Stanford Has More Rodin Bronzes Than Anywhere Outside Paris

Stanford Has More Rodin Bronzes Than Anywhere Outside Paris

The Cantor Arts Center at 328 Lomita Drive on Stanford's campus. Free, world-class, and that Rodin fact surprises everyone. The sculpture garden outside the entrance has twenty bronzes — The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais, studies for The Thinker — spaced so each piece gets its own conversation with the California light. Seeing Rodin outdoors against palm trees and sandstone changes the sculptures. The anguish looks more like stubbornness. The whole garden argues that art belongs outside.

Inside: Egyptian sarcophagi, Indian temple carvings, Rothko, Diebenkorn, a Southeast Asian gallery that would anchor any museum. The building is light-filled, unhurried, sized for looking.

The Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden adjacent to the Cantor is what most people walk past. Carved wooden figures from the Sepik River region standing among eucalyptus. The carvings are extraordinary, the setting is otherworldly, and you'll have it to yourself. Don't skip it.