…uding Neal Benezra, MA ’81, PhD ’83, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, worked with the collection for several years before moving into careers as teachers and museum professionals. Hunk willingly wrote them letters of recommendation and has always taken great pride in their later achievements. The long history of Stanford and the Andersons working together to educate students in the arts is by no means over. It is th…

…e stellar work in the Anderson Collection, an impressive new museum opening Sunday at Stanford University. Given the prestige of the university, founded in 1891, it is remarkable to realize that Stanford has never been home to a major art collection. The closest it has come is the group of 200 sculptures by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), mostly contemporary bronze casts, housed at the Cantor Arts Center adjacent to the new museum. Overnight, the Ande…

…t the firm. Ennead’s first commission at Stanford, more than 15 years ago, was a self-effacing addition to the neighboring Cantor Arts Center, a heavy Greek Revival building. Just 40 feet away from the Cantor and its imposing Ionic columns, the Anderson Collection, by comparison, keeps a low profile. The building appears as three simple horizontal bars. The central volume, a neutral tan box, is cantilevered over a glazed ground level and to…

…t on the making of influential photographer Robert Frank’s provocative book, The Americans. Frank traveled the nation between 1955 and 1956 for this project. His images document subjects such as Hollywood (seen both from within the studio and from the fans’ perspective) and the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit, while probing social issues such as politics, race, religion and postwar consumer culture. The exhibition, which includes…

…splatters that are strewn across “The Beaubourg.” It is interesting to note the contrast between these seemingly formless paint splatters and the geometric forms that crisscross the piece. 2. “Ocean Park #60” by Richard Diebenkorn “Ocean Park #60” is a product of Bay Area painter Richard Diebenkorn’s progression from representational works to depictions of purely abstract forms — in other words, from accurate depictions of real objects to composi…

The coming relaunch of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has lots of people buzzing in anticipation. But downtown San Francisco is not the only place where truly exciting things are happening on the visual arts front. Super-star artist James Turrell, for instance, is touching down in Palo Alto with a pocket-sized exhibition this week, ahead of a major retrospective of his work at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in late May. Turrell is…

BY ROBIN WANDER The Anderson Collection at Stanford University accepted 13 gifts of art into the museum’s permanent collection this academic year. These are the first acquisitions since the museum opened in 2014, originally as a non-collecting institution, and the first gifts not from the Anderson family. The new direction is a welcome one for students, faculty, the Stanford community, the Anderson family and beyond. Anderson Collection patr…

…58 to 1997 by Manuel Neri; and Mary Weatherford’s black painting, 2017. The new acquisitions are in keeping with the original collection of 121 works of post-World War II modern and contemporary American art by 86 artists given to Stanford by Harry W. “Hunk” and Mary Margaret “Moo” Anderson and their daughter, Mary Patricia “Putter” Anderson Pence, the Bay Area family which has been collecting art for over 50 years. The collection is anchored in…

…he Finger Lakes region. His father was from Sweden and his mother from Norway. During World War II, he served in the Army on a crew that built a pipeline from India to Burma. He came home in 1946 with an Army-issue haircut and used the GI Bill to enroll at Hobart College in New York, where he hit on an idea to improve the dormitory food. He formed a partnership with two other students and called the company Saga. After graduating in 1949, Anderso…

…material, because of its viscosity, won’t allow. I make a mixture out of mud, and depending on how well I mix it there will be different levels of clay and air content, which allows me to manipulate its qualities to fit the effect I’m looking for. But the most important thing is being careful and working slowly—repeating the same gestures over and over. As the sculpture dries, it cracks and appears to be fragile when in fact it’s actually quite r…

…Fellows. If you have ever entered a pool or a bathtub, you have probably noticed that as your body sinks, water overflows and spills over the sides. This reflects Archimedes’ principle, which, for over two thousand years, has explained a fundamental part of reality that seems relatively obvious to us. The spillover effect of a body submerged in a fluid is so obvious it may go unnoticed or may appear unremarkable. Yet, when it comes to the histor…

…te curving and long. Was there any importance or message you wanted to convey through the shape and curvature of the arms? KW: I find lots of inspiration through observing — thinking about the world as not just human-centric. The world is expansive and includes plant life, flora, other forms of life. And so I often find inspiration from just acknowledging and thinking about the world as an ecosystem of interdependent relationships between humans…

…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.stan…

…ackerman. A lengthy investigation, begun after an exposé in the Stanford Daily, revealed a toxic work culture at the museum and ended with Dackerman’s resignation in late November. The university has been circumspect about personnel matters, but did issue a press release at 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.&#82…

…anford. Bay Area figurative art is a particular strength of the Anderson Collection and the second Park painting is an important acquisition. A collection of 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 c…

…Architecture.  This design build course focused on the structural and spatial possibilities of welded wire mesh, for the design of a contemplation space.  The installation encourages introspection and pause for students, passers-by, and visitors to the Anderson Collection.  The progression of arches provides a spatial transition from the campus into a more enclosed cocoon-like space that orients towards the sky. The course is a cross-disciplinary…

…lia Klimenko as the inspirations behind the sculptures and paintings on display. Collectively, the exhibit makes the argument that a female muse isn’t just a passive subject 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 o…