This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 24, 2008 - When the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts building opened in 2001, a reasonable assumption was that its exhibitions would be concerned primarily with the art of our time. Indeed, in its seven-year history, the foundation has placed an unmistakable emphasis on the exhibition and scholarly examination of modernism. Along with that, however, has been a commitment to revealing modernism as an integral element of an aesthetic, intellectual and even spiritual cultural continuum that shoots through the history of human artistic industry as an incandescent thread.
As the foundation has developed, its scope has opened wide to view an incredibly variegated world, one of enormous porosity and dynamism. Pulitzer shows embrace and gather together works of art from sources as disparate as the prehistoric cultures of pre-European America and the distant cultures of the Pacific islands -- and, now, European painting and drawing from the quattrocento to the 18th century. In every show, the hope is to offer the visitor experiences not generally available in other art-exhibiting institutions, experiences intensified by their presentation in the serene austerity of Tadao Ando's foundation building in Grand Center, illuminated by available light.
The paintings and drawings inn this exhibition, "Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer," are on loan from the St. Louis Art Museum and the Harvard Art Museum. Curators Judith Mann of the St. Louis Art Museum, Stephen Wolohojian of Harvard and Matthias Waschek, director of the Pulitzer Foundation, concentrated on the preparation and the striking installation of the paintings.
Marjorie B. Cohn, the celebrated former conservator and curator of prints at the Harvard Art Museum, and art historian and curator Francesca Herndon Consagra, who recently joined the staff of the Pulitzer, were responsible for the works on paper.
The shorthand assessment from this reporter is, simply: astonishing.
This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 24, 2008 - When the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts building opened in 2001, a reasonable assumption was that its exhibitions would be concerned primarily with the art of our time. Indeed, in its seven-year history, the foundation has placed an unmistakable emphasis on the exhibition and scholarly examination of modernism. Along with that, however, has been a commitment to revealing modernism as an integral element of an aesthetic, intellectual and even spiritual cultural continuum that shoots through the history of human artistic industry as an incandescent thread.
As the foundation has developed, its scope has opened wide to view an incredibly variegated world, one of enormous porosity and dynamism. Pulitzer shows embrace and gather together works of art from sources as disparate as the prehistoric cultures of pre-European America and the distant cultures of the Pacific islands -- and, now, European painting and drawing from the quattrocento to the 18th century. In every show, the hope is to offer the visitor experiences not generally available in other art-exhibiting institutions, experiences intensified by their presentation in the serene austerity of Tadao Ando's foundation building in Grand Center, illuminated by available light.
The paintings and drawings inn this exhibition, "Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer," are on loan from the St. Louis Art Museum and the Harvard Art Museum. Curators Judith Mann of the St. Louis Art Museum, Stephen Wolohojian of Harvard and Matthias Waschek, director of the Pulitzer Foundation, concentrated on the preparation and the striking installation of the paintings.
Marjorie B. Cohn, the celebrated former conservator and curator of prints at the Harvard Art Museum, and art historian and curator Francesca Herndon Consagra, who recently joined the staff of the Pulitzer, were responsible for the works on paper.
The shorthand assessment from this reporter is, simply: astonishing.
The exhibition will be reviewed soon by the Beacon's art critic, Ivy Cooper.
{C}{C}
Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at thE Pulitzer
WHERE: Pulitzer Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., in Grand Center
WHEN: Opens Fri., Oct. 24 with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Regular foundation hours are noon-5 p.m., Wed. and 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.
FOR MORE INFO: 314-754-1850 or visit www.pulitzerarts.org.
{C}{C}Contact Beacon associate editor Robert Duffy.
Robert W. Duffy Associate Editor
This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 24, 2008 - When the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts building opened in 2001, a reasonable assumption was that its exhibitions would be concerned primarily with the art of our time. Indeed, in its seven-year history, the foundation has placed an unmistakable emphasis on the exhibition and scholarly examination of modernism. Along with that, however, has been a commitment to revealing modernism as an integral element of an aesthetic, intellectual and even spiritual cultural continuum that shoots through the history of human artistic industry as an incandescent thread.
As the foundation has developed, its scope has opened wide to view an incredibly variegated world, one of enormous porosity and dynamism. Pulitzer shows embrace and gather together works of art from sources as disparate as the prehistoric cultures of pre-European America and the distant cultures of the Pacific islands -- and, now, European painting and drawing from the quattrocento to the 18th century. In every show, the hope is to offer the visitor experiences not generally available in other art-exhibiting institutions, experiences intensified by their presentation in the serene austerity of Tadao Ando's foundation building in Grand Center, illuminated by available light.
The paintings and drawings inn this exhibition, "Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer," are on loan from the St. Louis Art Museum and the Harvard Art Museum. Curators Judith Mann of the St. Louis Art Museum, Stephen Wolohojian of Harvard and Matthias Waschek, director of the Pulitzer Foundation, concentrated on the preparation and the striking installation of the paintings.
Marjorie B. Cohn, the celebrated former conservator and curator of prints at the Harvard Art Museum, and art historian and curator Francesca Herndon Consagra, who recently joined the staff of the Pulitzer, were responsible for the works on paper.
The shorthand assessment from this reporter is, simply: astonishing.
The exhibition will be reviewed soon by the Beacon's art critic, Ivy Cooper.
{C}{C}
Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at thE Pulitzer
WHERE: Pulitzer Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., in Grand Center
WHEN: Opens Fri., Oct. 24 with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Regular foundation hours are noon-5 p.m., Wed. and 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.
FOR MORE INFO: 314-754-1850 or visit www.pulitzerarts.org.
{C}{C}Contact Beacon associate editor Robert Duffy.
Robert W. Duffy Associate Editor
This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 24, 2008 - When the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts building opened in 2001, a reasonable assumption was that its exhibitions would be concerned primarily with the art of our time. Indeed, in its seven-year history, the foundation has placed an unmistakable emphasis on the exhibition and scholarly examination of modernism. Along with that, however, has been a commitment to revealing modernism as an integral element of an aesthetic, intellectual and even spiritual cultural continuum that shoots through the history of human artistic industry as an incandescent thread.
As the foundation has developed, its scope has opened wide to view an incredibly variegated world, one of enormous porosity and dynamism. Pulitzer shows embrace and gather together works of art from sources as disparate as the prehistoric cultures of pre-European America and the distant cultures of the Pacific islands -- and, now, European painting and drawing from the quattrocento to the 18th century. In every show, the hope is to offer the visitor experiences not generally available in other art-exhibiting institutions, experiences intensified by their presentation in the serene austerity of Tadao Ando's foundation building in Grand Center, illuminated by available light.
The paintings and drawings inn this exhibition, "Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer," are on loan from the St. Louis Art Museum and the Harvard Art Museum. Curators Judith Mann of the St. Louis Art Museum, Stephen Wolohojian of Harvard and Matthias Waschek, director of the Pulitzer Foundation, concentrated on the preparation and the striking installation of the paintings.
Marjorie B. Cohn, the celebrated former conservator and curator of prints at the Harvard Art Museum, and art historian and curator Francesca Herndon Consagra, who recently joined the staff of the Pulitzer, were responsible for the works on paper.
The shorthand assessment from this reporter is, simply: astonishing.
The exhibition will be reviewed soon by the Beacon's art critic, Ivy Cooper.
Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at thE Pulitzer
WHERE: Pulitzer Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., in Grand Center
WHEN: Opens Fri., Oct. 24 with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Regular foundation hours are noon-5 p.m., Wed. and 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.
FOR MORE INFO: 314-754-1850 or visit www.pulitzerarts.org.
Contact Beacon associate editor Robert Duffy.
Robert W. Duffy Associate Editor