Local collectors donate sculptures to Stanford Local collectors donate sculptures to Stanford (June 25, 2003)

By Renee Batti
Almanac News Editor

Local art collectors Toby and Rita Schreiber have donated four works by prominent contemporary sculptors to Stanford University, and three of them can now be viewed at sites around the campus.

The Schreibers lived in Woodside for 23 years before moving to San Francisco earlier this month. The move was one reason they donated the sculptures now: The new apartment, Mr. Schreiber explained, is just not big enough to contain all the art the couple has collected over three decades.

The works are by Mark di Suvero, Richard Long, Charles Ginnever and Deborah Butterfield.

Mr. Schreiber, a retired business executive and venture capitalist, said he and his wife have collected post-World War II paintings and sculptures for the last 35 years. Ms. Schreiber is a practicing clinical psychologist.

Steel and stone

"Miwok" by Mark di Suvero, an American artist, is a totem-like, 29-foot-tall steel work. It is more figurative than many of the sculptor's work, and complements another work on the Stanford campus by Mr. di Suvero, the abstract "The Sieve of Eratosthenes," according to Anna Koster of the Cantor Art Center at Stanford.

Created in 1981, "Miwok" has been placed in the garden of the Center for Clinical Sciences Research.

"Georgia Granite Circle" is the first work on the Stanford campus by renowned British environmental artist Richard Long. It is a 16-foot-diameter circle of several hundred boulder-sized pieces of white Georgia granite.

The 1990 work has been installed on the Cantor Art Center's outdoor art terrace according to the directions of the artist, Ms. Koster said. She noted that the granite circle will be near the work of another British environmental artist, Andy Goldsworthy, whose piece, "Stone River," is sited in front of the Cantor center.

Charles Ginnever's "Three Graces," a sculpture in Cor-Ten steel created from 1975 to 1981, joins his two other works on the campus: "Luna Moth Walk I" and "Chicago Triangles." The American artwork is composed of three 20-by-4-foot elements, oriented on the site in different ways to maximize the relationship among light, shadow and the three-dimensional shapes of the sculpture.

"Three Graces" is located near the oval in front of the Littlefield Center of the Graduate School of Business.

The fourth work, a reclining horse made of scrap steel by American sculptor Deborah Butterfield, is being restored and has not yet been installed on campus.