The Cantor Arts Center Presents "The Legend of Rex Slinkard"

Written by Callum Donaldson Tuesday, 01 May 2012 23:21

Stanford, CA.- The Cantor Arts Center is proud to present "The Legend of Rex Slinkard", on view at the museum from November 9th through February 26th, 2012. This exhibition of more than 60 works includes oil paintings, charcoal drawings, and pen-and-watercolor sketches that convey the breadth and strength of Slinkard’s short-lived artistic development. The Cantor Arts Center is the primary repository of paintings and sketches by the early 20th-century California artist Rex Slinkard (1887–1918), who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918 while he was serving in the military. During his brief life, Slinkard emerged from his roots as a California rancher to become a painter who helped influence the modernist bent of the emerging California art scene. He studied with Robert Henri in New York City, where he shared a studio with George Bellows and established personal contacts with well-known people in the worlds of visual and literary arts, before returning to Los Angeles, where he painted and taught.

The exhibition, on view in the Center’s Ruth Levison Halperin Gallery, includes an oil portrait by George Bellows of Slinkard, entitled “Portrait of Rex” (c. 1915), on loan from a private collection. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with essays, a chronology of Slinkard’s life, and a fully illustrated checklist of the Center’s complete holding of 268 works by Slinkard. Charles C. Eldredge, Ph.D., who touched on Slinkard’s work in his influential exhibition “American Imagination and Symbolist Painting” (1980), and Geneva Gano, Ph.D., contribute essays to the publication, giving context to Slinkard’s life and illuminating his artistic legacy. The catalogue is available for sale in the Cantor Arts Center bookshop.

The title of this exhibition comes from artist Marsden Hartley’s tribute “Rex Slinkard—Ranchman and Poet-Painter,” which referred to the late artist’s reputation as “the legend of Rex Slinkard.” The tribute became the foreword in the catalogue for Slinkard’s memorial exhibitions that were held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City in 1919 and 1920. Hartley also indicated that the nation had “lost a true, pure artist—as well as a possible great one."  To complement the exhibition and to support Stanford’s academic program in American studies, two oil paintings by Marsden Hartley are on loan from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis) for the 2011–2012 academic year. “Painting No. 2” (1913) and “Elsa” (1916) by Hartley are on view in the Center's Marie Stauffer Sigall Gallery of early modern art.


The Cantor Arts Center boasts a proud and venerable history, as it was conceived of in tandem with the founding of Stanford University itself. The Stanford family, including Leland Jr., traveled the world collecting objects of art and cultural interest. The museum was originally created to make this collection available to students and the public. It has withstood natural disasters and periodic neglect, only to be resurrected, renewed, and expanded, with its collections stronger than ever, thanks to the passionate dedication of Stanford faculty and staff, and art lovers in the surrounding community. One of the highlights of Cantor Arts Center is the Rodin sculpture garden, which contains 20 bronzes. Among them are the famous "Gates of Hell", "Adam, Eve", "The Three Shades", and "The Thinker". "The Burghers of Calais" is displayed in the Stanford Main Quad. In total, the Cantors donated 187 of Rodin's works, making Stanford University the third largest Rodin collection in the world after the Musée Rodin in Paris and the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, PA. The Papua New Guinea sculpture garden, southwest of the Stanford Main Quad, presents 40 works, unique examples of the striking traditional Visual Arts of Papua New Guinea. The Cantor Arts Center's other outdoor collection includes 35 other 19th- to 21st-century sculptures sited around campus. "Stone River," created in 2001 by British artist Andy Goldsworthy, can be found in front of the historic museum building, sited slightly below-grade in a small grove beyond visitor parking. A campus sculpture map is available. The museum also contains a cafe, Cafe Cool, and a Bookshop. Visit the museum's website at ... http://museum.stanford.edu

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