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.

News

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

…of a giant cat woman wearing fishnet stockings. Even more of this weirdness? Yes, please. Janet Cardiff, ‘The Forty Part Motet’ installed at MoMA PS1 (detail), 2001. (Photo courtesy of Janet Cardiff and MoMA PS1) Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet Gallery 308, Fort Mason Center Nov. 14, 2015 – Jan. 18, 2016 Sound art isn’t the most visually compelling work — Janet Cardiff’s Forty Part Motet will always be just an oval arrangement of 40 black…

News

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

…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 University. An exhi…

News

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

…aised last summer? “We are working closely with the staff with goals of transparency, empowerment and open communications,” according to Brezinski. For Mitchell, that means talking regularly with staff “to understand what tools and information they need to be successful in their work, and we use that feedback to strengthen communication and collaboration across the museum.” Neither would comment on the status of the search…

News

New acquisition by David Park on view at the Anderson Collection

…l be on view when the museum reopens on Sept. 22, 2021. “I am extremely grateful to Keith Jantzen and Scott 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….

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

…rectly to an encounter with Clyfford Still’s “1957-J No.1.” The work is an interesting choice for such a focal point; large in scale, with 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 &…

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:…

News

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

…knew too well. Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums: The Stanford University Libraries presented to the public for the first time at the Cantor Arts Center the full riches of albums they received decades ago in which the luckless but relentless Carleton Watkins recorded the prising open of the American West by alien forces both commercial and cultural. Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art From the Weisel Family Collection: The de Young Mus…

News

Anderson Collection a modern art trove not to be missed

…um 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 red painti…

News

Fashion statements: Nick Cave’s Soundsuits come to Stanford

…om every previous owner, which he assembles into his Soundsuits. In that way, it can be said that Soundsuits are formed from memories. The Chicago artist’s creations are part sculpture and ornament, armor and instrument and are often worn as costumes and performed in. The energetic vibration of each single, insignificant article is magnified by how Cave chooses to bind them together. Each found object is transformed through the combination…

News

A new lust for art takes hold in Silicon Valley

…o 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 thing comes on the market, (art collectors in the area) can’t always get on a plane and go to New York to see them. So now that really amazing thing will come to them.” And there is certainly evidence of an increasing appetite for contemporary and modern art in the su…

News

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

…alize the two permanent collection works (dated 1962 and 1977)?” When asked if he thought it was important for viewers to make a connection between the art on paper and those pieces hung in the permanent galleries, Linetzky responded, “Yes, for example, I hope visitors see the early Rothko drawing and relate it to his later, mature paintings.” As indicated by the title, the exhibition is hung in the “salon style,” wh…

News

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…

News

Works by Pollock, de Kooning donated to Stanford’s Anderson Collection

…fifth anniversary celebration, the Anderson exhibition space — 16,000 feet on two floors — has been reinstalled for the first time since its opening. This includes a curated exhibition by Jim Campbell, the San Francisco lighting artist known for his six-story installation “Day for Night” at Salesforce Tower. For the Anderson show, Campbell built a new work titled “Rhythm Studies” composed of nine LED panels. It hangs in the first-floor window an…

Stanford art museums, Frost Amphitheater begin to reopen