…nother to give up and say, ‘I’m going to buy it whether you like it or not.’ There’s too much good art to be had to argue about something that one of us doesn’t really like.” Call them Hunk and Moo At first, some people might feel uncomfortable addressing two of America’s most esteemed contemporary art collectors as Hunk and Moo. But both of them insist on the monikers – and all who meet the Anderso…

…ific groupings. In the public museum, art history has been obliterated, sometimes for the better creating a more inclusive, more diverse purview, and sometimes for worse by diluting the museum’s voice to having no coherent point of view. In this one might compare the Museum of Modern Art under Alfred Barr to its present incarnation, crowded and thronged with attendees but much less powerful of an experience. As a result (and perhaps for tax reaso…

…e second floor galleries — lit from above by a rim of semi-transparent clerestory windows — serenely perfect. The Anderson Collection building is spacious, elegant and perfectly in tune with the collection it houses. One of the effects of the flowing “open room” gallery layout is that it creates a sense of egalitarianism that encourages each visitor to experience both individual works and groupings in their own way. In oth…

…ly big art muscle flexing on the Peninsula. In the last five years, Stanford has built an entire “arts district” in the heart of its campus. The site includes a new museum next to the Cantor Arts Center built to house the personal collection of one local family, the Andersons. A room at Stanford’s Anderson Collection. From left to right: “Timeless Clock,” by David Smith (1957); “Lucifer” by Jackson Pollack (1947); “Transfiguration III” by Adolph…

…amassed as a “collection of collections,” acknowledging the couple’s broad rather than narrow interests, their eye for artistic innovation as much as anything.  Since the collection is idiosyncratic and personal, explained architect Olcott, he focused his design for the museum on three goals: “informality, casualness and accessibility.” The museum, he says, “reflects the way the Andersons lived with art in the…

Fall, a season experienced in other climates as crisp weather, woolly sweaters, crunchy leaves and autumnally-appropriate spiced drinks. Here in the Bay Area, September is much the same as August, except with more exciting visual art events on the calendar and a slight spike in temperatures. Don’t know where to start for a healthy dose of excellent art? Here are eight suggestions for not-to-miss exhibitions, installations, public art projects an…

…came to the forefront this year. I can’t help but want to be in the galleries to look at his work really closely in response. In addition, his use of news clippings illustrates this moment of reckoning in our country. “Not to mention that views on the tactile have changed so much in the last six months,” Shapiro continued. “The handmade is more meaningful now – and perhaps is even more so when you consider how purposeful these artists utilize for…

…rhol and others were donated to the museum in 1992 and seven Frank Stella paintings from 1959 to 1988 were given in 2001. Much of their collection was shown at the museum in 2000, in “Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection.” (They also collected prints and gave more than 650 to San Francisco’s Fine Arts Museums in 1996, which transferred them to the De Young.) However, what the Andersons call their “core collectio…

…sity. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero) The Andersons began collecting art in the mid-1960s after a trip to the Louvre in Paris, where they admired works of the French Impressionists. They initially collected work by Early Modernists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the German Expressionists, such as Emile Nolde, and the Early American Modernists, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove. By 1969, however, the Andersons made t…

…k, the Anderson Collection at Stanford University opened its doors for the first time. The Andersons didn’t know much about art at first, but they suffered something of a coup de foudre at the Louvre in 1964. Since then, Hunk, Moo and Putter have devoted themselves to the art of art appreciation, partly by seeking advice from local artists. Perhaps this is why much of the collection is focused “close to home.” Works by Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Wo…