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State Museum adds "significant" collection of art

"Martha" by Eugene Speicher, 1947, oil on canvas, The Historic Woodstock Arts Colony: Arthur A. Anderson Collection, New York State Museum. / photo: Eric R. Lapp

The State Museum announced Tuesday that it's acquired "a significant collection" of artwork from the Woodstock Art Colony: 1,500 works across different media from 170 artists from the early 20th century.

Press release blurbage (links added):

Long before the famous music event in 1969, Woodstock was home to what is considered America's first intentional year-round arts colony: the historic Woodstock Art Colony, founded in 1902. Its artists have been the focus of collector and donor Arthur Anderson for three decades, resulting in the largest comprehensive art collection of its type. The artists in the collection reflect the diversity of the artists who came to Woodstock, including Birge Harrison, Robert Henri, George Bellows, Eugene Speicher, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Anderson recently donated the collection to the New York State Museum, where the collection will be transferred and permanently housed.

"The Woodstock Art Colony Collection highlights an important piece of New York's art history with both regional and national significance," said Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa. "We're honored to now own these extraordinary artworks that reflect our art and cultural history and share them with the children and adults of New York State."

Here's a small sample of the works in the collection.

The portrait above, titled "Martha," is by Eugene Speicher. You might remember there was an exhibit of Speicher's work at the State Museum a few years back.