STANFORD, CA.- The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University announces new displays of contemporary art. When the art museum at Stanford reopened in 1999 as the Cantor Arts Center, the top floor of its new wing was devoted to art of the past four decades. Since then, more than 750 works of European and American art in diverse media have been added to the modern and contemporary collection, expanding it to 2700 objects and extending it into the 21st century. Selections from this enhanced collection open in four galleries.

“Go Figure!” begins September 1, 2010. Although recent art is often equated with abstraction, many important artists of the last 50 years have explored the human figure in their paintings and three-dimensional work. “Go Figure” includes 25 figurative paintings and sculpture, including witty examples by Karel Appel, Richard Shaw, Richard Stankiewicz, Viola Frey, and Roger Brown; politically charged works by Robert Arneson and Terry Allen; and traditional approaches to the human form by Robert Graham and Martin Blank. This overview includes works from each decade since the 1950s, presented in three adjacent spaces: the Oshman Family Rotunda, the H. L. Kwee Galleria, and the McMurtry Family Terrace.

“Extreme Makeover: A Fresh Look at the Cantor Art Center's Contemporary Collection,” opening December 15, 2010 in the revitalized Freidenrich Family Gallery, showcases works by Robert Arneson, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, John Cederquist, Al Held, Manuel Neri, Isamu Noguchi, and James Weeks. In addition to the Center’s strong holdings of works by Bay Area figurative and abstract expressionist painters, this installation features color field paintings by Jules Olitski and Richard Anuskiewicz. As always, a selection of contemporary works on paper are on view in the section of the gallery dedicated to the display of the Marmor Family Collection.

“Go Figure!” continues through August 5, 2012. “Extreme Makeover” continues indefinitely with occasional changes. In addition, the Center presents works from the early-20th-century modern collection in the Marie Stauffer Sigall Gallery. This accounts for five of the Center’s 24 galleries, with the remaining spaces dedicated to special exhibitions and collections spanning 4000 years, from ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome to 19th-century Europe and America.

Outdoors, the Center offers an impressive array of sculpture. Andy Goldworthy’s 128-ton “Stone River,” made in 2001, rests in a grove in front of the museum’s historic 1894 building. The Rodin Sculpture Garden is on the Center’s grounds, with Auguste Rodin’s “Burghers of Calais” nearby on campus. Contemporary works by 35 artists, including Joseph Albers, Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Beverly Pepper, and George Segal, are placed throughout campus. The Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden contains 40 works.