Yesterday, I received images of all the works that will be included in the Flavin exhibition. Tomorrow we’re meeting with our print designers, and I’m bringing all of these images so they can get started on our printed materials.

Want a sneak peek? Here’s one of the works:

Dan Flavin, untitled (for Charlotte and Jim Brooks) 1, 1964
Photo: Billy Jim, © Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Yesterday was a busy day.  Tiffany Bell and Steven Morse from the Flavin Studio were here to discuss plans for our exhibition, Dan Flavin: Constructed Light, opening in February.  Tiffany is curating the exhibition and Steven provides advice and oversight into the installation of the works.  One of the works was installed to test how the light will look at various points of the day and into the evening.  The verdict: amazing.  Today, as you can imagine, has been just as busy going over details of what was discussed, programming plans, etc.  Lots more to come.  Have a good weekend!

Here’s a little activity for you: go to the website of the Poetry Foundation and do a search for poems that include the word “water”. Or better yet, just click this link. The archive turns up an incredible 839 poems. There’s “Home-Thoughts from the Sea” by Robert Browning, “The River of Bees” by W.S. Merwin, “Humidifier” by Louis Gluck…and on and on. The results make for an interesting electronic anthology. How real are the affinities? That’s the kind of question some writers will be taking on at the Pulitzer on December 6. Along with the Poetry Foundation, we’re presenting an event at which writers Andrew Joron, Arthur Sze, Cole Swenson, and John Yau will discuss just what water might have to do with poetry. Talk could go from Homer to who knows…maybe, from the 839, Robert Creeley’s “The Pool” (take a look).

In case you missed it — David Bonetti with details on the proposed downtown sculpture garden in St. Louis.   There’s 20-25 sculptures that will be planned for the site.  One of the artists mentioned is Mark di Suvero.  If you live in the St. Louis area and aren’t familiar with his work, spend an afternoon at the Laumeier Sculpture Park for a few examples.

Whether you live in St. Louis or not, what are your thoughts on the proposed plans and the impact it will have on downtown?

So, as you may have figured out from my not-so-subtle tease in the last post, our next exhibition is going to consist of works by Dan Flavin.  We’ve shown a work of his once before – in the Minimalism and Beyond exhibition – but this time, his works will fill our entire building.  The focus will be on the interaction between his florescent light works and the way natural light plays into the architecture of the Pulitzer building.   We did a time lapse of the way light interacts in the building, back during our Sugimoto exhibition.  Take a look.   We’re thinking of doing something like this again for the Flavin catalogue too….

Today’s been busy and full of meetings, so I apologize in advance for what’s going to be a pretty short non-post. We just finished up with our staff meeting, and about to go into another meeting to hear further details about our next exhibition. The bosses just came back from a trip where further concepts and plans were discussed, and we’re about to be filled in. However, I can tease you right now with what we already do know — that this next exhibition will fill our galleries with works by this artist…

Courtney, who’s handling the coordination of our new docent program, received a really nice email from someone who took part in the first tour last week.  She said she wouldn’t mind if we shared it, so here it is:

Hi Courtney,

Just wanted to thank you & Tim for a very special Saturday afternoon. Docents ‘Exploring Art’ at the Pulitzer and Art Museum was a stroke of creative genius. I really admire the amount of work and planning that went into this adventure.  You guided the process so that it evolved in a natural way. Over the years I have taken Art Appreciation & History classes, docent led tours [& some I led myself] but I never learned how to directly engage the works of art. Being able to discuss your reaction with others was also refreshing. I did not need a vast art background to appreciate, compare, contrast, and see relationships between the works and with those at the Art Museum.

I actually learned to directly engage and filter the works of art through my experiences. This is a very contemporary approach and process that allows the viewer to arrive at a new way of thinking. The rewards of experiencing such an engagement with art are that it opens doors to seeing art and contemporary life differently.

The Pulitzer is taking a visit to an art museum to new levels and deeper layers.

I would love to participate in a Saturday afternoon that traveled between the Pulitzer & Kemper.

Thanks again; I hope to participate a few more times.

The Pulitzer has begun another experiment in the ways visitors can experience our building and installations. Beginning last Saturday, and continuing every Saturday through the end of the “Water” exhibition, we are offering a new kind of tour. Visitors, accompanied by 2 docents, explore the Pulitzer developing their own impressions of what they see. We then discuss what was found to be easy to relate to and what was not so easy. Connections between works, such as symbolism, are looked for as well as the impact of juxtaposing certain pieces with others. The entire group then travels to the Saint Louis Art Museum where works are selected and viewed to further the interests brought out at the Pulitzer. One of the most exciting aspects of this touring style is that every tour is different; not being scripted, but driven by the discussions that evolve from the group’s exploration.

We hope to continue this program with subsequent installations and to branch into other venues as well.

If this sounds like a way in which you and your friends or just you would like to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, contact Courtney at chenson@pulitzerarts.org   Tell her you want to explore art.

As promised, I have some more info on two of our upcoming Water programs…

Our next film program with Cinema St. Louis will feature a selection of water-related short films by Peter Greenaway.  Take a look at his entry on Wikipedia here and his official website here.  Many of his films have shown a strong interest in the subject of water, and he will be choosing which of these he would like to present.  He’ll be flying in to St. Louis to screen and discuss these works on November 17th.  The next evening he’ll also be participating in Cinema St. Louis’s incredible festival they organize each year– the St. Louis International Film Festival–  with another film screening held at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

We’re also planning our second-ever poetry event at the Pulitzer.  This is a part of a continuing collaboration with the Poetry Foundation in Chicago (who has an incredible website, you should take a look).  Last time, writers sat on a panel and discussed the relationship between poetry, art and portraiture.  This time, a new set of writers has been invited to discuss how poetry relates to water.  I’ve just posted the writers, their bios, and the subjects they’re planning on discussing on our website here.  I’ll keep you up-to-date on any new information as it comes…

There’s a few items I’m planning on blogging about next week.  Here’s a small preview:

1)  Updates about the videos coming to our website.  The group of students from Webster University are hard at work editing their films from our film night, so updates on those soon.

2) An interview with Tim (visitor services manager) about our brand new approach to docenting.  It might be a brand new approach all together — it’ll be interesting to hear if there are any similar programs around the country.

3) New information about some of our upcoming events.

4) Update on our next exhibition.  Very exciting….

Stay tuned.