SFMOMA | Exhibitions | The Anderson Collection: New York School

Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection > The New York School



	on view: October 7, 2000 - January 21, 2000 An emphasis on acquiring work of the highest caliber led the Andersons to build their collection upon the cornerstone of Abstract Expressionism, the first important American contribution to modern art. Robert Motherwell coined the phrase "The New York School" in 1949 to refer specifically to his fellow Abstract Expressionists, who had abandoned representational painting in order to pursue a radically new style characterized by the use of gestural brushwork and flattened, abstract forms. The Anderson Collection contains a stunning array of artworks created in this style, including Jackson Pollock's Lucifer (1947), Willem de Kooning's Gansevoort Street (1949-51), and Franz Kline's Figure 8 (1952).

Frank Stella
Giufà, la luna, i ladri e le guardie
(Giufà, the Moon, the Robbers, and the Cops)
1984
Mixed media on canvas, etched magnesium,
aluminum, and fiberglass
Collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson

		The New York School galleries also include work from a wide variety of artistic movements formed by subsequent generations in response to Abstract Expressionism. By the 1950s, figures such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg had begun to challenge the heroic gesturalism of Pollock and his contemporaries by infusing it with a new sense of emotional detachment and playful irony. In doing so, they laid the groundwork for the two primary movements of the 1960s: Pop and Minimalism. Pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein created cool, witty artworks inspired by the mass-produced imagery of popular culture: comic strips, movie posters, and advertisements. At the same time, Minimalists such as Donald Judd distanced themselves from the personal expression and overt emotionality of Abstract Expressionism by producing impassive, mechanically rendered surfaces that deliberately veiled the artist's role in--and attitudes toward--the physical act of artistic creation. In the 1970s a number of artists began to revisit the Abstract Expressionists' interest in highly expressionistic surfaces. The New York section concludes with a short retrospective of the work of one artist--Frank Stella--who perhaps best exemplifies this trend. After playing a pivotal role in the development of a Minimalist painting style during the late 1950s, Stella has since returned to the use of vigorous brushwork and rich textures in his dynamic, free-form reliefs.
	Jackson Pollock Totem Lesson I 1944 Oil on canvas 70 x 44 in. Collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson

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Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is supported by the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Modern Art Council, a Museum auxiliary. Additional generous support is provided by Doris and Donald Fisher, Helen and Charles Schwab, Evelyn D. Haas, Phyllis Wattis, Mimi and Peter Haas, Patricia and William Wilson III, and Elaine McKeon.

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