Image from "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" documentary.

Last month I was given the opportunity to serve as Guest Blogger for the Art21 Blog. For those unfamiliar with the blog, it was initially founded to provide further reading on the artists featured in the PBS documentary series, Art in the Twenty-First Century. In recent years, the blog has broadened its scope beyond the documentary series, and has become a forum for international contemporary art, reaching over 50,000 readers every month. During my two-week tenure as Guest Blogger I was given the freedom to write about any topic that I desired, keeping in mind that the blog reached both national and international audiences.

With this daunting task in mind, I used the blog as an opportunity to showcase the diverse cultural initiatives that have helped to redefine St. Louis’s identity over the past decade. Oftentimes, it is tempting to perceive mid-size Midwestern cities as the homogeneous products of post-industrialism. However, having called many Midwestern cities my home, I feel that such a mindset fails to acknowledge the unique populations, traditions, and industries that have shaped the city’s identity. Though St. Louis may not be the center of the contemporary art world, the city has bred and attracted artists whose socially-based practices address issues that resound beyond our city limits. Throughout my four blog posts, I question how we reconcile the city’s unfavorable economic indicators—such as the recent population decline—with the enormous cultural growth that St. Louis has experienced during the past decade alone.

In an attempt to better understand the role that the city’s identity plays in our cultural practices, I met with ten different artists, social workers, and community activists during the weeks leading up to my stint as Guest Blogger. These individuals included: Juan William Chávez, Theaster Gates, students and professors from the Brown School of Social Work, alums of the Community Arts Training Institute, and Roseann Weiss. Rather than paving over St. Louis’s complex history, each individual I met with actively considers the city’s opportunities and challenges, proposing responsible methods for cultural regeneration.

I invite you to visit the Art21 Blog to learn more about the individuals and initiatives that are working to re-imagine the cultural landscape of St. Louis, moving our city’s cultural achievements beyond local discussions and into international circles.

South African artist William Kentridge talks about Max Beckmann’s manipulation of physical space and its influence on his work. Max Beckmann’s The Dream is on view in the exhibition Dreamscapes. Watch the rest of this panel discussion on the Pulitzer’s YouTube channel.

What’s happening this month and some recent Pulizer highlights:

Panel Discussion on Psychology of Dreams
Thursday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 7:00 p.m.)

The artist Max Ernst noted that painting gave “objective form to what is visible inside him.” This panel explores the varied and complex symbolism of dreams from different traditions in Western psychology. Panelists will introduce their particular traditions and then interpret some of the artworks in the exhibition as they would dreams.
Panelists include:
Britt-Marie Schiller, Dean, Faculty Member at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute and Professor of Philosophy at Webster University, St. Louis

Rose Holt, Jungian analyst in private practice in St. Louis and Chicago and active in the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago Analyst Training Program

Moderator:

Francesca Herndon-Consagra, Senior Curator, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

Social Dream Matrix

Saturday, April 9, 1:00 p.m.

Art therapist Shelly Goebl-Parker and artists Hap Phillips and Nita Turnage lead a dream matrix. The act of dreaming is normally a solitary one. Through dream matrices, it becomes a shared experience, building a small temporary community when participants enter a dream matrix together. Sharing dreams in this way enables the discovery of new meaning and significance in dreams. The dream matrices are followed by art making as a way to reflect on newfound discoveries, reflections and inspirations. 
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The Sheldon Art Galleries announces the opening of five new exhibits on February 18 with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception from 5 – 8 p.m.  New exhibits include  Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire – 50 Years in Photography and two related exhibitions by German-born painter Max Lazarus.  For a complete listing, visit www.TheSheldon.org/galleries.asp or RSVP for the opening on Facebook!

While Brandon Anschultz was preparing for his upcoming show at Laumeier Sculpture Park, I was lucky enough to observe the construction (or deconstruction) of what I consider to be one of his most intriguing pieces—Approximately 1350 hours of painting and 2 hours of wood chipping. While I waited with Anschultz for the wood chipper to arrive at Laumeier, we discussed his show, and specifically the piece he was working on that day.

I couldn’t hide my horrified expression when I saw the back of his truck piled high with paintings, all sawed into five inch strips, in preparation for their demise. He showed me a painting that had been exhibited in New York, laid the pieces on the ground, shrugged his shoulders and suggested that he actually preferred it sawed apart. I asked why he was destroying work that he liked. “It’s just part of the process,” he replied. That’s when I began to understand that with Anschultz’s work, the process is as important as the finished product.

When he started up the wood chipper and began feeding his paintings into it one strip at a time, I snapped a few pictures. I couldn’t watch for long—it almost seemed intrusive for me to witness simultaneously the destruction of past work and the creation of new work.

If you would like to view the finished work, Approximately 1350 hours of painting and 2 hours of wood chipping, and meet the artist, attend the opening reception of Stick Around for Joy on Friday, June 11 from 6-8 p.m. at Laumeier’s Indoor Galleries.

— Rebecca Lee, Laumeier Intern

Brandon Anschultz: Stick Around for Joy, runs from June 11-September 26, 2010 at Laumeier Sculpture Park.

On Monday, November 9 at 6:30 pm, renowned art history scholar Yve-Alain Bois will lecture in Steinberg Auditorium, adjacent to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University. A specialist in 20th-century European and American art, Bois is recognized as an expert on a wide range of artists, from Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso to Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman, and Ellsworth Kelly. His talk is titled “Chance Encounters: John Cage, François Morellet, Ellsworth Kelly.”

Bois has curated and co-curated numerous influential exhibitions, including Piet Mondrian, A Retrospective (1994-95); L’informe, mode d’emploi (1996); and Matisse and Picasso: A Gentle Rivalry (1999). His books include Matisse and Picasso (1998), for which he received the Alfred H. Barr award in 2001; Formless: A User’s Guide (with Rosalind Krauss, 1998); Painting as Model (1990); and Art Since 1900 (with Benjamin Buchloh, Hal Foster, and Rosalind Krauss, 2004). Bois is currently a faculty member at the School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

The lecture is presented in conjunction with the special exhibition Chance Aesthetics now on view at the Kemper Art Museum, and is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History and Archaeology. The talk is free and open to the public, and will be preceded by a reception at 6 pm in Steinberg Hall.

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HOT OFF the PRESS!  Boot Print Volume 3 Issue 1 begins as usual with the Boots shows. First comes Turkish artist, Serkan Ozkaya with this breath taking installation entitled A Sudden Gust of Wind by Liz Wolfson; followed by Slinger II curated by Cole Root and discussed by Juan William Chávez.

Then Boot Print pays tribute to Ernest Trova, Tom Friedman and Larry Krone – St. Louis’ finest established artists interviewed by three emerging artists based in the city namely Matt Strauss, Juan William Chávez and Brandon Anschultz.

This issue’s Study Section focuses on groups, collectives and collaboratives that are space-free. The key notion here is the camaraderie among a creative group of individuals working under an umbrella name. Whether artists, curators or activists, they make it happen. Boot Print is proud to present: The Guerrilla Girls by Virginia MacKenny; Temporary Services by Tim Ridlen; What, How and for Whom by Danyel M. Ferrari; Raqs Media Collective by Ashok Mathur; Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries by Kelly Shindler; and Avant Car Guard, Doing It For Daddy and Galerie Puta by Robert Sloon.

And finally, Georgia Kotretsos talks to the creators of Magazine Forte – a sound magazine, which is about to commence in September 2009 from New York City and to Pablo Helguera about Artoons – his latest book of art related cartoons.

Click Here to Start  Downloading  Boot Print

Make plans to stop by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum before Monday, July 27 so you don’t miss the summer 2009 exhibitions. In Rirkrit Tiravanija: Chew the Fat, the artist films conversations with twelve international artists of his generation who rose to prominence in the 1990s. This resulting video installation, originally produced for the Guggenheim’s exhibition theanyspacewhatever (October 24, 2008 January 7, 2009), captures each artist in an intimate setting, resulting in a series of fascinating and intimate portraits. The interviews are displayed on multiple monitors installed throughout the gallery, which is transformed into a laid-back viewing lounge. The featured artists include Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Elizabeth Peyton, Tobias Rehberger, and Andrea Zittel.

Read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch review >>

Watch the trailer:

In addition, see the 2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition, featuring the work of twenty-seven master of fine arts candidates in Washington University’s Graduate School of Art, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. And don’t forget to head upstairs to check out the Museum’s recently-reinstalled Portraiture section of the permanent collection gallery.

This Friday, June 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm the Regional Arts Commission is hosting a Tweet-up in conjunction with its opening of its Time Well Spent exhibition, followed by an afterparty at Eclipse, the rooftop bar at the new Moonrise hotel. As far as I know, this is the first visual arts event in St. Louis that directly incorporates Twitter and social media–and although I tweet (@kemperartmuseum) old-school, from my desktop instead of some fancy-pants mobile device, I am still curious to see how this will work and what the audience interaction will bring to the event.

RAC has also provided a handy tool on its website called Arts Tweet St. Louis, a rolling compendium of tweets from arts organizations around town, and a great way for those unfamiliar with Twitter to “dip your toes in,” so to speak, given the ability to follow some tweets and see what the tool is all about without even having to sign-up and login to an individual account.

As always you can find a whole lineup of more local arts events coming up this weekend through RAC’s ArtsZipper calendar; but, if you do happen to be on this end of town please feel free to stop by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, which is just around the corner from RAC and the Delmar loop, and open until 8 pm on Fridays. In addition to the permanent collection gallery we have two special exhibitions on display, including the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija called Chew the Fat — a video installation featuring interviews between Tiravanija and a dozen of his prominent artist friends. For a preview you can watch the video trailer on our YouTube channel, or read a recent interview excerpt between Tiravanija and Yoko Ono published in Artforum.

Please feel free to leave any of your suggestions for upcoming arts events in the comments…

Don’t miss two newly installed paintings by Cindy Tower, Jarvic, 2006 and Christmas, 2005, in Cindy Tower: Riding the Rubble Down in the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Gallery at the Sheldon Art Galleries. The exhibition has been extended through May 16, 2009.  The switch was made because two of Cindy’s paintings in the Sheldon’s original exhibition were juried into two important exhibitions in Chicago in conjunction with Art Chicago and the NEXT Art Fair.  NEXT is an international showcase for emerging artists, with commercial galleries and non-commercial organizations participating from all over the world.  NEXT includes works from both commercial and non-commercial arts organizations. Tower’s work will be featured with other artists at the Bruno David Gallery booth # 7-8113 between May 1 and May 4, with a preview reception on April 30. Visit the NEXT Art Fair website.

Cindy Tower was also invited to participate in the exhibition Partisan, curated by Mary Jane Jacob, executive director of exhibitions at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, mounted in conjunction with Art Chicago® 2009. Partisan is a special exhibition of works by artists that explore social and political ideas.  The exhibition will initiate a “dialogue about art, activism and social change,” and will “…provide a critical and challenging space of thought provoking and project-oriented works within an art fair context.” Art Chicago, the annual international fair of contemporary and modern art, brings together the world’s leading emerging and established galleries. Art Chicago is open to the public from May 1 – 4 with a preview reception on April 30. Visit the Art Chicago website at www.artchicago.com.  Congratulations Cindy!