Prints and drawings by Niels Yde Andersen enter the museum collection

Niels Yde Andersen, who was born in Copenhagen, received little formal training in the arts. The self-taught printmaker became skilled in both drypoint and lithography. He was educated as an architect/engineer in Denmark and Germany and in 1912 came to the U.S. where he excelled as a blast furnace designer in the steel industry. Because of his knowledge and skill, he was asked to travel to Moscow in 1931 as the Senior Design Engineer for one of the world’s largest steel plants, The Magnitogrosk (“Magnet Mountain”) in the Ural District. When he returned, he joined the Buffalo Print Club and became one of its most prominent and artistic members.

Andersen married Birthe Rasmussen, the niece of Denmark’s most famous composer, Carl Nielsen. Busy with his career and family of six, Andersen seized available moments for his art, with drypoint becoming his favorite medium. When traveling, he would carry a printing plate and needle so he could work on his etchings in hotel lobbies. Many of his prints won prizes in exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York and Buffalo. The Library of Congress purchased prints with its famous Pennell Fund, and works were also purchased by The Society of American Etchers and Museum of Foreign Arts in Moscow. Andersen also held membership in the Patteran Society, The Engineering Society of Buffalo, and Society of American Etchers.

Andersen’s work can be divided into five categories: (1) a nostalgic look at his youth in Denmark, (2) a glimpse of his domestic life, (3) his experiences in Russia, (4) the industrial scenes of Buffalo experienced firsthand through the steel industry, and (5) miniatures that sometimes had religious themes. His treatment of his subjects ranged from humor to social critique. Full Dinner Pails, for example, was created during the Depression and features the Huntley steam plant on River Road near Buffalo. Seven men holding humble dinner pails approach the imposing industrial site, dominated by eight smokestacks spewing dark plumes of smoke. Following his death, fellow Print Club members honored him with a memorial exhibition at the Albright Art Gallery in 1954.

The quality and range of work that was generously donated by Andersen’s son, Andrew, provides a comprehensive survey of the artist’s career, which was first featured in the museum’s 1988 exhibition Kevin B. O’Callahan and the Buffalo Print Club.

Nancy Weekly
Head of Collections and the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator

Email Nancy at weeklyns@buffalostate.edu.

Nancy Weekly is the Head of Collections and the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator for the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the world’s only museum dedicated to American watercolor master Charles E. Burchfield and artists of the Buffalo Niagara region. She also serves as an adjunct lecturer in Museum Studies for the Department of History and Social Studies Education at Buffalo State College.