In less than a month, Stanford University will unveil one of the largest and most valuable gifts in its history, the blue-chip Anderson collection—121 mostly Abstract Expressionist works by 86 artists—including paintings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Ellsworth Kelly, to name a few. There are also a number of works that represent movements in California art, including Bay Area Figurative and…

Stanford University’s decade-long, $227-million investment in an arts initiative will be in the limelight this month with the unveiling of the Anderson Collection. One of the most valuable gifts in Stanford’s history, the collection of 20th-century American art was assembled over the course of fifty years by Bay Area collectors Harry W. “Hunk” and Mary Margaret “Moo Moo” Anderson along with their daughter Mary…

…the prominent San Francisco dealer in photography, a genre not included in the Anderson Collection. “Museums all over the country had their eyes on it hoping to get it until Hunk and Moo made their decision in favor of Stanford.” The Andersons did not choose Stanford because they went there. They didn’t, and neither did their only child, Mary Patricia “Putter” Anderson Pence. Hunk attended Hobart College in New York, where he co-founded a company…

When the Anderson Collection at Stanford University opens to the public on Sept. 21, it will be an anniversary of sorts. It was a half century ago almost to the day that a life-changing notion dawned on Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson while they visited the Louvre Museum in Paris for the first time. So utterly captivated were the Atherton couple by the modern works they viewed there–as well as at the nearby Jeu de Paume museum–th…

…n’t so much reside as rule. The multi-part, multi-media aluminum construction, consisting of nine separate components with cut-outs and painted squiggles, is virtually three-dimensional, and made by someone who must have been on drugs at the time, or high by other means. Painting dominates, but there are several compelling sculptures like Nancy Graves’ “Telestitch” (1988), a delicate, playful iron-and-bronze sculpture with…

…Twist concluded his presentation by giving a live performance of his puppeteering. With Rothko’s “Pink and White over Red” as his backdrop, Twist commanded the floor, armed with a translucent white expanse of silk cloth. Puppeteering is an art form that engages the entire body, as Twist quickly made apparent. Breathing heavily, Twist coaxed the material to form mesmerizing loops and spirals with powerful swings of his arms. At the end of his demo…

The audience for Nick Cave’s Soundsuits isn’t really the audience. To put it another way, people looking at the artist’s tall, bright, faceless garments from the outside are part of the audience. But another important audience member is the one wearing a Soundsuit: the person inside. Although visitors to the new exhibition can’t try on the suits, seeing them in person is just as good and not quite as tricky. At the two-…

Over the past decade, many university leaders and donors have come to the same conclusion: investment in the arts is essential to building a competitive institution in an increasingly global world. This year, around half a dozen new museums and arts centres are opening on campuses across the country, from Columbia University in New York to Rice University in Texas. They come on the heels of recently completed projects at Stanford in California,…

If you’d been dragging your feet on getting to Palo Alto for the Anderson Collection’s Nick Cave exhibition (of Soundsuits, not Bad Seeds fame), now is the time. In addition to person-sized sculptures made for shimmying, the free collection displays Abstraction and the Movies March 1-17 only. Curated by current Stanford undergrad Carlos Valladares, Abstraction and the Movies pairs works from the Anderson Collection with images and posters from f…

The Cantor Arts Center and Anderson Collection at Stanford University miss seeing you. We are eager to welcome you back to campus, share art and connect over ideas. Now through August 31, 2020, we are offering all Stanford graduates in the class of 2020 one year of free Ambassador membership ($100 value*) to both museums. Each membership covers up to two adults and children within a single household. To get your FREE membership, fill out t…

…ourse of American art,” said Jason Linetzky, director of the Anderson Collection. “As a painter, Eamon Ore-Giron combines architectural shapes—circles, triangles, arches, rectangles—in bold colors and interlocking compositions. His approach is also one of intersections: across media, cultures, identities, generations and geographies. We are delighted to collaborate with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts to bring this dynamic artist and thin…