Welcome to the Anderson Collection
Stanford University's free museum of modern and contemporary American art

Open Wed - Sun

11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Advance reservations not required.
Click here for group visits.

Elite Collection of Modern Masters to Anchor Stanford’s Growing ‘Arts District’

Exhibition

Manuel Neri: Assertion of the Figure

The Catalogues

Family Programs

News

Anderson Collection opens to public on Sept. 21

…, Sept. 21, in a freestanding pavilion next to the Cantor Arts Center in the University’s growing arts district. Members of the Cantor Arts Center and the Anderson Collection can also attend a special preview of the museum on Sept. 20. Opening day festivities will include food trucks, music, activities and digital tours. Admission is free, and while visitors can reserve timed tickets online at anderson.stanford.edu, walk-up tickets will also be a…

News

Instead of Changing Leaves, Peep Eight Bay Area Art Shows this Fall

…art is monumental and not all monumental art is truly impactful,Public Works focuses on temporary interventions online and in the urban environment. The list of participating artists — too lengthy to mention here — is an impressive one, including off-site commissions by Constance Hockaday and Jenifer K. Wofford. The exhibition spans media and generations, documenting the important projects that occupy space in the world, merging politics and soc…

News

‘Formed & Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics’ at the Anderson Collection breaks the mold

From ancient pottery and medicinal clay to 3D-printed joints and pajamas that restore athletes’ muscles, the use of ceramics for objects rooted in decoration, ritual and utility is as old as it is expansive. The practices of four living artists whose exploration of the medium provides commentary on its past and insight for the future are presented in Formed & Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics at the Anderson Collection at Stanford Univer…

News

A new start for art at Stanford: Cantor Arts Center and Anderson Collection reopen

…the time indicating that a transition team “will work closely with stakeholders from across the campus and community to situate the museum for ongoing success.” Mitchell and Brezinski discussed their new roles and goals in recent email interviews with this news organization. When asked if the Cantor is emulating the administration model of numerous large museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in having two direct…

News

New acquisition by David Park on view at the Anderson Collection

…cott Beth for their generous gift to the Anderson Collection,” said Jason Linetzky, director of the museum. “The addition of this work focuses renewed attention on David Park, a compassionate artist and educator whose inventive spirit and camaraderie with artists forever transformed the landscape of figurative painting in California and beyond. Their gift helps contextualize Park’s practice and expands opportunities for research, teaching and exh…

News

Contemplations on modern art

…ists like Rothko. But seeing such pieces in a museum in front of you feels very different than looking at images online after Googling the artist. These large canvases and colors, though they are just large patterns, weigh on you, and that weight was calming. It almost had an aura that transcended my mind from my real life, making me not ponder about the events of my daily life for a bit. I was sitting down, and the painting on the wall next to i…

Hostile Terrain 94
Exhibition

Hostile Terrain 94

Exhibition

Eamon Ore-Giron: Non Plus Ultra

News

Stanford unveils the Anderson Collection: New museum dedicated to renowned works of American art

…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…

News

A New Museum for Stanford—and a New Neighbor for Us!

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:…

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Top 10 art shows as rising rents force out S.F. artists

…r year, a temporary but very dark spot on a dimming artistic landscape, looking ever less hospitable to creative adventure. Other local institutional programs, meanwhile, provided a spectrum of diversions to the wider public. High: By any reckoning, the year’s high point had to be the opening of the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, permanent access to a cache of defining postwar American artworks. Low: Bay Area Now 7, Yerba Buena Cente…

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Anderson Collection a modern art trove not to be missed

…le.com Museum highlights Jason Linetzky, the Anderson Collection’s founding director, recommends allotting about 90 minutes for a visit. Here are just a handful of the museum’s highlights: “Jackson Pollock’s ‘Lucifer’ is something that people come to see. It previously hung over Putter’s bed, before moving to the dining room and before coming here.” “There’s an incredible Mark Rothko (‘Pink and White Over Red’) that’s just beautiful — a seductive…

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Fashion statements: Nick Cave’s Soundsuits come to Stanford

…ht-provoking and challenging suits are constructed in ways that refuse to reveal gender, age or race. They offer complete anonymity. To imagine yourself in them is to turn the collective sharing of memories into a personal epiphany. The Anderson exhibit includes eight Soundsuits, three video works and a recently completed documentary about Nick Cave titled “Here.” There also is an interactive felt wall where visitors to the gallery ca…

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A new lust for art takes hold in Silicon Valley

…emite Suite,” focusing on works depicting the national park that the 79-year-old artist created with an iPad. In addition to New York, where it is headquartered, Pace has galleries in London, Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul. It may seem like San Francisco, rather than Palo Alto, would make sense to add to that list. But not so, says Glimcher. “There was no significant presence by a commercial gallery in Silicon Valley,” he explains. “When an amazing…

News

Getting it down on paper: A different aspect of the Anderson Collection on view

…nford University can experience a wide range of art movements (virtually every major development after 1945) and media. The museum founders, Hunk and Moo Anderson, did not collect photography but nearly every other means of artistic expression are represented, including works on paper. The museum is shining a light on this aspect of the Anderson’s collecting with an exhibition, “Salon Style: Collected Marks on Paper,” that featu…

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Mary Margaret ‘Moo’ Anderson, modern art collector and benefactor, dead at 92

…wo partners had started a venture to improve dormitory food service and it soon expanded across the country. The company, Saga Corp., moved to Menlo Park, which is what brought the Andersons west in 1964. The company went public in the 1970s and was eventually acquired by Marriott. Neither Anderson had ever studied art but during a trip to Europe, they were simultaneously swept away by the French Impressionists. Their first purchases were by Pica…