Beginning Feb. 1, Columbus State University’s Bo Bartlett Center will host one of the largest surveys of work to date by American painter Lennart Anderson.

"Lennart Anderson: A Retrospective" will include more than 40 works from both private and public collections, including the Center for Figurative Painting, Brooklyn Museum, Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Lennart Anderson estate and Leigh Morse Fine Arts, and it originates from the New York Studio School.

“Anderson’s paintings reveal the things we often overlook, and he does it with the tenderness and humor of a haiku poet,” explained Mike McFalls, director of the Bo Bartlett Center and a professor in the university’s Department of Art. “Anderson worked from observation during the height of non-objective painting. His paintings and drawings are unapologetically humble; they are a search for an elusiveness of light and the nobility in uncomplicated subjects.”

An 84-page hardcover catalogue of Anderson’s work will accompany the exhibition. Various essays by leading contemporary painters and art historians will complement the 50-plus color reproductions of the artist’s work contained in the catalogue.

"Italian House on a Hill," 1959 by Lennart Anderson, oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 22 1/8 in., © Estate of Lennart Anderson

The Bo Barlett Center will hold a public reception on Thursday, Feb. 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibition will be available for viewing until April 12.

The Bo Bartlett Center appreciates the individual and corporate support that has made this exhibition possible. Supporters include AHA Fine Art, Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, the Center for Figurative Painting Inc., the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Eliza Anderson, Patricia & John Jacoby, Alina Lundry, Ippolita Rostagno, Richard Spurzem, Blair & Chris Woodruff, and anonymous donors.