SECOND FLOOR GALLERIES
Sean Scully, Wall of Light Pink White, 1999. Oil on canvas. Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Gift of Sean Scully, 2024.1
This season, the Anderson Collection debuts spotlight installations of three celebrated artists—Susan Rothenberg, Sean Scully, and Robert Therrien. For the first time, visitors can experience focused presentations of their work at the museum, with multiple pieces by each artist brought into focus in dedicated gallery spaces. From Rothenberg’s dynamic figuration to Scully’s lyrical abstraction and Therrien’s playful graphic and sculptural forms, these spotlights showcase the power and range of modern and contemporary American art.
About the Artists
Susan Rothenberg (1945–2020) was a trailblazing painter whose bold canvases reintroduced the figure into contemporary art at a time when abstraction dominated. Rising to prominence in the mid-1970s with her iconic horse-centered paintings, she forged a distinctive style that merged gestural brushwork, symbolic imagery, and psychological intensity. Over five decades, Rothenberg expanded her vocabulary to include fragments of the human body, animals, and everyday forms, always maintaining a raw immediacy that bridged abstraction and representation. Born in Buffalo, New York, she studied at Cornell University before moving to New York City, where her early exhibitions helped redefine painting for a new generation. Her work has been the subject of major retrospectives at institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art, securing her place as one of the most influential painters of her era. September 10, 2025 – ongoing.
Sean Scully (b. 1945) is an acclaimed painter whose work transformed American abstraction by infusing Minimalist structure with emotional resonance and spiritual depth. Best known for his monumental canvases of luminous bands, blocks, and shifting geometries, Scully also works across printmaking, sculpture, watercolor, and pastel. Over a career spanning five decades, he has developed a visual language that synthesizes American abstraction with the legacies of European modernism and classical architecture, producing paintings of both grandeur and intimacy. Born in Dublin in 1945 and raised in London, Scully studied at Newcastle University before moving to New York in 1975, where he continues to live and work. His art has been celebrated in major touring retrospectives worldwide, and in 2013 he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. September 10, 2025 – February 16, 2026.
Robert Therrien (1947–2019) was an artist celebrated for transforming ordinary objects into extraordinary encounters. Working in sculpture, painting, and drawing, he reimagined familiar forms—dishes stacked high, a giant folding table and chairs, or a simple red door—at a monumental scale that was both playful and uncanny. Therrien’s art invited viewers to reconsider the everyday, imbuing humble subjects with a sense of wonder, humor, and quiet mystery. Born in Chicago and based for much of his career in Los Angeles, he emerged in the 1970s and quickly became associated with a generation of artists expanding the possibilities of sculpture. His work has been exhibited internationally in museums and biennials, and is represented in major collections worldwide, affirming his reputation as a singular voice in contemporary art. September 10, 2025 – April 6, 2026.
