American Progress: Wendy Red Star’s Exhibition at the Anderson Collection Lady Columbia floats from above, greeting museum visitors at the entrance to Wendy Red Star’s exhibition “American Progress” at Stanford’s Anderson Collection… June 21, 2022 By ALBERTO QUINTERO This story is among a series written by CCSRE’s 2022 Public Writing Fellows. If you have ever entered a pool or a bathtub, you have probably noti…

…ome 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 works by 86 artists housed in an award-winning building designed by Ennead Architects in Stanford’s arts district opened to the public in 2014. The Anderson family has a long history with Stanford, dating back to their 1960s relationship with the Department of Art and Art History, includ…

…maging every part of it. The result is her solo exhibition at the school’s Anderson Collection, “Wendy Red Star: American Progress,” which includes several new, site-specific works, some of which were created together with students. Red Star turned American Progress into a paint-by-number, then asked Stanford students to color it in. In the process, the Gast image transformed into a sort of map, albeit one where borderlines divide colors, not reg…

…r, more deliberate and more personal collecting style. The Andersons began collecting in the 1960s, when the art world was small and insular and museums weren’t defined by a philosophy of grow-or-die corporatism. Buying and selling contemporary painting and sculpture had not become the spectator sport they are today, dominated by international collectors forged in the expansive contemporary art market that erupted in the 1980s. At Stanford,…

…ice violence against Black men. It was described by Cultured Magazine as “work that explores what it means to be American.” “When I am heading into the studio or I am materializing thoughts around what I am desiring to make, the possibilities are endless,” said Irving. “There are material constraints, of course, but there are avenues of making today that are so exciting.” While distinct in form and style, Butterly, Irving, Leigh and Ruais have ea…

…1; who made their fortune in the food service business – enjoy the sort of monosyllabic recognition in the American art scene that Sting, Cher and Prince command in pop culture. Kirk McGuire Sculpture kirkmcguire.com Amazing Bronze Sculptures & Tables LTD ­ Fine Art & Furnishings On Sept. 21, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University will open its doors to the public for the first time. The new campus gallery will permanently h…

…Then, while living near Stanford’s campus, Stanford Prof. Albert Elsen and others piqued their interest in American abstract expressionism—”the first really great American art movement that had international acceptance,” as Mr. Anderson says. “And we wanted to be a part of it.” It took two years of “wooing and wining and dining” various collectors and dealers to get Jackson Pollock’s “Lucifer….

…Hunk” and “Moo”–decided to narrow their focus. They would collect only post-World War II American art. That meant masterpieces by the likes of Robert Motherwell, Richard Diebenkorn, Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler. For quite some time the Anderson Collection has been considered one of the most important private assemblages of 20th-century American art anywhere. Now, Stanford has a gorgeous new showcase for the gift…

…Albers. In the same room is Ellsworth Kelly’s “Black Ripe, 1955,” consisting of a large, black amoeba-shaped form that seems trapped inside the confines of the canvas. Among all these non-objective paintings stands a lovely and delicately crafted female torso entitled “Largo-May,” executed in copper and steel, by Saul Baizerman. Somehow, it works.  Looking at a legacy It is these unpredictable combinations that disti…

…W. Anderson, a flat-topped dorm food distributor who, on the side, built one of the most valuable collections of American postwar art in private hands, has died. Anderson died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes Wednesday at his home on the mid-Peninsula, said his daughter, Mary Patricia Anderson “Putter” Pence. He was 95. A refreshingly unpretentious man in an art world known for its pomposity, Anderson was always called “Hunk” and his wif…

…in groupings on the wall. There were engaging works by Elizabeth Murray, Wallace Berman (a favorite of mine), Ed Ruscha and Terry Winters among others. Upstairs on the second level were selections from the Anderson collection organized along such lines as Abstract Expressionism, Bay Area Abstraction, Light and Space, and Contemporary Painting. Because the collection is well edited and the installation well-chosen the visitor does not feel rushed…

…th art, everyday it changes”, says Moo Anderson. Fast-forward 50 years, they’ve collected one of the world’s most outstanding private assemblies of modern and contemporary American art. The wherewithal came from a flourishing business venture (Saga Corporation). The motivation, an enduring love for art. They chose to focus on American artists who shaped the future. When collecting they had two questions: “Have I seen it be…