A Family Affair

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In 1969 Hunk and Moo Anderson wrote a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe
regarding a painting of hers that they were considering acquiring.
The artist replied with an invitation to visit her if they should happen
to find themselves in the vicinity of her home outside of Santa
Fe, New Mexico. As Hunk recounts the story, “Lo and behold, all
three of us [including daughter Putter] were on a plane” 1 (fig. 1).
The occasions that the Andersons spent with O’Keeffe, whom they
visited twice and also hosted in their own home, surely were
remarkable experiences for the family, who had started collecting
modern and Impressionist art just four years earlier and had only
recently decided to acquire work by living artists. The opportunity
to build relationships with artists is unique to the province of contemporary
art; for many collectors, it is among the field’s most
appealing aspects. The Andersons’ connection to artists is an
unusually strong one, as made evident by their commitment to
acquire the work of certain artists in depth and by the portfolio of
111 artist portraits that they commissioned photographer Leo
Holub to undertake. The Andersons aptly characterize their extensive
art collection as encompassing work in which both “the head
and the hand” of the artist are discernible. 2 Their enduring predilection
for art in which visible traces of its creator’s touch remain
present is perhaps the most material sign of this commitment and,
indeed, the Andersons’ allegiance to artists in general. This essay
explores a small sampling of the many personal relationships that
Hunk, Moo, and Putter have fostered with artists over almost fifty
years of collecting contemporary art. The artist-patron relationship,
often overlooked in conventional collecting histories, offers
a unique perspective on the story of how this particular family
assembled a world-class collection of postwar and contemporary
American art. It also provides a renewed understanding of the
personal element that is inherent to the fundamentally humanist
enterprise of collecting.
In hindsight, it is not particularly surprising that some of the
first artists with whom the Andersons made a personal connection
were those who lived and worked in California. But in the late
1960s New York City, which had become the undisputed apex of
the international art world in the 1950s with the rise of Abstract
Expressionism, remained in the opinion of most curators and collectors
the only source for contemporary art. In fact, there was
almost no acknowledgment of the vitality or quality of new work
produced in other American cities. It was in this context that the
Andersons became acquainted with Nathan Oliveira, an established
figurative painter and printmaker who had recently joined
the faculty at Stanford University (fig. 2). Introduced to Oliveira
by Stanford art history professor Albert E. Elsen, the Andersons
began to acquire his work, including the paintings Stage #2 with
Bed (1967; pl. 3), Nude in Environment I (1962; pl. 5), and Reclining
Nude (1958; pl. 4), all of which were purchased in 1969. While
Oliveira was one of the first California artists to enter the Anderson
Collection, it was through his close friendship with Hunk and Moo
Figure 1
Moo and Putter Anderson with Georgia
O’Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico, c. 1969
Figure 2
LEO HOLUB
Nate Oliveira, Stanford 1971 (Print Studio), 1971
Gelatin silver print
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at
Stanford University; Given in honor of Leo Holub
by Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson
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