Raheem Thorpe, a Staging actor, talks about Sugimoto’s Sea of Buddha and how he feels about being back at the Pulitzer since being part of Staging Old Masters.

by Amy Broadway, Interim PR Coordinator

One of the main goals of Staging workshops is that the actors personally connect with the artworks in Reflections of the Buddha. The company will craft and perform scenes in the spring based on musings about the stars of the exhibition, such as Prince Shotoku, the giant sculpture of a left hand, or perhaps Oscar Munoz’s La Línea del Destino (Line of Destiny). The works haven’t been officially chosen yet, and it will be interesting to see what gets picked.

Several Fridays ago, Agnes Wilcox, the artistic director of Prison Performing Arts and the workshop leader, asked the actors to pair off, peruse the exhibition, and speculate about the images they saw. Afterwards, the exhibition’s curator, Francesca Herndon-Consagra, led Staging through the galleries, sharing her knowledge of the artistry, cultural history, and meaning behind the works.

In the video above, Raheem Thorpe, a graduate of the Staging Old Masters program, talks about how he and his peers first interpreted Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Sea of Buddha and what they learned from Francesca. The last time I saw Raheem, he was working with teaching artist Jenny Murphy in Urban Renewal, part of the Urban Alchemy series of programs Transformation. You can see him interviewed in 2010 here. He’s great on camera, and I look forward to seeing him on stage (Staging will perform in the galleries alongside the art).

As a side note, many of you may recall that this is not the first time the Pulitzer has been graced with Sugimoto creations. As we celebrate our tenth year–which officially began in October– we’re looking back at past exhibitions and web catalogues. Click here for another blast from the past, a look at our 2006 exhibition Hiroshi Sugimoto: Photographs of Joe.

http://www.vimeo.com/30211292

Sydney Norton, curatorial assistant at the Pulitzer, gives an overview of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Karunamaya) in the Cube Gallery. (What is the difference between a Bodhisattva and a Buddha?)

Tomorrow is the second in our series of curatorial gallery tours related to Reflections of the Buddha. If you’re looking for an in-depth understanding of this rich exhibition, an hour-long tour won’t do it, but it might help. Tomorrow, from 2 to 3 p.m., senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra will share some of what inspired her in developing the exhibition as well as the significance of the some of the works within cultural history and Buddhism. For a list of all the regular talks and tours for Reflections of the Buddha, visit our main website.

Monks from the Mid-American Buddhist Association chant on Vesak Day. Listen to them and members of other Buddhist temples at the Reflections of the Buddha opening reception.

As you readers may have noticed, there hasn’t been much to read here recently, but I assure you the Pulitzer staff and its partners have been busy the past three weeks. Much has happened since Dreamscapes concluded with KDHX DJs emitting dreamy sounds throughout the galleries. Everyone has been developing programs, events, catalogues, docent trainings, and community connections as part of our next exhibition, Reflections of the Buddha.

As I write this, senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra is working with art handlers and registrars to configure awe-inspiring statues and thangkas in relation to the Ando building (quite a humbling experience, they might say). These works date from the second to the twentieth century and were created in Afghanistan, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Tibet. If you would like a sneak peek, visit the Reflections of the Buddha web catalogue holding page and download the gallery guide. Witness the works in person by attending our opening reception next Friday, September 9, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Since Reflections of the Buddha showcases  works born from the culture and philosophy of Buddhism, the Pulitzer decided to partner with Buddhism specialists in the St. Louis community and beyond for several programs and events. As a complement to the opening festivities, at 6 p.m., members of the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis will share an opening chant, featuring examples of Buddhist traditions living in the St. Louis area. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pulitzer’s web catalogue for Dreamscapes launched last week, and we’re really excited about it. The catalogue serves not only to give a glimpse at the works in their temporary habitat, but it offers a  background to the exhibition, artists quotes, and documentation of our events and programs. Here’s an overview of dreamscapes.pulitzerarts.org:

Introduction: Read introductions from Emily Rauh Pulitzer and senior curator Francesca Herndon-Consagra about the exhibition. Download a checklist of all the works featured in Dreamscapes.

Exhibition: Explore the works in Dreamscapes, beginning with a beautiful mosaic of installation shots. Click on works to see additional images and artist quotes. Click on “The Space” for a map of the galleries, and see how the works are placed within the Ando building.

Events & Programs: Stay up to date on what’s happening at the Pulitzer and see what has already happened in conjunction with this exhibition.

Community Projects: Learn about the social work programs related to Dreamscapes. The Pulitzer is partnering with Beyond Housing, an organization that offers an array of services to the St. Louis community.

Exhibition Blog: Click on categories to see blog posts related to what you want to know about, whether that’s programming, particular artists, or social work projects.

Find out more about Swoon and this video on Saint Louis Art Map.

The Pulitzer’s senior curator, Francesca Herndon-Consagra, describes the exhibition Dreamscapes, which opens on Friday, February 11.

The Pulitzer has been closed to the public, since January 22, for the installation of Dreamscapes. The opening reception for Dreamscapes is this Friday, from 5pm to 9pm. Here is the official description of the exhibition taken from the press release:

“The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is pleased to announce Dreamscapes, on view February 11–August 13, 2011. This exhibition incites questions about the act of dreaming—a succession of thoughts, images, sounds or emotions, which the mind experiences during sleep. The artworks on view and their juxtaposition with Tadao Ando’s architecture offer new ways to think about the content and purpose of dreams on numerous levels: physiological, psychological, cultural and spiritual.

Dreamscapes is organized by Francesca Herndon-Consagra, senior curator at the Pulitzer, and opens with a public reception on Friday, February 11 from 5pm–9pm.

The concept behind the exhibition began with the Pulitzer’s Watercourt. Its meditative reflecting pool and hewed boulder – Scott Burton’s Rock Settee (1988-89) – create an insular dreamscape in the middle of our city. A glass wall divides the Watercourt from the rest of the Pulitzer building. Similarly, René Magritte’s Le monde invisible (The Invisible World) (1954) depicts an incongruous boulder in a room with open glass doors that frame a waterscape beyond. This painting, along with others depicting boulders floating in air, create a unified yet disorienting space out of both the Entrance Gallery and the adjacent Watercourt. Mimicked is a dream that presents ambiguity between indoor and outdoor spaces, refutes gravity’s powers, and shuffles a mundane object like a boulder into different settings. Read the rest of this entry »

Philip Guston, Dark Room, 1978, Oil on canvas, Private collection, © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy McKee Gallery, New York

Over the past year the Pulitzer’s curatorial staff has been hard at work securing loans, conducting research, and designing layout for Dreamscapes, which opens Friday evening, February 11. The exhibition is an exploration of dreams and the dreaming process and will feature 26 carefully selected paintings, sculptures, prints and installations from public and private collections across the United States. Widely disparate in terms of style, period and genre, these works will appear in unexpected juxtapositions with one another and with the distinctive architectural features of Tadao Ando’s building.

Located in the Main Gallery are paintings and sculptures that articulate artists’ hallucinatory responses to personal or societal trauma. One of my favorite works in this group is Philip Guston’s Dark Room, painted in 1978, just two years before the artist’s death. The work is a self-portrait, but the artist’s face eludes us. Rather, objects and fragments from Guston’s everyday life stand out brazenly against a black, chasm-like background. At left is a cartoonish representation of the artist’s right forearm resting against the arm of a bulky easy chair. His awkward, paw-like hand smolders with the same chimerical intensity as that of the burning cigarette lodged between his fingers. Guston’s wristwatch is also suffused with that incendiary light, as if to underscore the artist’s (and perhaps our own) anxious awareness of time running out. Read the rest of this entry »