New SLAM Exhibits Celebrating Jazz, Indigenous Art Open Friday

It's a double header with Romare Bearden: Resonances and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

May 2, 2024 at 6:00 am

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Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

State Names Map: Cahokia (on wall), and Trade Canoe: Cahokia, 2023.

It's going to be a busy Friday at the Saint Louis Art Museum (One Fine Arts Drive, slam.org) as the museum opens two exhibits that draw on its permanent collection. Both Romare Bearden: Resonances and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith will make their debuts.

Romare Bearden: Resonances is centered around Summertime, a piece from SLAM's permanent collection that exemplifies the collage technique the modernist artist is known for. In it, a woman stands in front of a brownstone eating an ice cream cone in a way that evokes a singer and a microphone. Like much of Bearden's work, it is meant to evoke jazz and African American life in the 1960s.

The show also explores Bearden's relationship and mentoring of other artists such as Norman Lewis, Elizabeth Catlett and Emma Amos. It's especially fitting, then, that the show also tips a hat to SLAM's Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, which has supported individuals from backgrounds underrepresented in the museum industry with a paid fellowship for 30 years.

click to enlarge

Romare Bearden

Summertime, 1967; collage on board; 56 x 44 inches.

The exhibit kicks off with a jazz listening party from 6 to 7 p.m., which like the exhibit is free to attend. It will be open through September 15.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith features the work of the celebrated contemporary Indigenous artist from Montana. The show will trace Smith's career and end with a focus on her work in St. Louis, namely two pieces — State Names Map: Cahokia and Trade Canoe: Cahokia — that might seem familiar if you're big in the local art scene. Smith created both for the most recent Counterpublic exhibition. The show also includes work Smith made at Wash U's Island Press.

Smith and her son, Neil Abrose-Smith, will give a lecture at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 4. The lecture is ticketed but free and the exhibit is free. It is open through November 10.