A Shot in the Dark

With the official onset of winter just days away, the nights are at their longest. So it's fitting that the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park (314-721-0072 or www.slam.org) would open a new exhibition that celebrates the beauty of the darkened world. The Nocturne in Printmaking, a selection of prints by artists such as Edward Hopper, Max Klinger and Rembrandt van Rijn, features dramatic nighttime scenes from mythology and the real world. Some pieces, such as Martin Lewis' Ha'nted (pictured), embody both of these possibilities. Twin figures walk through a ghostly, rural landscape with a storm lantern between them. The lantern throws the farther man's shadow up on the distant barn, creating a giant form looming in the night; the man in the foreground is shrouded in shadow, a sinister figure pacing wraith-like across the ground. The Nocturne in Printmaking is on display daily in gallery 321 from Friday, December 19, through Sunday, March 8 and admission is free. Themuseum is closed on Monday.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Dec. 23. Continues through March 8, 2008