Monday, May 6th, 2024

7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

---

The collection includes 1,500 artworks-including paintings, lithographs, sculpture and works on paper – from the historic Woodstock Art Colony that collector Arthur A. Anderson donated to the New York State Museum in 2017. This extraordinary collection, which represents a body of work that together shaped art and culture in New York and forms a history of national and international significance.

Long before the music festival in 1969 made Woodstock, New York, famous, it was home to what is considered America’s first intentionally created, year-round arts colony—founded in 1902 and still thriving more than 100 years later.

Collecting the remarkable range of work produced there was Anderson’s focus for three decades, resulting in the largest comprehensive assemblage of its type. The artists represented in it reflect the diversity of those who came to Woodstock, including Birge Harrison, Konrad Cramer, George Bellows, Eugene Speicher, Peggy Bacon, Rolph Scarlett and Yasuo Kuniyoshi, among many others. Anderson donated his entire collection—some 1,500 objects by almost 200 artists—to the New York State Museum.

---

Participant Biographies

Download

Born and raised in Western Michigan, Arthur A. Anderson has a Sc.B. in organic chemistry and A.B. in American economic history from Brown University in addition to his J.D. from Yale Law School. In law school, his primary areas of interest were Federal practice and intellectual property rights (trademarks, copyrights and patents). After law practice in New York, he co-founded a private investment management firm on Wall Street which with the advent of NASDAQ transitioned to become the first full-service discount stock brokerage firm.  Having acquired expertise in cable television along the way, Arthur joined Teleprompter Corporation, the then largest cable television holding company, as corporate counsel and secretary. Later he co-founded Morgan Anderson Consulting, marketing/communications management consultants to Fortune 100 marketers. At that time he also began to collect art of the Historic Woodstock Art Colony. In 2017 Arthur donated 1500 works to the New York State Museum, Albany. There it was exhibited in 2018-19 and again in 2023 at The Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz. In April 2024 the New York State Museum with SUNY Press will publish The Historic Woodstock Art Colony: The Arthur A. Anderson Collection. In 2020 Arthur transitioned Morgan Anderson Consulting to Morgan Anderson Art Solutions (“MAAS”) to provide art collection management services to art collectors and estates. An unique feature is to transition a collection to a searchable database archive which in turn can create a state-of-the-art website, short film, catalogue raisonnee, and its unique story, “ArtNarrativeTM”. https://www.morgananderson.art/home. 

Tom Wolf is Professor Emeritus of Art History and Visual Culture at Bard College. His primary areas of research are the history of art in the Woodstock, New York, art colony, and Asian American art. Recent publications include The Tip of the Iceberg: Early Asian American Artists in New York in Asian American Art: A History, Stanford University Press, (2008); "The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi", Smithsonian American Art Museum, (2015); "Centennial of the Woodstock Artists Association", The Woodstock Artists Association, (2019); "Doris Lee in Woodstock in Simple Pleasures—The Art of Doris Lee", Weatherspoon Art Museum, (2020); "Global Connections", Samuel Dorsky Museum, 2024.

Winold Reiss, Woman with Black Hat with Cigarette, 1917, pastel on paper, 48 x 35