Cantor Art Center’s spectacular summer exhibit, “Spared from the Storm: Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art” is a welcome break from work, the heat or Green Library. The campus art museum is always worth a trip, but this exhibit in particular is worth your time.

EnlargeEnlarge
Onlookers view one of 80 pieces in the visiting exhibit “Spared from the Storm: Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art.” The artwork, from artists like Monet and Picasso, will be on display at Cantor Art Center through Oct. 5. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/9350
Jaemin Lee

Onlookers view one of 80 pieces in the visiting exhibit “Spared from the Storm: Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art.” The artwork, from artists like Monet and Picasso, will be on display at Cantor Art Center through Oct. 5.

The exhibition is, refreshingly, about breadth and not depth. “Spared from the Storm” features a wide range of artistic styles, nations and time periods. And it is all killer and no filler: Nearly every painting will have significance to even the most casual art fan. The roster of artists is like a painting All-Star team: Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and more.

The exhibit features quite a few French painters among its European collection, which is fitting given New Orleans’ strong French influence. A luxurious portrait of King Louis XIV by Claude Lefevbre stares you down upon arrival. There are several paintings by impressionist painter Claude Monet, including his stunning 1893 painting “Snow at Giverny,” in which he portrays a snow-covered town using only white and neutral colors. It’s like playing a game of “Magic Eye” — the harder you stare, the more you see. Another stand out is Maurice de Vlaminck’s fauvist landscape featuring a bridge, river and trees painted in bright shocks of red and white. Another eye-catcher: Pablo Picasso’s piece, “Combat between a Faun and a Centaur,” a spare line drawing that captures a fantasy scene.

The exhibition includes American influence as well, featuring the unmistakable style of Jackson Pollock and a typically pleasant desert landscape from Georgia O’Keeffe. The collection also presents two paintings with cross-cultural connections. The only American Impressionist, Mary Cassatt painted glimpses into the private lives of 19th-century women. Also, Edgar Degas, the famous Frenchman, spent a short time in New Orleans and painted a lovely portrait of his blind cousin arranging flowers.

Aside from the art itself, “Spared from the Storm” is a celebration of New Orleans and its historic arts scene. This fact lends an extra level of excitement and sorrow to the exhibit. The artwork is historically housed in the New Orleans Museum of Art, a former cornerstone of the New Orleans arts scene. Founded in 1910, the impressive, classical-style museum sustained serious damage from Hurricane Katrina. As a result, a portion of the museum’s treasure trove has landed here on campus. The richness of the exhibit, then, is not only a tribute to the history of art, but also to the history of New Orleans.

The collection boasts a total of 80 paintings, drawings and sculptures by influential artists dating from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. The exhibition was organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art to benefit its Katrina Recovery Fund and will be on display at Cantor Arts Center through Oct. 5.