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

Fashion statements: Nick Cave’s Soundsuits come to Stanford

…ns. Each item he finds holds a story — the energetic imprint from 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 the…

News

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

…ts. It is said that she initiated the practice of pouring thinned-down oil paint onto unprimed canvas, resulting in a fusion of surface and color (which later would be called “color-field painting”). Her “Monotype VII” has the same energetic feeling as “Approach” upstairs. In the painting, the staining is applied sparingly, so as to create more perspective space. The monotype, however, is a joyous expanse of co…

Family Programs

News

Anderson Collection opens to public on Sept. 21

…ts new Stanford University home this Sunday, 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.s…

News

Anderson Collection at Stanford solidifies Bay Area’s art stature

…n of the Andersons’ art library, and nonpublic office and storage spaces. Having hosted a graduate student internship in art history for many years, the Andersons were keenly aware of their new project’s value as a teaching museum. So if – as is likely – the Anderson Collection at Stanford does occasion endless debate among students, teachers and other companionable visitors, everyone will be well served. Another occurs in…

News

A&E Digest

…County Schools, and were nominated by their classroom teachers based on their talent, hard work and demonstrated interest in art. The stduetns will be invited to take part in CSMA art programs. Those interested in learning more can go to arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800. FEMINIST ART ON FILM … On Thursday, April 30 at 6 p.m., the Anderson Collection at Stanford University will host a free screening of filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson’s…

News

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

…um, noted, “These experiences have helped me thoroughly understand the challenges faced by the museum team in their daily work, and areas in which staff want the museum to grow and flourish.” And how do they plan to address the issues raised 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…

News

New acquisition by David Park on view at the Anderson Collection

…m. “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 exhibition of the artist’s work in conversation with his contemporaries.” Park gave the portrait to his sitt…

News

Contemplations on modern art

…f colors. One of them, covering almost the entire wall, was simply a large pattern of burgundy, black and 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…

News

Anderson Collection at Stanford University to Open this Month

…lex will now be missing major artworks, but the Andersons are pleased their collection will be on public display in a dedicated building on the Stanford campus. “I think in order to enjoy art, you have to share it,” remarked Moo Anderson to the  LA Times . Located adjacent to the university’s Cantor Arts Center, the Anderson Collection will be latest addition to Stanford’s arts district. Last year saw the opening of Bing Concert Hall…

News

Anderson Collection’s 10 must-see works at Stanford

Not to be missed at the Anderson Collection (in no particular order): 1. Richard Diebenkorn: “Berkeley No. 26,” 1954. 2. Frank Stella: “Zeltweg,” 1981. 3. Ellsworth Kelly: “Black Ripe,” 1955. 4. David Park: “Four Women,” 1959 (on the cover). 5. Jackson Pollock: “Lucifer,” 1947. 6. Morris Louis: “Number 64,” 1958. 7. Wayne Thiebaud: “Candy Counter,” 1962. 8. Mark Rothko: “Pink and White Over Red,” 1957. 9. Vija Celmins: “Barrier,” 1986. 10. Phili…

Review: Anderson Collection of 20th-century art opens Sept. 21

News

Site-specific student projects now on view!

…g the material enabled longer span arches, while creating a complex visual experience from within. Students drew inspiration from the Anderson Collection’s temporary exhibit, “Constructive Interference”, exploring how mesh and colored ribbon could create a layered filter to the site.  The ribbon, woven into the mesh, establishes a separate yet interdependent order while providing an additional layer of enclosure.  The colors fade from muted to br…

News

Meet Manuel Neri’s Muses: ‘Assertion of the Figure’ highlights the models behind the sculpture

…bject for the male artist to objectify. Rather, she’s a collaborator. You feel each woman’s presence in the work, side by side with the man who shaped it. Neri and Nakamura (sometimes referred to as Makiko) met in Carrara, Italy. He established a studio there in order to access marble from those famous quarries. She was the model for Makida III, a large, marble head with unseeing, absent or closed eyes. While her lips and nose are cle…

Exhibition

Jim Campbell

Exhibition

Wendy Red Star: American Progress

News

Full House

…little housecleaning: Last year, they gave 121 pieces to Stanford University. The Anderson Collection will open in September in a new gallery, designed by Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects, on the Stanford campus. “They consider themselves custodians of the work they collect,” says Jason Linetzky, the director of the Anderson Collection at Stanford. But, he adds, “they’re very down-to-earth and casual about how they live with the art.” A Reno…

News

Stanford: The New Art Place To Be

Many in the art world have been anticipating the opening on Sept. 21 of the collection of Harry and Mary Margaret Anderson at Stanford — even from afar. In 2011, the couple donated 1 21 works of contemporary art, filled with paintings by the likes of Pollock, Diebenkorn, Rothko Elsworth Kelly, de Kooning, Joan Mitchell (Begin Again IV at left), and Elizabeth Murray, to name a few, to Stanford on the condition that it build galleries to house the…

News

Anderson Collection has a new home

…Woman Standing – Pink” (1954-55), a lush, pastel-toned oil of a voluptuous nude who looks like she’s in the clutches of a garbage compactor. The art is organized loosely into about a dozen sections, such as Dumb Objects, California Funk, Geometric Abstraction, (the distinctly L.A.) Light & Space/Finish Fetish and The Shaped Canvas. The latter is where Frank Stella’s elephantine “Zeltweg” (1981) doesn’t so m…

News

Stanford Opens a Museum Highlighting American Art

…3,500-square-foot building to house the Anderson Collection, 121 contemporary artworks donated by the Andersons, including major artwork by Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn and Ellsworth Kelly, among others. The couple married in 1950. During an around-the-world trip in 1964, they were overwhelmed by the Impressionist art on view in Paris. “On the way home, we may have had a glass of wine too much, but we decided to put together a great…