Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler, BerlinDetail, Albert Oehlen *The Annihilator*The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present [Grid Matrix], the first installment in the new series “Screen Arts and New Media Aesthetics,” Oct. 25 to Dec. 31. The exhibition investigates both ruptures and continuities between these two distinct yet related modes of visual organization, exploring how the grid and the matrix have influenced our understanding of aesthetics, art and media since the early 20th century.

Oren SlorTom Friedman, *There*Play-Doh, spaghetti and aluminum foil — sculptor Tom Friedman transforms mundane consumer products into playful yet meticulously crafted artworks of almost obsessive intricacy. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will inaugurate its new College of Art Gallery with Pure Invention, an exhibition of work by the renowned Washington University alumnus.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumMarcel Duchamp *Pocket Chess Set*Artists, architects and designers have long employed sketches, notes and sculptural maquettes as part of their basic vocabulary. Yet since the early 20th century, as Western art has moved away from straightforward depictions of the natural universe, models and prototypes have evolved from preparatory steps in the creative process to become increasingly autonomous works of art, redefining artistic practice. Models and Prototypes, which will inaugurate the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum’s new “Focus” series Oct. 25 to Dec. 31, investigates the ways in which artists working in a variety of media have expanded use of the model as a visual strategy.

Wendell Burnette ArchitectsPalo Verde Branch LibraryWendell Burnette, AIA, principal of Wendell Burnette Architects in Phoenix, will speak about his work at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25, as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Architecture Lecture Series. Burnette, who will present a Coral Courts Lecture for outstanding contemporary practitioners, is an assistant professor of architecture at Arizona State University. His practice spans a wide range of commercial and residential projects and is noted for its unique sensitivity to place, particularly the American desert.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum dates back to 1881, making it the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi River. Originally located downtown, as part of Washington University’s St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, the museum was rededicated in 1906 as the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts and moved into the […]

Jessica Garz/Kelly ManningNew Orleans’ Central City, post-KatrinaThe French Quarter, the Garden District, the Treme, the Lower Ninth Ward. Perhaps more than any other American city, New Orleans is a collection of individual neighborhoods — 72 in all — each with its own history and culture. In many ways, these neighborhoods represent both the key and the key challenge to rebuilding the city, says John Hoal, Ph.D., associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Last week, Hoal’s firm, H3 Studio Inc., was one of five selected to lead the Unified New Orleans Plan, which will coordinate rebuilding in the city’s 13 planning districts. More…

Stan StrembickiKemper Art Museum, detail of the southern facade. August 2006. In 1960 a young Japanese architecture professor named Fumihiko Maki completed his first-ever commission while teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. Four decades later, Maki is among the world’s premier architects, a Pritzker Prize-winner renowned for creating monumental spaces that fuse Eastern and Western sensibilities. Current projects include both the $330 million United Nations expansion in Manhattan and Tower 4 at the former World Trade Center site. Now Maki has returned to Washington University as architect of the new Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, a dramatic, light-filled structure that will showcase the university’s internationally renowned art collection.

Maki & Associates, TokyoSaligman Family Atrium, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual ArtsIn 1960 a young Japanese architecture professor named Fumihiko Maki completed his first-ever commission while teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. Four decades later, Maki is among the world’s premier architects, a Pritzker Prize-winner renowned for creating monumental spaces that fuse Eastern and Western sensibilities. Current projects include both the $330 million United Nations expansion in Manhattan and Tower 4 at the former World Trade Center site. Now Maki has returned to Washington University as architect of the new Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, a dramatic, light-filled structure that will showcase the university’s internationally renowned art collection.

Eric Hoffman and Tony Patterson*Softscape*Two recent architecture alumni from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have been selected as finalists in a national competition sponsored by the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA). The competition, titled inside::out: Weaving the Arts Into the Urban Fabric, aims to unify the 3.6-acre BCA campus — which includes a wide variety of galleries, performance venues and artists studios — by transforming its central brick plaza into an architecturally distinctive public space.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesCatharina ManchandaCatharina Manchanda, Ph.D., has been appointed curator of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Manchanda succeeds Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D., who was named director of the Kemper Art Museum last year. Her appointment comes at a critical time for the museum, which will open a new 65,000-square-foot facility, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, in the fall.