Spring is finally springing in the Gateway City, and with the temperate weather comes three new exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
The first of the three, Concealed Layers: Uncovering Expressionist Paintings, is currently on view in the Caro Nichols Holmes Gallery 214 and the Sherry and Gary Wolff Gallery 215, and will run through August 4. According to press materials, this exhibit "will take visitors behind the scenes and below the surface for an inside look at art from the museum’s permanent collection." It stems from a three-year analysis of the museum's German Expressionism collection that was conducted from an art conservation standpoint, research that used infrared reflectography, X-radiographs and other modern means to bring to light new and exciting discoveries.
Of the 48 paintings studied, 11 will be featured in the exhibition, along with images and examples of the tools and materials used during research. The exhibit will feature stick-figure studio graffiti found in Oskar Kokoschka’s The Painter II, a previously undiscovered lake scene in August Macke’s Landscape with Cows, Sailboat, and Painted-in Figures, and also sees Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s early painting Portrait of a Woman regaining its original title — Portrait of Gerti — thanks to an inscription found on the back.
“This new research has transformed our knowledge about the collection and underscores the essential role of art conservation at the museum,” says Melissa Venator, co-curator of the exhibition, in a statement. “As art historians, we can study a work for years without really knowing it. Conservation gives us some objective data about how an artwork was made. And sometimes, like with the paintings in this exhibition, those discoveries form the basis of entirely new interpretations.”
Next up is Shimmering Silks: Traditional Japanese Textiles, 18th-19th Centuries, curated by Philip Hu, SLAM’s curator of Asian art, and featuring more than a dozen works that came to the museum as gifts or purchases over the last century.
SLAM notes that “Japanese people have used silk to create items of clothing and decorative works of art for hundreds of years, ever since the cultivation of silkworms was introduced to Japan from China more than 1,500 years ago.” In keeping, Shimmering Silks will celebrate traditional silk textiles from the 18th- and 19th-century. During those time periods, SLAM says, “the main centers of traditional silk textiles in Japan were the old imperial capitals of Nara and Kyoto, supplying a clientele that included the imperial family, members of the hereditary nobility, feudal lords and ladies, high-ranking Buddhist clergy and the uppermost echelons of civil society.” The most lavish silks were used for imperial and Buddhist ceremonies, performances of Kabuki and Noh theater, formal wear and wedding costumes.
That exhibit will open to the public on March 29 with a celebration from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the museum’s Sculpture Hall, and will be on view through October 20 in the Carolyn C. and William A. McDonnell Gallery 100.
The last exhibition, Currents 123: Tamara Johnson, will feature the hypernaturalistic sculpture works of Dallas-based artist Tamara Johnson. It will open to the public Friday, April 5, with a public celebration and an artist talk and will remain on display until September 22 in Gallery 250.
Currents 123: Tamara Johnson will showcase the artist’s depictions of household objects, ranging from colanders to garden hoses to an array of buffet treats made of a variety of materials such as copper, concrete and resin, which are then sheathed in silver leaf, coated with enamel and brushed with diamond dust. SLAM says “the exhibition will also include a video essay that utilizes the visual language of 1960s video and performance art, horror movie special effects and experimental soundscapes to explore spaces where familiar objects meet, permeate and merge with unseen systems of the body.” That video will be on display in Gallery 301.
This exhibit is part of the Currents series, which aims to showcase emerging and mid-career artists. In the fall, Currents 124 will showcase the work of Crystal Z. Campbell, a multidisciplinary artist who is presently developing new works for the exhibition, which will open Friday, October 25.
For more information on any of these exhibitions, visit SLAM’s website.
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