch School of the Arts in...

February 5, 2016

News

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