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ST. LOUIS: THE ART |  | April 8, 2007 - In all of my journeys across the US and Europe, I've noticed the none too subtle affects of cumulative wealth over time. Its extremely interesting to me to compare a city like Vienna with Krakow, one that had centuries of peace
and capitol, against one overrun by foreigners for centuries. Vienna has opulent palaces, incredible art and luxury built upon gold rimmed facades and intricate, worked architecture throughout the rings of the city. Krakow, the center of Polish culture and thought with one of the oldest and most respectable universities in the world, seems like a bare cupboard in relation, despite having
centuries of brutally magnificent history disturbed by war and political upheavals. |
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The same holds true in America - the cities of the Northeast have a leg up on most of the rest of the country - from their ties to the Old World and old money to centuries of an aristocratic class that begat art collections, building projects and developed cities of wealth. The Midwest, South and most newer western cities have a decidedly less developed pedigree, with distinct differences between them all. In the Midwest alone, the differences between St. Louis and Kansas City, Memphis, and Austin are palpable. St. Louis,
one of the oldest cities west of the Mississippi, is filled with wealth, making Austin feel like a shanty town in comparison. The art in its public museum, collected by St. Louis' philanthropic old money, shows the differences in black and white. After nearly 150 years of existence, The University of Texas just built a museum last year, the collection is weak, filled with secondary paintings, small prints and a haphazard modern collection that clearly tried following trends. That is part of what made my visits to the
St. Louis Museum of Art and Washington University's Kemper Museum such an eye opening experience. Art is perhaps the greatest residue all of that long term, built up wealth can provide.
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SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Usually an afterthought in most museums, the Mexican, South American and African section of the museum was so impressive I didn't just trail through it once, I made my way through three times. Filled with lots of clay figures and vases, there was some amazing sculptures, including an African sorcerer's cloak I was too afraid to take a picture of. | |
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GUSTON
There were not one, but two Philip Guston paintings on display - one at each museum - that highlighted his figurative efforts during the second World War. The paintings were amazing - they reminded me of Jack Levine in so many ways, textured, loose, but on a compositional structure that made my mind bend.
A tiny picture of Washington U's Guston can be found here, I should've snapped a shot myself, but for some reason, didn't think to. |
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BECKMANN AND THOSE CRAZY GERMANS
As advertised, The St. Louis Art Museum has the largest collection of Beckmanns in the United States. I
sat in the room dedicated to him staring at nine of his works for a long, long time. They were impressive to see, with a lot of great spatial moments and characters and mysterious scenes that made me want more.In addition to spotlighting Max, there was a long hallway devoted to the succession of German Expressionists - from Kirchner to Corinth to Kokoschka. The heavy German influence continued to nice, large contemporary works from Richter, Kiefer, and Polke.
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