…rst 15 years together were consumed with the business and parenthood. In 1962, Saga partners decided to relocate company headquarters to Menlo Park. By the time the Andersons moved from Oberlin, Ohio, Saga Foods – as the company came to be called – served 136 institutions and was a financial success. When the Andersons discovered their passion for collecting in 1964, they started with French and American Impressionists – Claude…

…arts district around its flagship museum, the Cantor Center. The nearby $112 million Bing Concert Hall opened in 2013, and next year will see the completion of the $85 million McMurtry Building to house the Art and Art History Department, whose programs have been scattered across the campus near Palo Alto. The Anderson Collection opens as Stanford begins a policy in which every undergraduate “must take at least one class on arts or related areas,…

By Anna Koster For The Daily News Pushing boundaries has been the life work of Robert Irwin. His six-decade exploration of perception as the fundamental issue of art has expanded ideas of what art can be and can do. Irwin will speak about his work on March 10 at Stanford’s Cemex Auditorium. Irwin, born in 1928, in Long Beach, started as a painter in the 1950s with an abstract expressionist style, but quickly began removing all that was not…

To the Andersons, their art is family—and so is Stanford, its new caretaker. September/October 2014 The Collection of a Lifetime To the Andersons, their art is family—and so is Stanford, its new caretaker. ©Henrik Kam 2014 The striking centerpiece of the new Anderson Collection building is a grand staircase ascending to the main gallery spaces—airy, open, graced with natural light—and their cornucopia of art. When the collection opens on Septemb…

…ily. He was 95. Harry W. “Hunk” Anderson(Image credit: L.A. Cicero) Anderson was the founder of the food service company Saga Corporation and, with his wife, Mary Margaret “Moo,” and daughter, Mary Patricia “Putter,” a devoted art collector. In 2011, Stanford announced that it would become home to the core of the Anderson Collection, one of the most outstanding private collections of 20th-century American art in the world. The collection of 121 w…

…h only three colors of paint (red, black, white) applied thickly with a palette knife. Its jagged forms and bold composition are confrontational and somewhat unsettling. Look to the left, however, and the eye takes in the cheerful swirls and bright pastels that comprise Joan Mitchell’s “Before, Again IV.” Gaze right, and Richard Diebenkorn’s evocative seascape, “Ocean Park #60,” immediately produces a sense of…

…art and certifies the Bay Area’s growing international stature as a destination for lovers and scholars of 20th and 21st century visual arts. The new museum tracks half a century’s effort – stunningly successful – at self-education in art by Peninsula collectors Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson and their daughter Mary Patricia Anderson Pence. The Bay Area has glimpsed other outstanding private collections recently, but…

The Anderson Collection at Stanford: An Uplifting Experience Posted: 09/24/2014 2:51 pm EDT  Updated: 2 hours ago Visiting the newly-opened Anderson Collection at Stanford requires taking everything — your body and your expectations — up a level. After entering the building’s main lobby — which will cost you nothing as the Anderson is free — you will ascend a grand staircase that plateaus at the building&#8217…

Pollock’s Lucifer now resides at Stanford University and is welcoming visitors. The news is of significance to everyone for reasons described in this article. Lucifer, the crown jewel of the Anderson Collection, moved to Stanford with a retinue of 120 colorful accomplices he’s befriended while living at the Andersons’ residence. The whole gang is now happily installed in a custom-designed museum on the Stanford campus. With ro…

On September 21, the Anderson Collection building opened at the Palo Alto campus of Stanford University—our frequent partner-in-crime when it comes to celebrating the West. Designed by the same team that created Stanford’s stellar Bing Concert Hall, the structure houses 121 works of modern and contemporary American art, all donated by Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson. Of course, we’re most excited about the pieces that have a Western flavor:…

The dispersal of notable downtown San Francisco galleries by tech-driven rent spikes made 2014 a pretty bleak year on the contemporary art scene. The tenacity or successful relocation of a few could not offset the disheartening effect of seeing others, especially the irreplaceable Stephen Wirtz Gallery, expire. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art remains closed for another year, a temporary but very dark spot on a dimming artistic landscape,…

…y Twenty-seven student artists from Santa Clara and San Mateo counties have been awarded scholarships for by the Community School of Music and Arts. Photo courtesy of CSMA. This week, students win art scholarships, a film on feminist art screens at Stanford and international fashion designers sell their goods for a good cause. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR STUDENTS … The Mountain View-based arts nonprofit, Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA), has…