An exile returns

Detail from Max Beckmann’s “Four Men Around a Table” (1943).H.W. Janson (1913-1982) is among the 20th century’s most influential art historians. Since 1962, his textbook History of Art, now in its sixth edition, has been used in countless college surveys and sold four million copies in 14 languages. Yet Janson, who emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the mid-1930s to protest Nazi cultural policies, remains little known in his former country. That’s about to change, thanks to Exile and Modernism: H.W. Janson and the Collection of Washington University in St. Louis, a touring exhibition organized by the university’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

The World’s Greatest Fair

Festival Hall at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition The World’s Greatest Fair, a feature-length documentary about the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, will premiere at St. Louis’ Fabulous Fox Theatre July 10, with additional screenings at the Tivoli Theatre July 12. The film, intended for national distribution, features several Washington University faculty and staff, including Steve Givens, Carol Diaz-Granados, Jeff Pike and Trebor Tichenor.

Exploring public spaces

In an age of globalization, local character turns up in surprising places. Take the suburbs. “It’s very easy to say that the world is being Americanized,” says Jacqueline Tatom, D.Des., assistant professor of architecture, whose comparative study of the peripheries of Lyons, France, and Boston was recently published in Suburban Form: An International Perspective. “Many […]

Runway that launched teen clothing still going strong 75 years later

WUSTL ArchivesWashington University’s Fashion Design class of 1960Fashion today is about the new, the hip, the cool and — above all else — the young. But such was not always the case. In 1929, a student fashion show at Washington University in St. Louis changed the apparel industry forever by launching juniors’ fashion. In 1934, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis manufacturers became the first to market juniors’ sizes, such as 5, 7 and 9. On May 2, 2004, the university’s School of Art Fashion Design Show will celebrate its 75th anniversary of bringing some of the hottest and most creative couture this side of Paris to a St. Louis runway. This year’s fully choreographed, Paris-style show will be held at Saint Louis Galleria.

Runway that launched juniors’ fashions still going strong

WUSTL ArchivesFashion Design class of 1960Fashion today is about the new, the hip, the cool and — above all else — the young. But such was not always the case. In 1929, a student fashion show at Washington University in St. Louis changed the apparel industry forever by launching the juniors’ dress. On May 2, the School of Art’s Fashion Design Show will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a Paris-style runway extravaganza at Saint Louis Galleria.

$5 million gift establishes Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum as centerpiece of Maki-designed Sam Fox Arts Center; groundbreaking set for April 14

Maki & Associates, TokyoMildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumThe first art museum west of the Mississippi River is getting a new name and a new, state-of-the-art building designed by one of the world’s premier architects, thanks to a $5 million gift from one of Missouri’s most distinguished families.
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