• Student Review: Ariel Greene, Washington University

“Photography on the Street”

Currently on view at the Saint Louis  Art Museum, Photography on the Street, showcases a selection of ten works on paper. These prints are displayed on the second floor of the museum in a small gallery where visitors are invited to view the exhibition and surrounding exhibits at their leisure. The selection dates from the 1930s through the 1970s tracks the development and use of smaller, portable cameras—the combination of smaller cameras and faster film allowed artists greater freedom in the medium, enabling them to capture fleeting scenes of urban life. The photos are primarily black and white with the exception of two color prints from the 1960s and 70s. The variety of subject matter ranges from the hardships of post-war depression to the glamour of celebrity culture. Ironically, what these photos have in common is that they portray the isolation and ambiguity that befalls individuals in the midst of city life.

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• Art Organization: Annie Sarachan, Washington University

Staging Old Masters: Former Prisoners Perform at the Pulitzer

Former prisoners became actors and art historians in front of the masterworks currently on display at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in their exhibition, Ideal (Dis)Placement: Old Masters at the Pulitzer.  In preparation for an ongoing succession of shows, the performers took a six-week class led by Prison Performing Arts director Agnes Wilcox.  After writing about their impressions of the art pieces, their own words were made into a series of dramas they acted out in front of the pieces.  The result was a captivating, participatory production that showcased humorous routines of personal histories bravely intertwined with modern day interpretations of the paintings.

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• Student Review: Andrew Flick, Washington University

Pink Balloon Project

When Zoe Hillenmeyer was 16 years old, she was strolling through the streets of Boston reeling over the prospect of transitioning from a young girl to a young adult.  Later that day she ran into a man who gave her a pink balloon.  This seemingly meaningless and childish object brightened her day and eased her fears of the world beyond.  Although strangers stared and ogled at the audacity of carrying such a large and brightly colored object through the crowded streets of Boston, this gift gave her the confidence to face her fears and renewed her faith in the goodness of the human spirit.

Now a Senior Sculpture Major in the Sam Fox School at Washington University, Hillenmeyer seeks to spread the joy of simple gifts around the greater St. Louis area and the world with her independent venture entitled The Pink Balloon Project.  The young artist places pink balloons inflated with helium in random places and attaches to these balloons two things: a small gift worth no more than a few pennies and a note wishing the random recipient a happy day and directing them to the online portal for her project (www.pinkballoonproject.blogspot.com).  On the blog, those who have found a pink balloon are invited to share their story, but they are also invited to participate in this project by placing their own balloons and gifts around St. Louis and the world.

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• Student Review: Kelli Blake, Washington University

A New Look at an Old Story

The Good Friday exhibition, tucked away off of the main walkway of the Saint Louis University campus in the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, displays the works of multiple modern artists, most of which are from the last twenty years.  The artists’ styles vary greatly; the majority of the work is paintings as well as a small representation of sculpture and textiles, ranging the full spectrum from realism to abstraction.  The MOCRA exhibition room is divided into a large central space flanked by three smaller alcoves of on either side.  This division of space serves to create a personal and spiritual experience for the viewer, as each piece is experienced by itself or in the context of a small number of other works.  Even in this modern exhibition, timeless Christian symbols are very prevalent, including Jesus’ crown of thorns and his burial shroud.  Oftentimes these common symbols are in danger of losing the power of their original biblical context.  The exhibition created a meditative space for contemplating the events of Good Friday by creating new meaning from these “overexposed” symbols.

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• Student Review: Nicole Queathem, Washington University

À LOHA

As the wind breezed between the buildings during the last hours of daylight on Friday, April 3, 2009, a lively group of about two hundred people gathered on the patio connecting the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum to Steinberg Hall on the Washington University campus. Sipping on cocktails and munching on crudités, the mostly twenty- and thirty-something crowd bubbled with conversation as jazzy music wafted through the early evening air. A current of excitement seemed to pulse through the whole scene, as this was no ordinary reception before no ordinary lecture at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. Instead, this gathering celebrated the admission of one hundred graduate students to the prestigious art and architecture school. But this party on the patio was simply a prelude. The real treat for these acceptees lay ahead in the lecture to be delivered by Lorcan O’Herlihy, a well-established California architect and head of the LOHA firm, who was invited not only to discuss his successful projects but also to inspire those about to embark on their own architectural journeys. And inspire he did.

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• Student Review: Emily Hishta, Washington University

A Comingling of Individuals: Washington University’s Senior Painting Show

On Friday, April 10 the Des Lee Gallery on Washington Avenue opened the one-weekend show for the Senior Painting Majors of the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University. The show featured the major’s seven current seniors whose work demonstrates a high level of young painting talent. The artwork of these seniors demonstrates an overall trend in the Sam Fox Painting Department of a representational mode of painting—with a particular affinity for the figure—expressed in distinctive individual styles.

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• Student Review: Amelia Modlin, Washington University

Doodles and Surrealism

Ravi Vakil, Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University, gave a lecture at Washington University in St. Louis entitled “The Mathematics of Doodling.”  He actually began his lecture by doodling an outline around the words “The Mathematics of Doodling”. He continued outlining until there were multiple rings of outlines surrounding the words.  His main question about doodling was: “Are the outlines getting more and more circular?  Why?”  After stating this question, he proceeded to reword it with mathematical symbols in order to form an equation that was solvable.  Through various mathematical comparisons and solutions, Vakil concluded that indeed the outlines progressively became more circular.  While this rational and concrete approach to doodling is helpful in mathematical terms, it greatly differs from the spontaneous doodling processes of surrealist artists.

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• Student Review: Hannah Wrangham, Washington University

Claudia Schmacke Speaks at SLAM

Claudia Schmacke’s lecture took place at the Saint Louis Art Museum on April 3rd, directly preceding the opening of her solo exhibition Currents 103. The beginning of the lecture was more poetry than introduction. Schmacke spoke in a darkened room with her film Umbilicus (2006) playing quietly in the background, and the sound of her clear, German voice mingled with the soft sounds of flowing water in the film. The gurgle and drip of the water was a constant undertone to Schmacke’s voice, as she discussed her fascination with liquids, particularly water, and the multitude of ways in which water is important is life. Her language itself was much like water, flowing from once sentence to another in an ethereal, sensuous manner. She described our life experiences as “seeing the world through water spheres”, and made a connection between the fluidity of water and the constant changes that take place in art. Schmacke’s lecture went on to describe several of her previous artworks, in order to provide the audience with the context for her current exhibition, which opened immediately following the lecture.

Umbilicus itself was more than just a backdrop.

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• Student Review: Katherine Foster, Washington University

“The New Ecology of Printmaking”

British art magazine writer and printmaker Richard Noyce’s presentation on “The New Ecology of Printmaking” discussed the constantly evolving field of printmaking, which relies on both traditional techniques and advancing technology. Students, faculty, and members of the St. Louis community gathered in Washington University’s Givens Hall, where Noyce defined the art of printmaking. He connected it to the modern world by relating printmaking to the field of ecology, which is the study of life and interactions between organisms and their environments.

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• Student Review: Anna Roseberry, Washington University

Communication Arts: 50 Years of Change

Hosted by the St. Louis chapter of AIGA, Communication Arts owner and editor, Patrick Coyne spoke Wednesday April 8th before an audience comprised of both budding and experienced designers.  The Washington University and St. Louis design communities came out to Steinberg Auditorium on Washington University’s campus to hear Coyne speak about the foundation and development of the visual arts magazine.

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