While not everyone may be familiar with the name Walter Anderson, almost everyone, especially in his home state of Mississippi, has seen his work.
His unique woodblock and watercolor nature prints can be found hanging in many Southern homes. Now MSU students and faculty, as well as citizens of Starkville, have the chance to see over 50 original works hanging in the art gallery in McComas Hall.
The exhibit is available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and will run until Oct. 28.
“I noticed we hadn’t had a show of his work in over 20 years, so I started planning this two years ago,” gallery director Bill Andrews said. “He was an artist true to his own vision and ideas and never followed any artistic trend or fad, which makes his work even more unique.”
The timing worked out for both Mississippi State and the Walter Anderson family as bringing the pieces from the Coast saved them from the destruction brought by Hurricane Katrina, which severely flooded the Anderson vault.
“We brought them up from the Coast, and we’re proud that we may have saved some of his work,” Kay Demarsche, head of the art department, said. “A lot of his work was damaged in the hurricane.”
The work, donated free of charge by various local museums and private collections, isn’t the usual watercolor prints that most people are used to seeing. The pieces, many of which are being shown publicly for the first time, range from various sketches to his sculpture and pottery.
And while his art adorns the walls of many, few are privy to the mystique of Anderson, which is nearly as captivating as his artwork.
For instance, the stylized portraits that are what Walter Anderson is well-known for were actually made primarily for supporting his other artistic endeavors, along with decorating pottery for his brother for $10 a week.
“Anderson made the block prints and sold them for a dollar apiece so folks could have accessible art that was unique and appreciable aside from other mass-produced art,” Andrews said. “He then took the money he made from that and used it to pursue his real artistic passions.”
That passion was nature. Yet it wasn’t merely painting nature that captivated Anderson. He had to be a part of nature.
“He wanted to fully be an artist and experience life on nature’s condition and not man’s condition,” Andrews said. “He wanted to be a participant and not just an observer.”
This desire of realization led Anderson to various acts that many would consider irrational. He did everything from tying himself to a tree in a hurricane to trying to befriend a rattlesnake, which led to him getting bit and almost dying.
At the time many thought he was mentally ill, and it’s been suggested that many of his eccentric behaviors could be attributed to anything from a recurring malaria fever to severe depression.
“We like to sensationalize things, but the truth is that his problem probably stemmed from trying to balance who he was as a person and who he wanted to be as an artist with trying to manage a large family and be a productive member of society,” Andrews said.
After undergoing various shock treatments to no avail, his doctor suggested to his family to let him be himself.
This resulted in Anderson, with his family’s understanding, often rowing 10 miles offshore to the now famous Horn Island. Once there, he would stay for weeks at a time and produce many of his works.
It also led to a separation between him and his family.
“Even though he could be very loving at times, his family mostly knew him as this sort of eccentric outsider and not a husband or father,” Andrews said. “His kids would have to get to know him through his work.”
Now, with the help of the Anderson family and Mississippi State’s department of art, everyone can get to know him through his work. We can know the artist that lived his own life his own way and when he wanted it. The man that, when he decided he wanted to go to Tibet, never informed his family. He just left a note on the door simply stating: “Gone to China.”