A curatorial tour scheduled for 1:30 on Saturday
afternoon May 24, 2014 at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation at 3716 Washington
Boulevard in St. Louis is something worth doing, especially if the facility,
designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Tadao Ando is scheduled to be
closing for six months while exhibition space is expanded and programming is
orchestrated for reopening in the Spring of 2015.
The curator giving the tour offers an overviews of
the exhibition Art of Its Own Making as
one that explores the moments when artists relinquish control and allow
materials to evolve of their own volition. Beginning with three works by Hans
Haacke, Rovert Morris and Tony Conrad, respectively, the small group 15 assembled
for the tour get a sense of the showing. Condensation
Wall (63/66) is a plexiglass box with distilled water by Haacke, Yellow Movie (1973) is house paint on
photo paper, and Box with Sound of Its
Own Making (1961) includes digital recordings made of the sounds of the
artist making a tidy wooden box cube. The condensation, yellowing of house
paint and sounds of building all are a nod a recognition of changes as art
evolves.
The touring group includes a mother/daughter making
a road trip to see the Tadao Ando building, a couple from Montreal, a young
couple (he with a t-shirt from the Chess Museum), an artist in jeans and a
t-shirt, and four other young art fans and me. As the tour takes us to Edith
Dekyndt’s Ground Control (2008), a
Polypropylene ball filled with helium that occupies its own space in a small
gallery room and finally Zen for Film
(1964) a projector runnin a blank film loop. The curatorial tour comes to a
close as discussion of the ephemeral, transitory and evolution of art percolates.
Meanwhile the Pulitzer is anchored with three pieces
worth revisiting. Scott Burton’s Rock
Settee (88-90) beautifully displayed in the foreground of the reflecting
pond, Ellsworth Kelly’s Blue Black (2000)
painted panels inside and the always stunning sculpture Richard Serra. Joe (1999) proudly invites visitors into
its spiral of COR-TEN steel in the courtyard.
So you leave such an experience wondering about the
role of art, the interface of museum curators and artists and the public
appreciation of the work. But maybe a greater understanding of the evolution of
art of its own making, artists and the world of art too.
