Modes of Expression Exhibit Opening

02/21/2019

Modes of Expression, an exhibit featuring a select group of artworks from the permanent collections at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA) will open with an opening reception at the museum on Friday, March 1.

Modes of Expression focuses on representational, abstract and non-objective art as modes of expression, from the late 19th Century to today.

The permanent collection is the result of a sustained commitment of University donors, who, throughout the years, have supported SLUMA in enhancing its collection of artworks and artifacts. This collection, at times individually and certainly collectively, has educated Saint Louis University and enriched the larger St. Louis community.

The exhibit will run from Friday, March 1 through Sunday, July 28.

The March 1 reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m.

Exhibit Abstract

The exhibition begins with two representational artworks, portraits of Martha Ann Payne Turner and Lewis Turner painted by George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879). A landscape by Camille Corot, the most influential of all French landscape painters of the 19th Century, and a print by Mary Cassatt, one of the foremost 19th Century American artists, also represent early works included in the exhibit.

Modernism, which arrived with the first of the major avant-garde movements in European 20th Century art, lasted until the 1970s. This period, marked by two of the most destructive wars in history, witnessed a development of art movements and art styles at an unprecedented rate. Artists experimented with subject matter and modes of expression which reflected their inner visions as alternatives to external realities, and set out in many divergent directions. This diversity of perspectives is illustrated by artworks by Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Alexej Jawlensky, Vassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Sonia Delaunay, Natalia Goncharova, Jean Arp, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, André Masson, Max Ernst, Henry Moore, Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Alberto Giacometti and other artists.

The 1970s marked the beginning of Postmodernism, a reaction against the structures of modernism, which was characterized by concurrent developments of styles that expanded the traditional boundaries of art. It opened up opportunities of exploration for future artists, and dissolved boundaries between high and popular culture.

Contemporary art echoes the postmodern tradition but characteristics of globalization have started to emerge.