Whew.  Our posting on 2buildings1blog this month has slowed, but our overall blogging activities are currently at full steam.  We’ve launched a website for Transformation – the community programming organized in conjunction with the Matta-Clark exhibition (which you can also explore online here).   A few highlights:

The Panel Series:  We’ve organized a panel discussion each month to explore topics related to Matta-Clark’s work within the context of St. Louis.  The key question we’ll address in each panel: “How do communities evolve and in what ways can their members guide the process?”  Within this online section we’ll feature interviews with the panelists, research info related to the topic, and full audio from the discussion shortly afterward.  I also attempt (key word) to live tweet each panel (http://twitter.com/thepulitzer).  The next panel just happens to be tomorrow (Oh! You’re in luck! And it’s free!).

Local Artists:  This is where the bulk of the blogging happens.  We’re documenting the three artist-run projects throughout the course of Transformation – hear updates from the artists, watch videos of the classes, even watch DIY videos to learn some of the skills yourself, and generally stay up-to-date as each project evolves.

Your St. Louis:  Definitely the most interactive of all the sections.  We’re posting candid interviews with St. Louis residents, to help paint a fuller portrait of the community.  Show us your St. Louis by adding photos to our Flickr group.  Show off your favorite route, by creating a custom Google Map for others to use.  We want to showcase what St. Louis means to those of us who live here.

Forum:  We’re hoping this section will grow into a place for discussion.  Want to expand on ideas you heard in the panel?  Want to ask an artist a question about their project?  This is the place to do it!

This website will continue to grow and shift as the programming grows and shifts, and as always, we’d love to get your feedback.  Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Our online catalogue for the exhibition, Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark, is now up!  Check it out here.  If you don’t have an opportunity to visit St. Louis in the next few months, the website gives you a glimpse into what it’s like to see these works within this space.  We’re also excited to feature a video interview with Jane Crawford, the director of Matta-Clark’s estate and his widow.  She speaks about his buildings, his community, his sense of humor, among other topics, along with commentary on a few of the works on view within the exhibition.

In addition to this exciting launch, we’re also kicking off the first in our Transformation programming tonight.  At 7:30pm we’re hosting a panel discussion called “The City as Studio,” where we’ll explore how creative acts and alternative arts spaces can impact a community.  We have a fantastic group of panelists who will lend their perspective and expertise to the topic:  Theaster Gates, an artist from Chicago (who is also participating in the 2010 Whitney Biennial); Mary Jane Jacob, Director of Exhibitions at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Juan William Chavez, an artist and the Director of Boots Contemporary Art Space; Luis Croquer, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; and moderated by Christy Gray, Director of the Whitaker Foundation.  If you’re unable to attend, we’ll be posting the full audio from tonight’s panel for you to download as a podcast.  I’ll also try to tweet updates throughout the night – follow us @thePulitzer!

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).

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…

The Richard Serra retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art offers us an occasion for seriously reconsidering Serra’s work and its place in (or out) of our personal pantheons. Should you be thinking along these lines–about where Serra and other modern sculptors belong within the context of art history–the Pulitzer website has a new resource to offer: the transcript of a conversation between Richard Serra, curator Carmen Gimenez (Guggenheim NY), and Pulitzer director Matthias Waschek, on the occasion of our 2005 exhibition Brancusi and Serra in Dialogue.

You can find “A Conversation with Richard Serra and Carmen Gimenez, Moderated by Matthias Waschek” under ‘Events & Programs’ or at this permanent link: www.pulitzerarts.org/serra-gimenez/interview.

The conversation comes at a very interesting moment in Serra’s career: shortly after his triumphant installation at the Guggenheim Bibao, The Matter of Time, and shortly before his retrospective at the Modern. It was no doubt a time when Serra himself was thinking about his position in art history. Indeed, agreeing to discuss Brancusi and Serra in Dialogue, which literally put the artists’ works side by side, made confrontation and comparison with history inevitable for Serra.

If you watched the video clips Rachel posted of Serra talking to Charlie Rose, you know that last month, at his retrospective, he was not willing to draw many relationships between his work and the masterpieces in MoMA’s collection:

Rose: How is this [your work] going to be of that import?
Serra: I don’t know.
Rose: Speculate for me.
Serra: I can’t.
Rose: But is it of that quality?
Serra: How would I know? I don’t know. I’m just trying to do the best I can do.
Rose: But you think you are every bit of that quality! You do!
Serra: No, I think I’m of that effort.

In 2005, in the conversation we have preserved, it seems to me Serra had not yet decided to be so undecided about his qualitative relationship to the past. In fact, Serra repeatedly speculates in the fashion Charlie Rose requested. Herein lies much of the transcript’s value. It allows one to consider Serra considering his own significance–the artist inside history weighing his own work.

As I wrote in my last post, tonight the Pulitzer will be hosting a roundtable discussion with Olafur Eliasson. I’ve heard a few of the topics that will be discussed, and thought I’d share a couple as a teaser:

Eliasson will discuss his reaction to the Pulitzer’s installation, Minimalism and Beyond, and whether he would place his work in this category of “beyond”. He will also talk about his own position (whether positive or negative) on the legacy of Minimalism.

Other topics covered by the panelists will be how visitors physically relate to artwork, and if physical interaction is a key issue for Eliasson.

If you’re interested in hearing further discussion on the above topics and more, call 314-935-9347 and come to tonight’s lecture.

Additionally, this Saturday from 4:30-6:30pm is “The Pulitzer by SLU”. I wrote about the event a few posts ago, and Amy wrote about the collaboration with Saint Louis University students here. Student docents from SLU will be throughout the galleries to discuss the exhibition with visitors. Those with a SLU ID also have a chance to win packages from local institutions. We’re hoping this will encourage further exploration, not only of the Pulitzer, but also of our neighborhood. Our next student event “After Hours at the Pulitzer” will be on Thursday, April 13th, and students from throughout the St. Louis area are invited to attend. More info to come.

This Thursday at 8pm, the Pulitzer will host a roundtable discussion called “Art, Technology and the Sublime” with the artist Olafur Eliasson. The discussion will also include Sabine Eckmann (Director of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University), Matthias Waschek (our Director), and will be moderated by Lutz Koepnick (Professor of Germanic languages, Literatures, Film and Media at Wash U).

In prep for the evening, check out Eliasson’s website (I know I’ll need to). Also, check out the subjects being discussed at the Wash U symposium this weekend, entitled “After the Digital Divide”. According to this site, the symposium will “investigate the legacy of German aesthetic and critical theory as seen against the spreading background of digital culture since the 1990s.” Each of the people involved in the Pulitzer discussion are either of a German background or live in Germany, so it will be interesting to see how their own experiences and observations play in. If you are also curious, visit the Pulitzer on Wednesday, and then come hear what he has to say on Thursday. To reserve a space you can call 314-935-9347 or email samfoxschool@wustl.edu.

Last night the Saint Louis Art Museum presented a lecture with Tiffany Bell, co-curator of Dan Flavin A Retrospective which just closed in Chicago. Her talk was entitled “Fluorescent Light as Art” and I thought I would post a few of the interesting points she raised.

Flavin used fluorescent lights in his art work, not neon. I never knew this, but neon lights are typically used for individualized purposes, such as specific signage, whereas fluorescent lights are used in more everyday situations, such as overhead lighting.

Tiffany Bell is currently working on Flavin’s Catalogue Raisonnee. Some of the interesting challenges she noted were the fact that his works are easy to copy, the lights are commercially available only as long as the companies who create them are still in business, and that his works are ephemeral. About this ephemeral quality, Flavin compared his exhibitions to being like a traveling minstrel who presents his song and then disappears.

Another interesting challenge of Flavin’s work is authenticity. He first treated the lights as sculptures and would sign the bulbs. However, this was problematic when the lights burned out and had to be replaced. He quickly stopped doing that and would instead sell the works with a drawing and installation details. After that he started creating certificates of authenticity–first statements on gallery stationary, and then more formal certificates which included detailed descriptions and a seal. Unfortunately, some thought owning a certificate meant they could recreate his works at will, which Flavin opposed. If someone lost or discarded the purchased fixtures but still had his certificate, Flavin would not recreate the work. He would also not reissue lost certificates. This was to promote the care of his art work.

Another interesting aspect she spoke about was editions and dates for his work. She mentioned how he carried a notebook with him to make drawings and would date these. The art work then may not be actually created for many years, but he would date it based on that original drawing and conception.

Flavin had 10 colors of storebought lights that he used: pink, yellow, blue, green, red, ultraviolet, and four different whites. He learned how to mix the lights to create different colors and effects.

Here’s a picture of the Flavin in our exhibition, paired with Roni Horn’s Untitled (Yes).

I am very excited to announce, right here on the blog, and before the official press release goes out:

September 24th, at 2pm, Richard Serra and Guggenheim curator, Carmen Gimenez, will give a public discussion about Serra’s work and the installation at the Pulitzer, Brancusi and Serra in Dialogue. Gimenez curated last year’s Brancusi exhibition at the Guggenheim New York and Tate Modern, as well as Serra’s installation this summer at the Guggenheim Bilbao.

The talk takes place on Saturday, September 24th, and will be held at the Contemporary. Afterwards, there will be a reception in our connecting courtyard.

So now you’re frantically thinking, “How do I get tickets?? How much will something as incredible as this cost??” Excellent questions. First of all, the event is FREE. I know! It’s true! Seating to the event will be ticketed, however, and there are 200 available so act quick. If you aren’t able to score one of these, non-ticketed standing room will also be available. Register for tickets on the Contemporary’s website or call 314-535-0770 ext. 215.

I mean, really, can you imagine a better Saturday afternoon? I don’t think so!