The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily co ...

located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, it was initially located in downtown St. Louis. It is the oldest art museum west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

.''A Gallery of Modern Art''. Edited by Jane Neidhart, St. Louis: Washington University, 1994. The Museum holds 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century European and American paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and photographs. The collection also includes some Egyptian and Greek antiquities and

Old Master print An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distinguish the works of "fine art" produced in printmak ...

s. The museum moved to its current home, designed by

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

-winner Fumihiko Maki, in 2006. In 2018 the museum was closed for renovation as part of a $360 million campus transformation program at Washington University in St. Louis. One year later, it was reopened with a new 34-foot-tall polished stainless-steel facade, a sculpture garden, and nearly 50 percent more public display space.

Founding and early years

The museum was established in 1881 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, under the name of the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts. Halsey C. Ives was the museum's first director, and during his tenure, the collection focused on contemporary American artists, notably

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

. In 1905, St. Louis banker Charles Parsons donated his private collection to the museum. This collection, which included pieces by

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, established the museum as a major holder of contemporary American art. In 1906, the museum was moved to the Palace of Fine Arts in

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Forest ...

, where it was housed until 1909, at which time its value was formally appraised at $700,000 ($ today). In that year, the City Museum of Art was formed, and began to acquire its own artwork funded from a unique civic tax levy, separately from the private university collection. Large parts of the university collection would remain "on loan" to the public museum until 1960. As of the end of 1931, the university's collection of art was extensive, valuable, nameless, and homeless. Its assets included the Charles Parsons collection plus works by Chase,

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Sta ...

Anders Zorn Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was a Swedish painter. He attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. Among Zorn's portrait subjects include King Oscar II of Sweden and three American ...

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals ( animalière). She also made sculpture in a realist style. Her paintings include ''Ploughing in the Nivernais'', fir ...

, and many others. All these were either loaned to the city Art Museum, on display somewhere on campus, shown in Chancellor Throop's home, or stored. The collection's value was estimated at $1,000,000, ranking with those of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

The Janson years

In 1941, the Russian-born German-American professor of art history H.W. Janson joined the university as professor in the

St. Louis School of Fine Arts The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...

, and, as a separate task, guided a renewal of the art collection with a new focus on contemporary European artwork, particularly in acquiring works of

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it ra ...

and

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

. Janson's plan to sell popular canvases such as

's ''A Dash for the Timber'' at the New York galleries of the Kende family drew comment from the local paper, wondering why St. Louisans had not been given preference. Janson sold 120 artworks, retained 80, and acquired 40 works by European modernists through the Kende Galleries:

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nell ...

. Janson also arranged for a permanent home for the museum's collection. He departed in 1948, but in 1960, the museum moved to Steinberg Hall, located on the main university campus. At this time, the museum was also renamed as the Washington University Gallery of Art.

Recent

Recently, the museum has continued to focus on the acquisition of contemporary works, including pieces by

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splas ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

and

Jenny Holzer Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. The main focus of her work is the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, ...

. In 2004, the museum was again renamed, this time as the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, as a division of the new Sam Fox School of Visual Art and Design. Two years later, in 2006, the museum moved to a new building adjacent to the old Steinberg Hall. The expansion was designed by Fumihiko Maki, and is also home to the Washington University Art and Architecture library and the department of Art History and Archaeology. In May 2018, the museum was closed as part of a larger construction project at

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. The expansion, on the north side of the Kemper Art Museum, created a new facade composed of 30-foot-tall pleated stainless steel panels. It also included a redesigned entrance and a new 2,700-square-foot exhibition space named the James A. Kemper Gallery. The museum's Florence Steinberg-Weil Sculpture Garden was relocated to a setting north of the Sam Fox School's new Anabeth and John Weil Hall. In September 2019, the newly expanded and renovated Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum opened with a major exhibition of work by

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei (, ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly c ...

: "Bare Life". The Kemper Art Museum is currently part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University, which comprises the College of Art, the College of Architecture, and the Kemper Art Museum. The Sam Fox School was established in 2005 to link strong studio programs in modern art and architecture with the resources and programs of the Museum. Creation of the Sam Fox School follows a nearly $60 million investment in new and renovated art, architecture, and museum facilities. The five-building complex includes two new buildings by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki, including the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum building. The Sam Fox School is dedicated to the creation, study, and exhibition of multidisciplinary and collaborative work with an emphasis on fostering creativity and intellectual exchange.

Exhibits and collection

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has four exhibition spaces: the Barney A. Ebsworth Gallery, Garen Gallery, Bernoudy Permanent Collection Gallery, and teaching gallery. Some exhibitions include ''To See Without Being Seen: Contemporary Art and Drone Warfare,

Rashid Johnson Rashid Johnson (born 1977) is an American artist who produces conceptual post-black art. Johnson first received critical attention in 2001 at the age of 24, when his work was included in '' Freestyle'' (2001) curated by Thelma Golden at the St ...

: Message to Our Folks,'' and ''Notations: Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process.'' The permanent collection of the museum, exhibited on its top floor and within the Florence Steinberg Weil Sculpture Garden, includes extensive representation by 19th, 20th and 21st Century works. File:El Greco - Resurrection, Kemper Art Museum 16056.jpg,

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El ...

, ''Resurrection'', 1600-05 File:Aelbert Cuyp - Cows with a Milkmaid in a Farmyard.jpg, Aelbert Cuyp, ''Cows with a Milkmaid in a Farmyard'', 1650 File:Thomas Cole Aqueduct near Rome.jpg,

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history painti ...

, ''Aqueduct near Rome'', 1832 File:George Caleb Bingham - Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap.jpg,

George Caleb Bingham George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American artist, soldier and politician known in his lifetime as "the Missouri Artist". Initially a Whig, he was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the American C ...

, ''Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap'', 1851-52 File:Frederic Edwin Church - Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.jpg,

, ''Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta'', 1883 File:Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida - Another Marguerite.JPG, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, ''Another Marguerite!'', 1892 File:Edvard Munch - Irmgard Steinbart.jpg,

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, '' The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the d ...

, ''Portrait of Irmgard Steinbart'', 1913 File:George Bellows - Garaldine Lee, No. 1 (1914).jpg,

George Bellows George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed Ame ...

, ''Portrait of Garaldine Lee, No. 1'', 1914 File:Theo van Doesburg Composition VII (the three graces).jpg,

, ''Composition VII (The Three Graces)'', 1917 File:Les artistes mit Gemüse .jpg,

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...

, ''Les Artistes mit Gemüse (Artists with Vegetable)'', 1943 File:Golden Brown Painting.jpg,

Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky (; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, hy, Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of hi ...

, ''Golden Brown Painting'', 1943-44

Newman Money Museum

The Newman Money Museum opened October 25, 2006 on the bottom floor of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. The museum includes an exhibition space as well as a

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inc ...

library and scholarly work space. The collection was donated by American numismatist Eric P. Newman and his wife Evelyn Newman, containing a broad array of coin and paper money, but primarily focusing on Colonial and early American money. The museum is curated by Tom Serfass and also features items documenting

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

's role as a figure of early American Colonial paper money. Exhibits have also focused on lasting influence of Spanish specie coinage, depiction of women and African-Americans on money, and creation and production of money including sketches, a collection of coin counters and changers, and rare examples of printing errors. The Newman Money Museum closed in 2018 with the expansion of the Kemper Art Museum.

Notes

References

*''A Gallery of Modern Art''. Joseph Kettner. Washington University in St. Louis, 1994.

External links

* *
Newman Numismatics Portal
{{authority control Washington University in St. Louis Museums in St. Louis Fumihiko Maki buildings Modernist architecture in Missouri Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Art museums and galleries in Missouri University museums in Missouri Washington University in St. Louis campus Art museums established in 1881 1881 establishments in Missouri Kemper family Tourist attractions in St. Louis Buildings and structures in St. Louis