Robert Kantor
BornFebruary 13, 1943
New York, NY, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Colorado, Southern Methodist University
Known forSculpture
MovementKinetic art, Abstraction (art)

Robert Aron Kantor (born February 13, 1943) is an American sculptor[1] and attorney.

As an artist, Kantor’s work focuses on large scale steel structures and mobile (kinetic) sculpture.[1] He has two large sculptures on permanent installation at Boise State University,[2][3] and one at a medical center in Napa, California.[4]

As an attorney working as a sole practitioner and with the American Civil Liberties Union in 1971-2, he represented street artists arrested in San Francisco, eventually negotiating a resolution allowing the artists to display their work at specific locations.[5] He co-founded a law firm[6][7] and several real estate ventures.[8][9][10]

Early life and education

Kantor was born in New York, NY and grew up in Dallas, TX. He graduated from University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied literature and art history. He was awarded a graduate fellowship at New York University.[1] In 1969, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law, and then appointed as a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.[11]

Career

Art

Living in the 1960s in New York, Kantor was influenced by the work of mobile sculptor Alexander Calder and began making his own mobile sculptures. He completed his first kinetic sculpture, entitled Don Quixote, in 1965.[12][1]

He started focusing on large-scale sculpture and opened a welding shop in the 1990s.[1] Kantor’s piece God’s Promise, the Mobile was put on permanent display in 2004 at the Napa Valley Vintners Community Health Center charity hospital in Napa Valley. The eight feet by nineteen feet painted steel mobile consists of geometric shapes.[13] [4]

Kantor’s outdoor sculpture Rising Star of Boise State became a permanent outdoor installation in 2004 at Boise State University. The red steel sculpture has a mobile attached to its crest. The mobile consists of two geometric flat figures attached to either end of a rod mounted to the star’s crest almost like a weather vane; one of the figures is painted yellow and the other is painted blue.[2]

The red steel sculpture has a mobile attached to its crest. The mobile consists of two geometric flat figures attached to either end of a rod mounted to the star’s crest almost like a weather vane; one of the figures is painted yellow and the other is painted blue.[2] Kantor’s Hope Series was exhibited in 2006 at the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA), a public museum in Seattle. The Hope Series consisted of three abstract sculptures. The first, Camp Hope, represents an early concentration camp fence, spans approximately nine feet, and is made of wooden posts, twisted barbed wire, and small glass butterflies, all on a steel base. Hope 2 is a rusted and hollowed out metal bomb with small plaster and glass butterflies on its surface and held up by a pole mounted to a steel base. Hope 3 is a paravene with an army helmet resting on its top along with small butterflies.[1]

Kantor - White Flower (2001) & Untitled (2001)

The art historian and critic Daniel Kany, who wrote a book on Robert Kantor’s work and the exhibit identifies themes of war, the Holocaust, and memory in the series, but also themes of hope and overcoming. The Hope exhibit was also on display in the museum area of Boise State University.[1]

In 2018, Kantor’s “The White Flower,” an 18 foot tall 220 pound indoor mobile, became a permanent installation at Boise State University.[3]

Law career

In 1971 and 1972, as an attorney in San Francisco he represented street artists who had been arrested for selling their art without permit which the police department refused to issue. Kantor then obtained an injunction against the city and county who had stopped the artists. Following the injunction, in affiliation with the ACLU, he negotiated a resolution which led to the licensing of the street artists.[14][5]

After local merchants pressured police and city licensing authorities to prohibit sidewalk vending, Kantor negotiated a licensing resolution providing a mechanism for artists to obtain licenses and allot them locations to sell their wares.[15][16]

Kantor co-founded the tax law firm Kantor & Wolf in 1974.[6][7]

Investor and real estate developer

In 1976, Kantor and his partners owned the U.S. distribution rights to the Italian film Seven Beauties, which received three Academy Award nominations.[17] He was also an executive producer of the 1976 Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen movie The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane.[1]

In the 1980s, Kantor invested in and managed real estate developments.[10] He and his partners purchased, redeveloped, and sold historic properties in Oakland in 1981,[18] in Tacoma, Washington in 1985,[19] and in Seattle in 1988, including the iconic Smith Tower.[20] Kantor developed two properties in Honolulu in 1989 with his company Rokan.[21]

Kantor was a primary Designer and co-founder of The National Philanthropic Trust in 1997 (NPT);[22] NPT is one of the largest managers of donor-advised funds in the nation with about $6.2 billion in assets in 2020.[23]

Kantor co-founded Headwater Capital in 2016, a real estate investment firm based in Ketchum, Idaho.[8][24]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kany, Daniel (2006). Robert Kantor: The Hope series. Seattle, WA: Center on Contemporary Arts. ISBN 0978731301. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Hahn, Julie (2007). "You gotta have art". Boise State University Focus. No. Spring. Boise State University. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  3. 1 2 "New Art Aloft in the Student Union Building Atrium". Boise State News. Boise State University. 30 March 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Your Business". The Times-News (Twin Falls, ID). No. Sunday. 10 October 2004.
  5. 1 2 Lembke, Daryl (23 March 1972). "S.F. street artists: a thorn in the side of the establishment". The Los Angeles Times.
  6. 1 2 "Kantor & Wolf Law Corporation (698730)". California Bizfile Online. California Secretary of State. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  7. 1 2 Berman, Susan (8 September 1974). "Guess whose playing the tax game?". The San Francisco Examiner.
  8. 1 2 Lake, Rebecca (23 August 2016). "Pros and Cons of Real Estate Crowdfunding for Retirement Real estate in a portfolio helps protect against the stock market's volatility". US News and World Reports. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  9. ↑ Carson, Rob (9 January 1988). "Smith Tower: Emerald City's 'crown jewel' sparkles anew". The News Tribune.
  10. 1 2 Anders, Corrie M. (23 February 1992). "'Due diligence' lets realty buyer beware". The San Francisco Examiner.
  11. ↑ "The Brief (The Spring 1969 Alumni Magazine)". Brief (SMU Law Alumni Magazine). 1965–2002 (49): 2. 1969. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  12. ↑ "Sculpture Robert Kantor: sun valley, idaho". conciergequestionnaire.com. Concierge Questionnaire. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  13. ↑ Dugan, Dana (13 October 2004). "Valley artist donates sculpture". Idaho Mountain Express. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  14. ↑ Muller, June (30 July 1971). "How chief stayed out of jail". San Francisco Examiner.
  15. ↑ "Street artists ask status". Oakland Tribune. No. Thursday. 2 December 1971.
  16. ↑ Strand, Robert (19 June 1972). "San Francisco street artists can now get license to sell". Oroville Mercury Register.
  17. ↑ Morch, Albert (11 March 1976). "The night a star bit Kornfield". San Francisco Examiner.
  18. ↑ Beissert, Wayne (30 October 1981). "Leamington to be sold for offices". Oakland Tribune.
  19. ↑ "Historic Smith Tower sold by Ivar Haglund". The News Tribune (Tacoma). 18 January 1985.
  20. ↑ Carson, Rob (9 January 1988). "Smith Tower: Emerald City's 'crown jewel' sparkles anew". The News Tribune (Tacoma).
  21. ↑ Wites, Greg (24 June 1989). "Rokan buys 2 warehouse complexes". The Honolulu Advertiser. Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
  22. ↑ "New charity starts up in Sun Valley". The Times-News (Twin Falls, ID). 12 March 1997.
  23. ↑ Hobson, Will (24 June 2020). "Zombie philanthropy: The rich have stashed billions in donor-advised charities — but it's not reaching those in need". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  24. ↑ "New investment firm launched in valley Group specializes in commercial real estate". Idaho Mountain Express. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
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