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

…ists’ Interventions 1970s – Now brings together a group of female artists working in the public realm. Believing not all public 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 exhi…

News

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

…nd will be on view upon the museum’s reopening, hopefully in early 2021. A virtual tour of the show is available online now. “By sharing the work and voices of these contemporary artists, our visitors can engage with current issues while reflecting on work in the permanent collection,” said Jason Linetzky, director of the Anderson Collection. “Formed & Fired gives us an opportunity to present innovative sculptors who ground their work in soci…

News

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

…re Garden are still available to those who prefer an outdoor encounter with art. Outdoor dining at Cool Cafe has not yet returned but, according to the museum’s website, will soon be announced. All three museum directors are happy to be engaging with the public and encouraging in-person experiences with their collections again. When asked what she wants the community to know about visiting the museum, now and in the future, Brezinski replie…

News

New acquisition by David Park on view at the Anderson Collection

…essays about the painting by Nancy Boas, Helen Park Bigelow and John Seed will be available in the galleries and online at the time of the opening. The Anderson Collection reopens to the public on Sept. 22 after being closed several months for maintenance. The permanent collection is being completely reinstalled on the second floor, and there will be two temporary solo exhibitions on view as of Sept. 23: Sam Richardson:Islands, Ice, and Sand in t…

News

Contemplations on modern art

…d white. However, there was something very calming about looking at it. I used to criticize such artworks a lot, not understanding the value placed on artists 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 transcend…

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

…y known as Hunk and Moo) and their daughter, Mary Patricia Anderson Pence. The history of their collecting is by now the stuff of legend: After a trip to Europe in the 1960s, Hunk and Moo decided to educate themselves about art in order to build a collection. They sought out the best examples by the most noteworthy artists available, and had the good fortune — and foresight — to purchase stellar works by artists working in the Abstrac…

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

…estra: A humbly entertaining group show, easily overlooked within a dreary but clamorous local art economy, this commemorative event reopened a souful, nonprofit mainstay of the Dogpatch neighborhood shuttered two years earlier by the death of its founder, Bruno Mauro. The Plot Thickens: Fraenkel Gallery’s 35th anniversary show (through Jan. 31) honors the gallery’s outstanding success, but crucially it also celebrates looking, not commerce, as t…

News

Anderson Collection a modern art trove not to be missed

…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 painting.” “Robert Irwin’s untitled disk is capturing people’s attention. There’s this shadow quality — he was very intereste…

News

Fashion statements: Nick Cave’s Soundsuits come to Stanford

…2017, on loan from the Anderson family, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and private collectors. Cave, who now the director of the graduate fashion program at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, may not have had the words to describe the latent potency of abandoned objects as a child in Missouri. It is possible, however, the idea that things hold an imprint of all their former lives seeped into his personal identity early on as he a…

News

A new lust for art takes hold in Silicon Valley

…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 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 a…

News

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

…s the same bold, black, gestural strokes that can be seen in his paintings. Richard Diebenkorn’s carefully composed use of geometry and muted, cool colors relates directly to the evocative “Ocean Park #60” at the top of the steps. On the other hand, Ad Rhinehart’s “Untitled”, a gouache on paper, is a complete surprise. Unlike “Abstract Painting, 1966,” which consists of subtle gradations of black to…

News

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

…sday, Oct. 24, by the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, a museum showing the core of their collection. No cause was given. She was 92. The Andersons liked to portray themselves as plain folk to befit their shared nickname “Hunk and Moo,” but they were sophisticated and timely in their collecting of artworks that were often abstract and beyond comprehension. They were also generous in both loaning and donating pieces to the San Francisco…

News

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

…Anderson Collection. “They were really the leaders of the Abstract Expressionists in New York.” The announcement comes less than a week after the death of Mary Margaret “Moo” Anderson, who has been the main benefactor of the collection since the death of her husband, Harry W. “Hunk” Anderson, in February 2018. Moo Anderson had committed the gifts months ago, in honor of the fifth anniversary of the Anderson Collection. She had been scheduled to a…

Stanford art museums, Frost Amphitheater begin to reopen

News

Mirroring Heaven on Earth: Stellar Axis South and 90 Degrees North

…n global terms, the “sculptures in space”; her early drawings depicted the body chakra system in relation to the North and South Pole connection. The idea was of star light entering from the North Pole through the Earth axis exiting at the South Pole. By creating an invisible shaft of light that would poetically come through the centre of the Earth and through the rotation of the Earth, it would form an invisible double strain of DNA. Her early s…