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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

St. John the Baptist Preaching

In 1913 Rodin spoke of what happened when an Italian peasant from the Abruzzi region came to his studio to offer himself as a model: As soon as I saw him, I was filled with admiration; this rough, hairy man expressed his violence in his bearing, his features and his physical strength, yet also the mystical character of his race. I immediately thought of a Saint John the Baptist, in other words, a man of nature, a visionary, a believer, a precursor who came to announce one greater than himself. The peasant undressed, climbed onto the revolving stand as if he had never posed before; he planted himself firmly on his feet, head up, torso straight, at the same time putting his weight on both legs, open like a compass. The movement was so right, so straightforward and so true that I cried: ‘But it’s a man walking!” I immediately resolved...

February 5, 2016

Spotlight

Cantors Receive Exceptional Honor as Paris’ Musée Rodin Names Gallery ‘Hall Iris et B. Gerald Cantor’

[caption id="attachment_2146" align="aligncenter" width="300"] French Prime Minister Manuel Valls welcomes Iris Cantor and members of Cantor Foundation Board to Musée Rodin[/caption] Following three years of renovations that ended with five days of anticipatory celebrations, Paris’ beloved Musée Rodin opened to the public on November 12. The restored museum's days of celebrations honored Iris and B. Gerald Cantor for their six decades of support for the museum, support first initiated by B. Gerald Cantor and then continued by Mrs. Cantor. The museum has commemorated this support by naming the premier gallery of the Hotel Biron "Hall Iris et B. Gerald Cantor," an exceptional honor rarely given by a French museum. Iris Cantor was at the Musée Rodin with members of the Foundation Board and many friends to witness the ribbon cutting by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. M. Valls lauded the Cantors and recognized the two American philanthropists for their extraordinary advocacy not...

February 4, 2016

News

Bust of Jean Baptiste Rodin

Rodin’s father (1803-1883) was a conservative family man who worked hard his entire life, first as a clerk in a police station and then as a police inspector. Left a widower by his first wife, he married again and with his second wife had three children. It was a close and supportive family. Jean Baptiste Rodin seems to have been a quiet, unremarkable person. For his time and background, however, he was remarkable in one respect: He supported his son’s aspirations to be an artist. Indeed, he recognized his young son’s talent when no one else did. In an undated letter in the archives of the Musée Rodin, Jean wrote to his Auguste, giving him fatherly advice: You must not construct your future on sand so that the smallest storm will bring it down. Build on a solid, durable foundation [so that] the day will come when one can say of...

September 18, 2015

Spotlight

GET YOUR PASSPORTS READY! Rodin Museum in Paris to reopen on November 12 after three years of extensive renovation

With the help of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, The Musée Rodin, often voted Paris’ most beloved museum, has during the past three years undergone a complete renovation. This work has been the most extensive conducted since Auguste Rodin himself used the eighteenth-century palace more than 100 years ago. The renovation will not only give visitors a better understanding of how the building looked and was used during Rodin’s time, it will also elevate the popular museum’s infrastructure to the high standards of today's modern museums. In addition, the Musée’s staff is planning a complete re-installation of the artworks, emphasizing Rodin’s working methods. As Ryan Fisher, Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Cantor Foundation, explains, "The Cantors' support for the Musée Rodin goes back more than 60 years, to the days when Bernie Cantor became friends with the museum’s then-director, Cécile Goldscheider. That support continues today...

September 17, 2015

News

Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center Funds Groundbreaking Research in Women’s Health

[caption id="attachment_2107" align="alignleft" width="260"] At the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center Annual Lunch with the Scientists: (l to r) Ryan Fisher; Janet Pregler, M.D.; Mary Ann Cloyd; Cameron Diaz; Gail Greendale, M.D.; and Sandra Bark[/caption] This month we bring you news from one of our early healthcare partners, the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center. Opening in 1995, the Center was one of the first in the nation to feature 'one stop shopping," as Iris Cantor calls it. For the past few years the Woman's Health Center has also supported research, using funds raised especially for this purpose by its Executive Advisory Board. Seeking to understand human sex differences in health and disease, awardees have conducted ground-breaking studies in medical issues and diseases unique to women and have developed and tested clinical interventions for women. All investigators at UCLA CTSI (Clinical and Translational Science Institute) centers are eligible for these research grants. Recently five projects received these Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health...

September 17, 2015

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