Art under the Arch - revitalized art scene in St. Louis, Missouri

Art in America, July, 2001 by Ann Wilson Lloyd

New and revitalized institutions, along with world-class architecture and public sculpture, are adding punch to the St. Louis art scene.

In considering the St. Louis art scene, "I think you have to start with the arch. It is probably the most significant sculpture of the 20th century," says Emily Rauh Pulitzer, a major art patron in St. Louis whose much-anticipated Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts will open on Oct. 13. In an earlier role as a public-art activist, Pulitzer played a major part in bringing to the city Richard Serra's 1982 sculpture Twain, which was deliberately placed on a downtown sight line centered on the vast portal.

Eero Saarinen's 631-foot-tall stainless-steel parabolic arch, commemorating the city's role in 19th-century westward migration, was begun in 1947 and finished in 1966. As Pulitzer notes, this awesome blend of art and architecture still looms large over the city. It has inspired, besides Serra, such artists as Eleanor Antin, who last August installed 100 Boots Come to St. Louis, another in her ongoing series, at its base. Most recently, Catherine Opie included a distant view of the arch, just beyond the 1874 steel-truss Eads Bridge (another engineering landmark), in a series of streetscape photos created during a fall 2000 residency cohosted by the St. Louis Art Museum and Washington University. The arch also influenced the artists and designers involved with the MetroLink light rail system, which was begun in the late 80's. In aspects ranging from bridge buttresses to station shelter canopies, the designs subtly quoted its soaring curves.

But, as city tourist brochures claim, there's more to St. Louis than the arch. Arts institutions here are raising their profiles with ambitious programming and/or major building projects by important architects, and arts leaders say the community is starting to embrace contemporary art from the local to the international. For example, MetroLink's Arts in Transit program commissioned Olafur Eliasson to create a permanent light installation in a train tunnel, and a new percent-for-art program will ensure future projects by regional and more widely known artists as the system expands.

Grand Center in Transition

Much buzz is being generated by the building projects of the Pulitzer Foundation and the Forum for Contemporary Art, both located in the still-gritty midtown arts district called Grand Center. The sleek, rectilinear, low-rise Pulitzer facility is the first public American building by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995. Plans specify a 25,600-square-foot building with 11,450 square feet of exhibition space; the cost will be $17 million. It will house Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.'s stellar modern and contemporary collection, which includes Miro, Monet, Rodin, Modigliani, Picasso, Serra, Kelly, Lichtenstein and Warhol.

Emily Pulitzer, his widow, was a curator at the St. Louis Art Museum before her marriage. She takes pains to call the institution a private foundation, not a museum, a designation that has caused some stir locally and caught the attention of a New York Times reporter. In a Jan. 15, 2001, article about the Pulitzer Foundation, Doreen Carvajal raised questions of elitism and limited public access. She quoted Emily Pulitzer as saying that the audience would be "broader than first envisioned, although still limited in numbers. For normal viewing, I suspect 50 at one time would be about as many as the building could comfortably hold. I see this as a kind of alternative viewing experience, just as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or the Barnes Foundation are wonderful experiences. You wouldn't want all art to be seen that way, but it's a very special experience."

When I spoke with her earlier, Emily Pulitzer told me that the project was still under construction, therefore off-limits to the public. She said its program is still evolving, and the board has yet to decide on policy regarding open days and admittance numbers (the Foundation's PR firm could say no more in May, as this article went to press). Many people in the St. Louis art community are excited about the project; none mentioned to me the issues raised by the Times article. Most were eager to talk about the Ando building and how it would raise architectural awareness in the city, and also about the attractions of the important modernist collection. The art community also talked about the addition to the scene of a new Serra sculpture. This is a commissioned Torqued Ellipse (the first spiral of the series) titled Joe in honor of the late Mr. Pulitzer. It is already in place in the building's courtyard. Ellsworth Kelly has been commissioned to make a large, site-specific, two-panel painting that will hang in a stairwell between the building's two levels. Ando worked with Serra and Kelly to design spaces for the art works.

Next door to the Pulitzer, the Forum for Contemporary Art, a public institution established in 1980 and now housed in a former automotive shop, broke ground in April for a 26,000-square-foot building. The Forum, to open in the fall of 2002, will share an exterior courtyard with its neighbor; in what Emily Pulitzer calls "a wonderful synergy," this courtyard will be designed collaboratively by Ando, Serra and the Forum's architect, Brad Cloepfil of the Portland (Ore.) firm Allied Works. Forum director Elizabeth Millard notes that since the Forum building was designed after the Serra piece was commissioned, it will overtly respond to the sculpture's curves. The Forum is a kunsthalle for contemporary exhibitions by local, national and international artists. These have included a traveling exhibition of Moira Dryer paintings, a show of Stephan Balkenhol sculptures co-organized with the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and, during this season, a residency and major exhibition by San Francisco-based Enrique Chagoya and a Radcliffe Bailey show.