Essay by Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Paul Andrew Anderson graduated from Augustana College in 1971 with a double major in Business Administration and Economics, earning an MS degree in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University in 1973. He was highly successful at commodity trading, becoming a full member of the Chicago Board of Trade at the young age of twenty-seven. He was elected President of Ferguson Grain in 1977 and by 1987, began to reduce his trading activity in order to devote more time to other interests. In 1980 when Paul was thirty years old, he met Allen Schuh and they enjoyed a committed gay partnership until Paul's death from AIDS in 1992.

According to Allen Schuh, Paul established the Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts so that the beauty and intellectual stimulation of the visual arts would have a strong and lasting presence at Augustana. He wanted students to see original works of art in person and become knowledgeable about the aesthetics, meaning and history of that art within a supportive academic environment. Augustana's art collection reflects this alumnus' profound vision, ranging historically from ancient through contemporary and representing diverse cultures. These resources enhance Augustana's teaching mission through projects such as Liberal Arts through the AGES, supported through the Paul A. Anderson Chair.

Paul Anderson was an astute art collector who built an impressive personal collection, particularly focused on the artistic response to the AIDS epidemic. Many of these works, such as Untitled by David Moreno, deal with the sobering tragedy left in the wake of this deadly disease. Allen Schuh donated the two ancient Roman glass pieces in this book (web gallery 5A and 5B)-originally gifted from Allen to Paul-as well as this contemporary work by Moreno from Paul's own collection of contemporary art related to AIDS topics. Moreno, like many modern artists, creates conceptual works with multiple associations. He also demonstrates twentieth-century experimentation with multi-media, including found objects and collage. In this context, the very real wooden matchsticks are carefully aligned in eleven horizontal rows, recalling such multiplied images as Andy Warhol's Pop art Campbell's Soup Cans.

Yet there is more to Moreno's work than the sleek finish of commercial art. The matchsticks are distinct and individual while their assemblage is linked and softened by a gossamer skin of silk. Furthermore, upon closer analysis, the matchstick rows are dissected by scientific, anatomical texts, perhaps related to autopsy, that commence with: "We shall suppose in the first place, a vertical section of the skull and the spine to be made, so as to lay open their cavities." From a distance, the work's immediate impression suggests Color Field and Minimalist paintings. But further examination implies that Moreno was also commenting on the current state of the AIDS epidemic when medical and political progress appeared stalled. Each individual connects as a bridge to a larger community, whether local or global, while the virility of the spread of disease seemed to go unchecked. Both the artist, Moreno, and the collector, Paul Anderson, called for greater compassion and research to spare humanity from such an inferno.