On seizing nature. Writing of the artist's mission, Albrecht Durer noted that this consisted of grabbing or seizing nature, this the only route to image making. Adamant as to the significance of this role, the German animalier saw such extraction as absolutely central to his role. Walter Anderson, the American later twentieth century artist, would have been in complete accord with the German renaissance master's views. Art without nature, or for that matter, nature without art, would have been seen by Anderson as a sterile impossibility. The present exhibition at the Luise Ross Gallery of birds, fish and beach life by Walter Anderson is not only informed by a passion for animal life, but also by a reflection of encyclopaedic understanding of the images done by other artists in different cultures - those of China and Japan and by Native Americans. By showing Anderson's command of the life of the skies, the earth surfaces, and the waters below, this exhibition is a necessary reminder of this amazing artist's outreach and embrace of nature's multiple spheres of influence. It is a tragic irony that this great artist's heritage should have been so battered and partially destroyed by the vengeance of Katrina, almost as if nature's unleashed vengeance demanded the partial destruction of so benevolent a rival, singling out Anderson for punishment for having so successfully extracted its very essence. -Colin Eisler Robert Lehman Professor of Fine Arts New York University Institute of Fine Arts
Education 1923 New York, NY, Parsons Institute (now School of Design) 1924-9 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Awards 1925 Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Packard Award (Animal drawings) 1928 Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Cresson Award (Travel grant) Murals 1935 Ocean Springs, MS, Ocean Springs High School (WPA) 1950 Ocean Springs, MS, Community Center (now part of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art) Begun 1951 Ocean Springs, MS, Walter Anderson cottage, Creation at Sunrise, now installed at the Walter Anderson Museum The Walter Anderson Museum of Art opened in 1991 in Ocean Springs, MS Selected Solo Exhibitions 2008 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Walter Anderson: Watercolors and Drawings 2005 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Walter Anderson Surviving: Watercolors, Drawings, Prints 2003-4 Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution, Arts and Industries Building; Walter Inglis Anderson: Everything I See is New and Strange (traveling exhibition) 2003 Jackson, MS; Mississippi Museum of Art; Celebrating Walter Anderson: Works from the Permanent Collection New York, Luise Ross Gallery, Centennial Jackson, MS, Mississippi Musem of Natural Science; Between the Blades of Grass 2001 Jackson, MS, Mississippi Musem of Natural Science; Visions of Nature: The World of Walter Anderson 2000 Ocean Springs, MS, Walter Anderson Museum of Art; The Private Eye: Walter Anderson from Individual Collections New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Walter Anderson: Paintings and Drawings 1995 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Walter Anderson: Major Watercolors Baton Rouge, LA, Louisiana State University; Birds of Walter Anderson 1993-4 Jackson, MS, Mississippi Museum of Art; Walter Anderson: Celebrating the Child 1993 Jackson, MS, Mississippi Museum of Art; Walter Anderson: Literary Drawings Memphis, TN, Kurts Bingham Gallery New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Walter Anderson's Bog Memphis, TN, Albers Fine Art Gallery 1992 New Orleans, LA, Tilden-Foley Gallery 1990 New York, Luise Ross Gallery, Walter Anderson: The Birds Memphis, TN, Albers Fine Art Gallery 1988 New York, Luise Ross Gallery; Crayon Drawings from the 1940's New Orleans, LA, New Orleans Museum of Art; Walter Anderson in New Orleans Memphis, TN, Memphis Brooks Museum; An American Master: Walter Anderson 1987 New Orleans, LA, Gasperi Gallery 1986 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Watercolors and Drawings 1985-6 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Peale House; Walter Anderson: Realizations of the Islander (Travelled to New York, Luise Ross Gallery, Fitchburg, MA, Fitchburg Art Museum, Woodberry Forest, VA, The Rusty Roberts Memorial Drawing Collection, Woodberry Forest School, Columbus, GA, Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences, Jackson, MS, Mississippi Museum of Arts and Sciences, Alexandria, LA, Alexandria Museum and Visual Arts Center, Vero Beach, FL, Center for the Arts, Asheville, NC, Asheville Art Museum) 1985 Philadelphia, PA, Janet Fleisher Gallery 1984 New Orleans, LA, Louisiana World Exposition; Walter Anderson's New Orleans 1980 Jackson, MS, Mississippi State Historical Museum; Sea, Earth and Sky: The Art of Walter Anderson 1967 Memphis, TN, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery; The World of Walter Anderson 1964 Memphis, TN, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery; Fledgling Birds 1949 Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Museum; Folktale and Fantasy: Modern Scroll Prints in Color Selected Group Exhibitions 2009 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Pretty, Strange 2007 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Rare Birds 2006 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Fun! 2005 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; New Location 2001 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; WET! 1997-8 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; The Nature of Nature, Part II: Walter Anderson and Charles Burchfield 1996 New York and East Hampton, NY, Fotouhi Cramer Gallery; By the Sea 1994 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; The Art of Watercolor 1993 New York, NY, Babcock Galleries; FLOWERS!!! 1992 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; The Nature of Nature: Walter Anderson and Arthur Dove 1988 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery and Vanderwoude Tananbaum Gallery; The Watercolorists: Walter Anderson and His Peers 1983 Richmond, VA, Virginia Museum; Painting in the South: 1564-1980 (Travelling exhibition) 1980 Baton Rouge, LA, Louisiana State University; Southern Works on Paper (Travelling exhibition) 1979 Jackson, MS, Mississippi State Historical Museum; The Shearwater Legacy 1944 Memphis, TN, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery; Shearwater Pottery Selected Public Collections Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Art Institute of Chicago, IL Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, AL Fitchburg Art Museum, MA Greenville County Museum of Art, SC Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge, LA Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN Meridian Museum of Art, MS Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS Montgomery Museum of Art, AL Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC New Orleans Museum of Art, LA Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Roger Odgen Collection of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA Rusty Roberts Memorial Drawing Collection, Woodberry Forest, VA Wolfson Collection of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Miami, FL The Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS opened in 1991. A large selection of the artist's paintings, watercolors, drawings, and decorated pottery are on view. In addition, the Ocean Springs Public School WPA Murals, the Ocean Springs Community Center Murals and the Shearwater Cottage Murals are all housed in the museum. For more information, go to www.walterandersonmuseum.org PAST EXHIBITIONS click here