Dear Friends of the Gallery,

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I am writing to announce a new chapter in HYG with the creation of Anderson Yezerski Gallery with Renee Anderson.
When Renee asked me to say a few words describing how I got to where I am after 55 years it took me some time to sort out my journey. It started with me and my first business partner, David Sullivan, deciding to open a gallery in Andover, MA not knowing anything about what we were doing. It is said that if you know too much nothing would get done. We were young and confident. For me, once we got started I was hooked. We began by concentrating on artists who lived in Rockport, MA. I loved going to their studios and talking with them about their work. Our partnership didn’t last very long because Sullivan was more interested in making paintings than sitting in a gallery.

As luck would have it, an important part of my education was my discovery of The Addison Gallery of American Art on the campus of Phillips Academy, a private prep school where the elite sent their children to be educated. The Director at the time was Christopher Cook, an incredibly generous person who was willing to share his knowledge of the museum's collection. Another important person was Kelly Wise who introduced me to Photography. Kelly taught in the English department at Phillips and was the Boston Globe’s photo critic. Both of those individuals were very important to me in furthering my education and both made art – Chris paintings and Kelly photographs.

Around the late 1970s I was getting more confident about the work I was showing and made an appointment with Kenworth Moffett, the curator of contemporary art at the MFA Boston. I brought images of work I was showing and after looking at them he asked me why I was showing New York taste in Andover. It was that question that made me decide to move the gallery to Boston which I did in 1988.

I moved to the leather district at 186 South Street which was a scary time because I quickly realized that having a gallery in the suburbs and having one in Boston was a completely different experience. I started thinking of what I could do to set myself apart from the other galleries.

While I was having my car serviced in North Reading I was reading NewsWeek when I came across an article on John Coplans. The work was tough and smart and I decided to call him. I told him how much I loved the work which was an exaggeration and he invited me to his studio. I later found out that Coplans sent relatives living locally to Boston to the gallery to check me out.

This turned out to be an incredible connection. He was brilliant having been a founding editor of Art Forum Magazine, and a curator showing artists like Andy Warhol and other pop artists on the West coast. Having grown bored with the work at Akron Art Museum in Ohio, Coplans moved to NYC where he eventually began making photographs of his aging body. After struggling for several years his work was finally getting attention. I started showing the work every two years and we had a great run.

After my five-year lease was up on South Street, I moved to 11 Newbury Street, 14 Newbury Street, and finally 460 Harrison Avenue where I still am. I tell people I measure my life in 5-year leases.

Now Renee is on board for the continuation of the gallery and will start her own journey. I am excited that she will be a part of it and will be adding her voice to the history of it all.