Feb 11, 2008

American tourism spurred by exhibit's artists

By Janet Duca Norton / Society Columnist

The first major exhibition of the year at Stanford's Cantor Art Center showcased the traveling exhibit "Frederic Church, Winslow Homer and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape," on loan from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. Colorful paintings and sketches of magnificent American landscapes by these celebrated 19th century artists premiered with a pair of opening receptions for museum supporters and friends on Jan. 29 and 30.

The paintings and sketches were done on location in some of the country's scenic wonders, including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Adirondacks, the rugged coast of Maine, the Catskill Mountains and the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The exhibit also showed how some of these sketches were later transformed into larger, epic paintings in the artists' studios.

These three artists directly influenced the creation of rustic vacation destinations on the East Coast, travel to the West to view the beauty of the natural environment and establishment of the national parks. The exhibit features more than 70 drawings, paintings and stereographs, as well as guidebooks and tourist memorabilia.

In the 1860s, Homer's studies of New Hampshire's White Mountains were featured in Harper's Weekly and used in vacation advertisements.

According to notes accompanying the exhibit, Church and Moran painted for cosmopolitan audiences, and were comfortable with their work being used by developers and railroad and steamship companies to promote tourism to the middle class. Church's work never showed tourists in the images, but by 1900, his paintings of Niagara Falls had brought one million visitors to the breathtaking natural wonder. Moran's romanticized paintings of Yellowstone led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

Determined guests who made the patrons preview event despite the traffic jam caused by an overturned tanker truck on Highway 101 included Jean and Bill Lane, Jim and Lynn Gibbons, Mona Duggan, Clayton and Nancy Bavor, Michael and Debbie Shepherd, Joe and Elizabeth Mandato, Cantor membership chairman Fred Rehmus, Mary Marsh, Grayson Lane, and Anne Seipp and her son Fred Seipp. Docents Strella Karris, Marilyn Holbach, Lee Harnett and Jennifer Yelland enjoyed being guests.

The traveling exhibit takes on a slightly different look at each museum, exhibit curator Patience Young said. Cooper-Hewitt specified the groupings and then Cantor received approval for the exhibit's layout and special touches, including wall coloring, period furniture, puzzles for children and a wall-size scrim of Church's painting of Niagara Falls.

Young said response to the exhibit has been very positive; viewers were delighted to discover the intimate side of the artists.

The exhibit will continue through May 4.


'FOCUSING ON BEAUTY' EXHIBIT

Atherton-based fine art photographer Marc Silber's newest exhibition, "Focusing on Beauty," opened with a reception at the Richard Sumner Gallery in Palo Alto on Feb. 2. The show, featuring 40 years of classic black-and-white photographs, color photographs and recent prints, attracted longtime friends, collectors and several of Silber's students.

At the reception, Silber had the chance to tell the stories behind many of his pieces and gave an impromptu photography lesson.

Guests at the reception enjoyed viewing the prints, chatting with the artist and meeting gallery owner Mahmut Keskekci, who framed the artist's newest color prints. The custom-designed frames mirror details in the abstract color in motion photographs.

A lifelong photographer, Silber first experienced work in a darkroom when he attended the Peninsula School in Menlo Park. He likes to tell the story about the silhouette pictured on his business card, which depicts fellow students from his eighth-grade class captured in a midair jump from a sand dune during a class field trip.

During his spontaneous photography lesson, he said, "So much of photography is about geometry." Silber looks for juxtapositions and contrast in patterns.

"The fun of photography is to look for a shift in the scene," he said. A perfect example is his first printed still life that dates back to his Peninsula School days, in which he rotated the camera and composed a shot of chairs stacked at various angles.

Reception guests included alumni director of Peninsula School Florrie Forest, Pam Page, Wallace Stoke, collector Martha Berliner, Alex Kreis, Robert Scoble and Reilly Swetland.

Joe Feshbach, of JFP Investment Fund, is a longtime collector and friend of Silber's. Feshbach has purchased a variety of pieces, ranging from a new action color print of the carousel in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, to a 1960s black-and-white portrait of a nude figure model (wearing a feather headpiece) sipping a glass of wine on her break, which he displays in his office.

The exhibition continues until March 15 at the Richard Sumner Gallery at 628 Emerson St. in downtown Palo Alto.

Janet Duca Norton's society column appears every Sunday in the Daily News. E-mail event information to society@paloaltodailynews.com.