Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection

Library Journal

The vast Anderson Collection comprises works selected between the late 1960s and the late 1990s by San Franciscans Harry and Mary Margaret Anderson with assistance from their daughter. Some of their art had been previously displayed at the headquarters of their company, the Saga Corporation, in Menlo Park, but the two shows for which these catalogs were produced will expose hundreds of pieces to a wider public, in the Bay Area and beyond. Breuer, curator of the Anderson Graphic Arts Collection at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, presents a wide variety of graphic material screenprints, lithographs, aquatints, drypoints, woodcuts, etchings, monotype, and photogravures organized by decade. Breuer begins each section with a concise one-page overview of important artists and trends, encapsulating the explosive 1960s, the expansionist 1970s, the excessive 1980s, and the forward-moving 1990s. Her introductory chapter about the Andersons and the chronology section on printmaking in America from 1940 to 2000 are both informative. Editor Garrels, previously a curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, has compiled a collaborative writing effort between seven people writing chapter essays and ten people writing shorter focus pieces on a particular artist and selected artwork. Presenting Modern art by 140 artists is a challenge that this catalog valiantly meets, though the focus pieces actually leave one wishing that more of the art could have been discussed in that pinpointed fashion. The chapter essays and illustrations cover the New York School, California art, contemporary art, modern sculpture, and works on paper. (This latter category differs from the graphics catalog in comprising unique works in charcoal, graphite, ink, and so forth.). Nevertheless, both books are recommended for academic and larger public libraries for the importance of the images and the quality accompanying texts. Anne Marie Lane, American Heritage Ctr., Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.