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COMMERCE COMMENTS
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The Pulitzer
Foundation for the Arts’ “unmuseum” is turning out to be the “in”
museum. The facility started attracting national attention months
before it opened and now that it is a fait accompli, reporters
and critics from newspapers and magazines throughout the nation
have flocked to St. Louis, including: Architecture Digest, Architecture
Magazine, Art in America, the Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, National
Public Radio, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue magazine,
and The Washington Post.
In our cover story by Kevin Kipp, you’ll read that the building,
which took four years to complete, is as much a draw as the artwork
itself. Benjamin Forgey, reporter for The Washington Post,
describes it as “a severe, if elegant concrete fortress.” He calls
the facility “rigorous and, in its ascetic way, as compelling as
buildings can be.”
Paul Goldberger, architectural critic for The New Yorker,
says “It is the most important piece of architecture to go up in
St. Louis since the Wainwright Building.” He goes on to describe
“the masterpiece” as “emotionally powerful and “exquisitely serene.”
The building’s much-honored, Japanese architect is Tadao Ando. And
the 27,000-square-foot, three-story Pulitzer Foundation holds the
distinction of being Ando’s first American public building. In conjunction
with the opening, a retrospective exhibition of Ando’s work is at
the Saint Louis Art Museum through the end of the year.
Ando’s “Zen-like” structure houses 35 paintings from Emily Rauh
Pulitzer’s private art collection. The Foundation’s inaugural display
includes canvases by Monet, Picasso, Braque, Warhol, Lichtenstein
and others.
According to an article Julie Lasky wrote in The New York Times,
“The most dramatic of the three art galleries is a double-height
space, whose centerpiece is a 28-foot wall sculpture, Blue Black,
by Ellsworth Kelly illuminated by a skylight.”
A second work of art was commissioned by another American artist
Richard Serra. He created a 13-foot, 125-ton “spiraling steel piece
of spellbinding muscularity,” Forgey notes. Named Joe in
honor of Joseph Pulitzer Jr., the rust-colored sculpture “forms
the perfect counterpoint to Ando’s gray, highly ordered form,” states
Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune.
And if this month’s cover story shows how the Pulitzer Foundation
for the Arts makes sublime contributions to cultural life in the
St. Louis region, Mark Schupp, president of The Schupp Company,
reminds us with gleeful zest that “We Got it Good.” Schupp’s advertising
team is responsible for the development of the campaign that poked
fun at other cities’—real, not imagined—comparative disadvantages
extolled the St. Louis region’s virtues. That’s not Schupp’s only
claim to fame. During a seven-year stint with D’Arcy McManus & Masius
(now DMB&B), he helped create the persona of Spuds McKenzie and
managed the canine’s career.
The profile, provides further details, including The Schupp Company’s
winning multiple national Addy awards last year, and being a finalist
in this year’s prestigious OBIE awards competition.
Richard C.D. Fleming
President and Chief Executive Officer
St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association |
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