(L-R) Philip Guston, Fable I, 1956-57; MFA Thesis Exhibition; Long-Nose Painter, Amphora, 540-525 BC.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is presenting three exhibitions this summer. Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s: Building the Collection at Washington University in St. Louis takes an in-depth look at the collecting history of the Museum with a focus on the 1950s and the works of many modern masters. The work of this year’s Master of Fine Arts candidates in the 2012 MFA Thesis Exhibition provides a look at the contemporary scene and the concept of story is explored in the Teaching Gallery exhibition The Persistence of Myth.

Frederick Hartt and American Abstraction in the 1950s: Building the Collection at Washington University in St. Louis
May 4, 2012 – August 27, 2012
Kemper Art Museum, Garen Gallery

2012 MFA Thesis Exhibition
May 4, 2012 – August 6, 2012
Kemper Art Museum, Ebsworth Gallery

The Persistence of Myth
May 4, 2012 – August 12, 2012
Kemper Art Museum, Teaching Gallery

The event will feature the world premiere of original compositions by University of Missouri students Grant Fonda, Joe Hills, and Joseph Weidinger, each of whom has created a new piece that attempts to capture the aural essence of one of the three Great Rivers Biennial artists’ projects. The Mizzou New Music Ensemble, directed by University of Missouri associate professor Stefan Freund, will perform all three compositions, along with Ad Parnassum, a piece by 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky that was inspired by sketches by artist Paul Klee.

“There’s been a historic link between the visual and musical arts, and we’re glad to be able to continue that tradition,” said Freund. “Any time we have an off-campus performance, it’s an opportunity for our composers and performers to step out of the academic world and into the real world. That’s a valuable experience for them.”

“Collaborating with CAM provides an interesting challenge for these bright, young composers, while also introducing their talents to new audiences,” said Jeanne Sinquefield of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, which provides financial support for the Mizzou New Music Initiative. “Composers want their music to be performed in front of audiences. Forging alliances like this one is another way our new music programs in Missouri are helping them achieve their aspirations.”

Presented in partnership with Gateway Foundation, Great Rivers Biennial 2012 is organized by CAM and curated by Kelly Shindler, Assistant Curator. The exhibition will be on view May 11 – August 12, 2012. Opening Night for the exhibition is Friday, May 11, 2012, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

CAM is pleased to host the 7th Annual City-Wide Open Studios, a week-long event in July dedicated to the discovery of the hidden spaces where local artists work.

Eligible artists must maintain working studios in St. Louis City, University City, or Maplewood to participate in the program, and must be able to open their studios to the public from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on either Saturday, July 28 or Sunday, July 29, 2012. CAM will allocate, based upon neighborhood, which day your studio will be open.

On a first-come-first-served basis, a limited number of studio spaces will also be made available at an alternate venue to those artists whose studios lie outside the prescribed limits or those that do not have traditional studio practices. These spaces will function as “pop-up studios” as well as “project spaces” for artists wishing to engage audiences in performative, installation, new media, participatory, or other works.

CWOS is open to all artists working in every discipline (traditional and non-traditional). CAM highly encourages artists to share spaces or participate collectively in the program. Artists must pay the registration fee as an individual, but can share the same studio/address. Art organizations that promote and/or support local artists via studios and other means are also welcome to participate in the program.

In addition to promoting a tour of your studio, CAM will display ONE work from your collection at the Open Studios Preview from July 24-29. Please note, the artworks act as a small representation of an artists’ studio practice. The Open Studios Preview allows visitors a glimpse into an artists’ practice and enables them to plan their weekend itinerary based upon the physical artworks they are most interested in. Because of the volume of artworks received, 2-D works will be hung salon-style and 3-D works will be organized appropriately within the limited floor space. ONE artwork can be delivered to CAM between July 17-22. Artwork will NOT be accepted after July 22 at 3pm. Artists are responsible for insurance coverage in their own studios. Please make sure your space is safe and free of hazards.

Each registered artist will:

• Be included in the CWOS Preview Party at CAM
• Be included on the CWOS website
• Be included on the CWOS map, distributed by St. Louis Magazine, CAM, and online
• Receive postcards promoting the event to mail

Click here to register.  Registration is due by Monday, April 30, 2012.

Jewelry by Sherri Jaudes. Photo courtesy of the artist

Coffee and Conversations:

The art of collecting is truly child’s play. Boys and girls have no qualms about collecting everything and anything–stones, rocks, stamps, tiny characters, rubber bands–and the only criteria is that they collect what they like. Collecting art, however, can be intimidating to adults who may feel overwhelmed by the process of deciding who, what, when and even why, to collect.

A new series of workshops offered by Laumeier Sculpture Park is designed to demystify the process by offering practical tips and resources along with discussions led by local artists, art dealers and art experts.

“We want to offer our members and visitors the chance to ask questions and engage in discussions with experts, that eliminate any fear or doubt when it comes to collecting art,” said Kara Pollnow, Laumeier’s registrar/collections manager and organizer of the series.  “Our goal is to provide enough information so that potential collectors feel confident taking the first step toward starting their own personal collection.”

“The first step for new collectors is getting over the idea that they need to have a background in art in order to “properly” collect,” said Mark Howald, Executive VP at Ivey-Selkirk Auctioneers.  “It starts with determining your personal taste, and once that is established, it’s about developing relationships with art dealers and experts who can steer you towards artists that create pieces that fit into your style.”

Three workshops will be offered in the Museum Galleries at Laumeier between March and May, each focusing on one type of art:

Saturday, March 17, 10 am–12 pm The Art of Collecting: Jewelry
Increase your knowledge of 20th century jewelry and gain insight into one of the most collected and wearable forms of artistic expression.  Artist Sherri Jaudes will share pieces of her own creation and discuss the fundamentals of metalsmithing and jewelry making, while a local jewelry expert will discuss the history of jewelry design and its market, focusing on the most collected eras from several historical periods to the 1950s.

Saturday, April 21, 10 am–12 pm The Art of Collecting: Prints
Learn the basics of printmaking and publishing with Joan Hall, artist, professor and former Director of Island Press, a research-based printmaking workshop at Washington University. Guests will discuss the ever-changing market and the appeal of printmaking as a highly collectible art form.

Saturday, May 19, 10 am–12 pm The Art of Collecting: Sculpture
As more and more sculpture parks pop up across the country, art collectors are taking a fresh look at an artistic practice that Laumeier has celebrated for 35 years.  Marilu Knode, Executive Director at Laumeier Sculpture Park, discusses the history and evolution of sculptural practices in the 20th century. Mark Howald of Ivey-Selkirk Auctioneers will take a closer look at the market trends and why this art form has such a widespread appeal to private and public collectors.

Registration is now open at www.laumeier.org or by calling 314-615-5269.

Archie Granot, The Papercut Haggadah, Page 46. 1998-2007. Collection of Sandra and Max Thurm. Courtesy of the artist.

Haggadah (הַגָּדָה) is Hebrew for “telling,” namely, the telling of the Exodus story at the Seder service during the Jewish festival of Pesach, or Passover. The term also signifies a book that contains the ritual guide to the Seder, along with scripture passages, commentary, prayers, and songs. For centuries the Haggadah has been one of the most celebrated items of Jewish literature and art, and there are many examples of both handwritten and printed Haggadot with intricate illustrations. In each generation artists continue the tradition of reinterpreting the Haggadah for contemporary believers.

Commissioned by Sandra and Max Thurm, Archie Granot’s Papercut Haggadah was handcrafted using the Jewish folk art tradition of papercutting. The result is a series of 55 pages that employ intricate geometric and abstract shapes and calligraphic text to create an exquisite version of the Haggadah.

Granot evokes the intense emotions attached with the Passover Seder by utilizing geometric and abstract shapes instead of the usual symbols. Every word of Hebrew text in his Haggadah is handcut, with each page standing as both an independent work of art and a single piece of a beautiful, thematically unified whole. Each page of his multi-layered paper pieces (some nearly an inch thick) tackles a certain aspect or song associated with the Seder, such as “Ma Nishtanah” (מה נשתנה, The Four Questions), or “Pesach, Matzah, Maror” (פֶּסַח, The Passover Offering; מַצָּה, the Unleavened Bread; and מָרוֹר, the Bitter Herb), which incorporates shapes that evoke the traditional matzah.

Archie Granot was born in London in 1946 and moved to Israel in 1967. Prior to settling in Jerusalem in 1978, he was a member of an agricultural community where he milked cows and grew melons. He earned a M.Phil. in Russian Studies from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and a B.A. in Political Science and Russian Studies from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Granot started papercutting in 1979, and maintains a studio and gallery in Jerusalem. Many of his papercuts carry a reminder of the Holy City, a source of his inspiration, and he often employs texts that relate to Israel, Judaism, and Judaica. Granot has had solo exhibitions in the United States, Israel, and Germany, and has participated in group exhibitions in France and Japan. His works are found in public collections in Israel, Germany, England, and the United States, as well as numerous private collections.

(L-R) John Stezaker, Balázs Kicsiny: Killing Time, and Art and the Mind-Brain installation shots.

The galleries of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum are buzzing with activity as installation of three compelling exhibitions nears completion.

The photographic collages of London artist, John Stezaker, employ classic movie stills, vintage postcards, book illustrations and other found materials to bring new meanings to old pictures. Adjusting, inverting and slicing them together to create collages that are at once captivating and unsettling, eerie and elegant, nostalgic and absurd in the first U.S. museum exhibition of this influential artist’s work.

Hungarian artist, Balázs Kicsiny, has created an installation that explores the nature of service through unconventional three-dimensional representations of the army, the circus and the restaurant. In Killing Time, Kicsiny both investigates and conflates these institutions and their raisons d’être—to protect or kill, to entertain and to feed—immersing viewers in fragmentary, disquieting and sometimes absurdist narratives that challenge assumptions about who is serving whom, and to what purpose.

This season’s Teaching Gallery exhibition is curated by Mark Rollins, professor of philosophy, in conjunction with his course “Art and the Mind-Brain,” offered by Washington University’s School of Arts & Sciences in spring 2012. The exhibition presents works from the Kemper Art Museum’s collection by Joseph Albers, Romare Bearden, Georges Braque, Tom Friedman, Naum Gabo, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miró, Rembrandt van Rijn, and others that reveal important aspects of how we see and think.

The three exhibitions open Friday, January 27, 2012 with a member’s preview from 6-7 p.m. and a public reception from 7-9 p.m.
On Saturday, January 28, the Kemper Art Museum will host a panel discussion with Stezaker, Karen Butler, assistant curator of collections, and Michael Newman, associate professor of art history, theory and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, at 11 a.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.
Kicsiny will lecture about his work at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, January 30, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium as part of the Sam Fox School Public Lecture Series.
Mark Rollins will offer a gallery talk of Art and the Mind-Brain in the Bernoudy Permanent Collection Gallery on March 7 at 5 p.m.

John Stezaker
January 27, 2012 – April 23, 2012
Kemper Art Museum, Ebsworth Gallery

Balázs Kicsiny: Killing Time
January 27, 2012 – April 16, 2012
Kemper Art Museum, Garen Gallery

Art and the Mind-Brain
January 27, 2012 – April 16, 2012
Kemper Art Museum, Teaching Gallery

If you’ve driven past White Flag Projects lately, you may have noticed our new banner featuring Jeremiah, a print from Tommy Hartung’s recent show Anna at On Stellar Rays in New York. The eponymous film will be on view in White Flag Projects’ new exhibition“Tommy Hartung & Uri Aran”. Hartung’s film takes its inspiration from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina. On the surface the film might appear to have a tentative connection to the source material, as Hartung does not borrow characters or scenes directly from the novel. Through a combination of different film languages, Hartung explores the themes that permeate the novel in a manner that resonates with contemporary societal issues.

Hartung’s actors are dismembered mannequins created from a wide range of materials that evoke the desperation and alienation of the titular Anna Karenina. The mannequins are clothed in a manner recalling the garb of peasants; their labor in the film recalls Tolstoy’s romanticization of the working class. Words like “dejected”, “dismal”, and “haunted” appear frequently in the reviews of the show, reflecting both the material aspect of Hartung’s actors and his eerily lit set, and echoing Hartung’s statement that the film incorporates “a language like that used in horror films.”

In addition to the stop-motion animation of the mannequins, the film includes superimposed clips from the Soviet film Earth and computer simulations, introducing a political element. Hartung’s inclusion of socialist realist clips and crowd imagery comments on the tendency of movements to create a political entity out of certain romantic ideals. The unsatisfied nature of his mannequins seems to point out how little this process serves individuals.

Hartung’s incorporation of varied materials and film styles seems to extend seamlessly into the environment in which the film is viewed. In the exhibition at On Stellar Rays,Anna was accompanied by a selection of sculptural objects that were created from elements of the film’s sets. Hartung utilized mannequin figures, various props, pieces of the set, and a camera track system used for panning shots. As in previous works, Hartung’s creative process is as much a part of the final piece as the film itself, and the viewer is drawn into that process and the unique environment that Hartung has created.

Anna and other works by Tommy Hartung will be on view at White Flag Projects in the exhibition “Tommy Hartung & Uri Aran.” The exhibition will open with a reception from 6-8 PM on Thursday, January 19 and will remain on view until February 18, 2012. For more information on this exhibit and other upcoming events at White Flag, please visitWhite Flag Projects.

(1/17/12 by Stephanie Trimboli, Intern)

Colen, a “multimedia neo-pop artist of his generation” belongs to a group of bohemian rabble-rousers from downtown New York that includes Ryan McGinley, Nate Lowman, Aaron Young, Agathe Snow and the now-deceased Dash Snow — many of whom have work in WF’s Karma pop-up show. The group generally betrays graffiti and skate culture influences and, though there was early critical skepticism, has had a defining impact on the art culture of this millennium’s first decade.

Over the past several years Dan Colen has seen enormous success, appearing in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, at P.S.1, and the New Museum in New York, among many others. Gagosian Gallery New York mounted a solo show in 2010 that confirmed Colen’s already dynamic presence in the art world. His “slacker chic”-style artworks include painting series of Disney-inspired candles and pieces made to look like bird droppings, artworks made from gum, and his more recent “Trash” series – of which the WFP installation is a part.

And his work isn’t without controversy. One particularly inflamatory poster showed the artist draping a Jewish tallit over his erect penis, which he plastered all over Berlin. Many of the posters were removed, but Colen was unphased by the response. Perhaps his current use of trash is a response to his critics, a “you-think-my-art’s-trash-I’ll-show-you-trash” attitude.

Whatever the qualitative appraisal is, Colen and his friends never fail to fascinate and intrigue. They seem to be perpetuating the myth of the hard-living New York artist, à la Nan Goldin, who constantly breathes art.

Karma’s pop-up shop will open Friday, December 16 from 7-9 PM and remain on view for the weekend — including Saturday, December 17 and Sunday, December 18 from 12-5 PM. For more information, please visit our website at www.whiteflagprojects.org.

(12/16/11 by Allison Fricke, Intern)

A gouache painting by Mamie Tinkler reads “It’s the economy, stupid” in black text on a white background. Its sleek appearance is undermined by a black paint streak across the letter “t” in “stupid” – a painterly “error” that functions similarly to the phrase itself – coined by James Carville – which undermined the pettiness of partisan politics during Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. At once artful and earnest, the piece is a kind of protest sign, channeling the artist’s own political frustration as well as a sense of throw-back liberalism, half-1968 and half-1992.

In dialogue with Tinkler is Charlotte Posenenske and Lee Lozano, two mid-Century artists who grew so disenchanted with art’s inability to affect real social change that they abandoned the art world entirely. Cut of the same cloth while adopting a more Warholian approach, Jonathan Horowitz’s façade banner Coke/Pepsi (112 Cans) – designed specifically for this exhibition – questions the true of nature democratic choice, as it has been reduced to brand diversity.

The exhibition begs a comparison to the current Occupy Wall Street movement (which has established itself here in St. Louis). Both the OWS movement and Day of the Locust call into question aspects of the American economy, and more recently, the relevancy of art. A small offshoot of the OWS movement called Occupy Museums targets museums on the basis of their perceived cultural elitism and allegedly incestuous relationship with the 1%.

As we approach a new election year and the economy verges nearer collapse, Clinton’s campaign slogan strikes a fresh, national nerve. Perhaps the role of idealism is to sate America’s constant search for purpose and belonging. Or, maybe its purpose is to re-set the rapid pendulum swings from one extreme to another – underscoring the basic necessity of common sense.

Day of the Locust will be on view Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 5 PM until December 10th, 2011. For more information, please see our website.

(11/17/11 by Allison Fricke, Intern