The annual Charter Collectors Dinner at the Speed Art Museum was held Nov. 19, a scintillating and elegant affair.
The dinner usually features voting for one of several prospective art acquisitions that have been scouted out by trips to London, Paris, Brussels, New York and other museums and galleries to select a work of art that will fit in with the current collections, enhancing them.
Last year the collectors voted to buy a religious painting by Jan Steen of John the Baptist preaching in a beautiful wilderness landscape, which is a great treasure. It resides in the front room of the main gallery and is worth the trip to see it.
Guest speaker Maxwell Anderson gave a short lecture in the Hattie Bishop Speed Auditorium, elegantly upholstered in gold velvet seats.
Anderson is a giant among art museum directors, and is handsome, erudite, interesting and witty. He is a leader at an early age among the art collectors of the world. He is related to the famous poet Sherwood Anderson and is the grandson of the playwright Maxwell Anderson.
In a cultured, beautiful voice he gave the most delightful, smoothest and sparkling address, saying, “You should congratulate yourselves on acquiring the Steen last year of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, and I know you don’t have any money left to sp/files/storyimages/this year, so here I am.”
Anderson’s resume would fill a small book. He is the author of dozens of articles and monographs on art and museums and is a popular lecturer, writer and commentator. From his appearances on “The Charlie Rose Show” to repeated engagements at The Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum, his insights into the creative mind, the intersection of global politics and cultural heritage, art and high technology, and challenges facing museums are followed internationally.
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