My wonderful niece and her husband are on a bit of a
road trip and will be traveling through Saint Louis from Kansas City. They know
I am a huge fan of the art museum and agree to make a stop to visit before
returning to their suburban home outside Nashville, TN. The plan is to spend
some time at the museum. In preparation, I cannot help but go into docent mode.
I settled on a dozen artists I hoped to highlight.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), In particular his mother
and child painting done when he was just 20. (Tomorrow is Mothers Day after
all).
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), The Fauvist was 11 years
older than Picasso but they became lifelong friends. I love this painting
inside but with a peak outside in Nice, France.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) He left us too soon at 37
years of age. The museum has an awesome painting by the Post Impressionist.
This painting was done in the frantic productivity of that last year of his
life in 1890.
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) The French Sculpture’s
The Mountain features his Muse Dina Vierny (1919-2009) in the sculpture garden.
His Muse honored the artist by establishing a museum collection of Aristide
Maillol works in Paris. (The Mountain is made of lead. I discovered another at
the Columbus Museum of Art.)
Claud Monet (1840-1926) The water lilies painting at
our museum is one of three panels that were in the artist’s studio at Giverny
when he died. The three water lilies paintings (a triptych) were acquired by
Nelson Atkins Museum in KC, Saint Louis Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of
Art. Monet is the reason for the term Impressionism. (He was among the first to
show in 1874 with the group of artists rejected by the Salon).
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) He was also among the original
French Impressionists. His wax model of a little dancer of 14 years was in the
sixth showing of the Impressionists in 1881. It was cast in bronze and our
museum has one on display. (Another bronze cast is at the Metropolitan in NYC.)
Max Beckmann (1884-1950) Labeled by the Germans a
“degenerate artist” The Expressionist was forced to flee (first to Holland and
later to Saint Louis to teach in 1947 to Washington University-Saint Louis). We
visited the Max Beckman self portrait. He was on his way to see this self-portrait
on view at the Met in New York when he has a heart attack In 1950. He never
made it. RIP Max Beckmann.
Robert Henri (1865-1929) American leader of the Ashcan
School. The dramatic dancer painting from 1916 shows his brush technique. Well
this painting was replaced on this day by a nice landscape scene by George Wesley
Bellows. The Ashcan School is an entirely separate art
lecture and maybe best done in Philadelphia. Meg and Parker are a great
audience and I would truly love an excuse to lead them on another museum tour. (Cleveland, Philly, Fort Lauderdale....TBD)
Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) - Midwest Regionalism
and muralist. Jackson Pollock studies with this American Artist before Abstract
Expressionism and New York City became the center of the art world.
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) - Pollock in the 1940s was
leader of Abstract Expressionism. Another life cut short tragically. He was
only 43 when a car accident killed him somewhere on Long Island.
Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) – Studied at Pratt
Institute in Brooklyn, NY Color Field Painter. Spectrum II is proudly on
display in the Saint Louis Art Museum East Building addition. He might have
crossed paths with my father James O’Connell Morgan who attended Pratt and like
Kelly was an expert in camouflage techniques.
Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) Sculpture/Pop Art. The
electrical plug in front of museum is another everyday object from popular
culture. KC museum has Oldenburg badminton shuttlecocks and downtown Cleveland
has a FREE stamp by this artist. This artist, I mentioned to Meg & Parker
(by the way) is the only artist on this list who is still alive.
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