Author: Liam Otten

John Hendrix, a professor and founding chair of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture program, was installed Jan. 26 as the Kenneth E. Hudson Professor of Art.

Paul J. Donnelly, the Rebecca and John Voyles Chair in Architecture Emeritus at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, died Jan. 17 in Boston. He was 78.

Lucian Krukowski, a painter and professor emeritus of philosophy in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Jan. 12, 2023, at his home in St. Louis. He was 93.

William Quinn, a celebrated painter and professor emeritus who taught at Washington University in St. Louis for more than three decades, died Dec. 30, 2022, at Bridgeport Hospital, near his home in Milford, Conn. He was 93.

Celebrated mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges will launch the 2023 Great Artists Series Jan. 29. The intimate recital will span classic lieder by Johannes Brahms, beloved song cycles by Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla, and a rare gem by St. Louis-born composer John Carter.

Celebrated sculptor Chakaia Booker will launch the Sam Fox School’s spring Public Lecture Series with a free talk Jan. 19. Subsequent speakers will range from Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré to author and illustrator Deb J.J. Lee, avant-garde stage director Robert Wilson and fashion technologist Anouk Wipprecht.

Amira Jihane Khelfallah, a doctoral candidate in comparative literature in Arts & Sciences, won a special jury prize during the 11th International Film Festival of Algiers.

Douglas Flowe, an associate professor of history in Arts & Sciences, will be featured in “The Lie Detector,” a PBS documentary about the invention, promise and unintended consequences of the polygraph machine.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has acquired a major recent work by artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Titled “Illumination” (2019), the piece reconstructs, in colorful Lego blocks, an iconic selfie the artist took during his 2009 arrest in Chengdu, China.

“Color can appear anywhere,” says Katharina Grosse. “It is independent from any location.” In this video, Grosse, one of Germany’s most celebrated artists, explores the nature of color, the visceral reactions it prompts and its power to override pictorial relationships and hierarchies.