In a class by itself, the Addison turns 75

ANDOVER -- When Kenneth Tyler , perhaps the premier American printmaker, retired four years ago, he made substantial donations of his work to three institutions: the Tate Gallery , the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Addison Gallery of American Art.

Museums, no less than people, can be judged by the company they keep.

``It is a special place," Tyler says of the Addison.

Tyler is far from alone in that opinion. Few museums are more beloved than the Addison. It has a superb collection, a history of innovative exhibitions, and a handsome, intimate setting. It's even free to the public.

This year the Addison observes its 75th anniversary. It's a time for celebration, but also for taking stock. The Addison has the unique distinction among art museums -- let alone art museums with a blue-chip collection -- of being affiliated with a secondary school. That school, Phillips Academy , is more commonly known as Andover. Andover alumni include not just two presidents Bush and one coach Belichick , but a Who's Who of American art: Joseph Cornell , Walker Evans , Carl Andre , Frank Stella .

Has Andover's prestige worked to wall off the Addison? For all that the reputation of a Harvard or Yale may intimidate, their art museums have city streets in front of them. The Addison sits behind a splendid, and distancing, sweep of greensward. ``I think the Addison is kind of a mysterious place," director Brian Allen says of how the public perceives the museum. ``It's a connoisseur's place. We're known nationally and internationally, and certainly among scholars. But I'd like to see us better known locally."

So much of the appeal of the Addison has to do with its size. ``The collection is of very high quality, of course, but it's also a museum for one person," Stella says. ``A big institution is for all of us, for everybody -- and the Addison is, too. But this is perfect for a single person going in there. It's manageable, it's not overwhelming."

Yet manageability carries the risk of constriction. ``Since 1931, the Addison has not [physically] expanded," notes Allen. ``It started with 600 objects and two staffers. Now it has 14,000 objects and 20 staffers."

There's hardly a significant name in American art not represented among the collection. The Addison's holdings include major works by John Singleton Copley , Winslow Homer (a particularly strong group of paintings), James A.M. Whistler , Thomas Eakins , John Singer Sargent , Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe , Jackson Pollock , David Smith , Jasper Johns , and Stella . Donations of his own work have made Stella the Addison's second-largest benefactor, after its founder, a New York investment banker named Thomas Cochran .

``If you had to go to one place to experience American art, in some ways the Addison is the best place to go," says Henry Adams , professor of American art at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and biographer of Eakins and Thomas Hart Benton . ``It's almost like the Frick Collection [in New York] for Old Masters : It's very small, it's very select, with great paintings."

That smallness, combined with the quality of the collection, can create anomalies. ``William Wegman -- Funney /Strange," an exhibition of the photographer's work organized by the Addison, just closed at the Brooklyn Museum and opens next month at the Smithsonian American Art Museum -- two institutions several magnitudes larger than its organizer. It arrives in Andover next year.

The Addison started collecting photography in 1934, at a time when few institutions did so. The first purchase consisted of four Margaret Bourke-White prints. They cost $5 each. The Addison now has more than 6,000 photographs, including a complete set of Eadweard Muybridge's ``Animal Locomotion," 22 volumes of Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work (a donation from his widow, O'Keeffe), and all 84 of the images that make up Robert Frank's epochal collection, ``The Americans."

Frank was an artist-in-residence at the Addison in 1995. ``A student who's a budding photographer, to meet Robert Frank, what a great thing!" exclaims Barbara Chase , Andover's head of school.

The program that brought Frank to the Addison also regularly brings artists of the caliber of Stella, Sol LeWitt , and Joel Shapiro . This fall Jennifer Bartlett is coming to Andover, and next spring Wegman .

Their presence points to two defining aspects of the Addison: a consistent commitment to contemporary art and its status as a teaching institution.

At first glance, the Addison looks like a central-casting version of an art museum. The exterior is neo-Georgian red brick, with a pillared portico. A fountain gently plashes in the foyer. Two dozen ship models sit in glass cases in the basement. Yet the Addison was the first US museum to exhibit work by Josef Albers , in 1935, the first to give a solo exhibition to Hans Hofmann, in 1948. Among exhibits now on display is a video installation by the current artists in residence, the collaborative duo Type A .

The Addison's contemporary streak may, in part, account for its relatively low local profile. Allen describes the museum as being ``an important part of the region's cultural fabric." In qualitative terms, that's indisputable. But the Addison drew just 30,000 visitors last year. By contrast, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute , in Williamstown, drew 190,000. It's true that the Clark is bigger than the Addison, and its proximity to Mass MoCA and the Williams College Museum of Art makes it a cultural destination. Still, unlike the Addison, it's far from any major metropolitan center.

Although only 30 miles north of Boston, the Addison has throughout its history been more oriented toward New York. Or as Tyler says, ``It serves the whole Eastern Corridor." Partly, that's been a function of following the money. Starting with Cochran, New York has provided the biggest donors. But it also owes something to New York's longstanding acceptance of modern art, and Boston's equally longstanding resistance to it.

The Addison's receptiveness to contemporary art has helped win it the loyalty of a key constituency: Andover students. Being affiliated with a secondary school ``has given us many opportunities," says Allen. ``These kids are very bright, very open -- unfettered -- there are few boundaries for them. They're at an age where they're wonderfully receptive to art."

Stella recalls the Addison's role in his development as an artist. ``It's not really English to say it was totally important," Stella says, ``but it was. Its art was the physical reality I could work with, proof that there was something other than what was in my head."

Recognizing the pedagogic value of the Addison, Andover has sought to use the museum throughout the curriculum, not just in art courses. ``I teach in the history department," Chase says, ``which uses it all the time. It's such a wonderful resource to be able to see these images from and of the American past. To learn about the spirit of a time through artworks is an amazing experience for high school students."

Simone Salvo , a sophomore from Gloucester, works part time at the museum as a gallery attendant. She notes that whenever one of her classes has gone to the Addison she sees other classes there, too. ``That's what I love about it. It's part of the Andover campus. But it's also a haven from the rigors of Andover. It's like its own little world."

Both Allen and the Andover administration recognize that being ``its own little world" is fundamental to the appeal of the Addison. ``You can take ownership of it so easily," Allen says of the museum. ``The size is so intimate and the setting is so beautiful." They also recognize the danger of insularity: the Addison as ultimate bauble at a bastion of privilege.

To counter that, the Addison has extensive outreach programs. ``It means going out to community groups, to senior centers, schools, business groups," Allen says. `` `Here's what we do. We're open to the public.' "

The most notable example of outreach is hosting groups from other schools. Last winter's exhibition ``Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century " proved an especially popular draw for student groups, some from as far away as Boston.

Patrick Guerrero , a junior majoring in film and video at Massachusetts College of Art, fondly remembers the many visits he made to the Addison as a student in the Lawrence public schools. He also participated in several artmaking projects with Addison visiting artists, including LeWitt. ``It was inspiring," Guerrero says. ``Absolutely, I owe a lot to the Addison. It really got me connected to art," Guerrero says. ``They're not just providing art in the gallery. They're providing art out in the community, which is very important."

The Addison has always embraced change in the art world, and shown itself quite capable of responding to changes in society. What about changing the museum itself: Will it look very different at its centenary, in 2031?

Clearly, the Addison can't stand still. Allen points to a pressing need for more storage and classroom space. ``And the building at some point soon has to be renovated," he says.

Any expansion of the galleries, though, runs the risk of threatening the Addison's distinctiveness -- of more becoming less. ``Our shows have to be smaller because our space is smaller," Allen says. ``But that gives our visitors a much more intimate and contemplative experience." The Addison has about 10,000 square feet of gallery space. By comparison, the Gardner Museum , another famously personable setting for art, has roughly 39,000 square feet to exhibit its holdings.

It's not as if curators would be hard pressed filling additional wall space with quality art. Yet the Addison's compactness makes it possible to completely change the artwork on display three times a year, a rare boon for regular visitors.

``There's something about the spareness of the Addison," says Case Western's Adams, ``that makes it so special."

Stella, for one, comes down on the side of the status quo. ``In fact," he says with a laugh, ``I don't want the Addison to be any bigger. It's one of those places where expansion is a threat rather than a help."

Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.