Aristide Maillol( French, 1861-1944), The Mountain 1937, in the Saint Louis Art Museum sculpture garden. It was installed summer 2014. Image courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum
Aristide Maillol( French, 1861-1944), The Mountain 1937, in the Saint Louis Art Museum sculpture garden. It was installed in the summer of 2014. Image courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum.
BY ARTCENTRON
ST. LOUIS – The Saint Louis Art Museum has begun the construction of a new sculpture garden. It will feature masterworks from the museum’s collection and more than 450 new trees. Located immediately south of the museum, the sculpture garden project is courtesy of a $5 million gift from Barbara B. Taylor, president of the Saint Louis Art Museum Board of Commissioners, and Andrew C. Taylor, executive chairman of St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings, Inc.
The new garden will include sculptures by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Aristide Maillol, and Mathias Gasteiger. They will complement Stone Sea, a work by Andy Goldsworthy commissioned by the Museum in 2012. In addition to the international collection of modern and contemporary sculpture, the garden will also include two water features. Efforts are already on to plant more than 450 trees.
The new water features, trees, and the installation of new sculptures from the museum’s collection will make the garden conducive for visitors and tours.
“This new sculpture garden will be a beautiful and significant addition to the Museum, as well as to Forest Park.” Beyond beauty, however, Taylor notes that she and Andy ” take great pleasure in supporting the Saint Louis Art Museum’s vision of connecting visitors with world-class sculpture in a distinctive way,” said Barbara Taylor.
Expectations art that the garden will attract visitors and art lovers from across the globe.
Saint Louis Art Museum Director Brent R. Benjamin said the $5 million gift will pay for the garden’s construction. Part of the gift will also be used to establish an endowment to support future maintenance and improvement of the sculpture garden. However, the greatest benefit of the gift is the opportunity to share some of the exceptional works in the museum’s collection with a larger audience.
“Barbara and Andy’s generosity will allow the Museum to take works from its collection outside its walls and create a unique and enriching experience of art in nature for our visitors,” notes Benjamin.
The new sculpture garden is the final section of the phased landscape plan designed by Paris-based Michel Desvigne in coordination with the museum’s new East Building. Desvigne is a famous architect and designer who has won major design awards. In 2000, he got the Medal of the French Academy of Architecture, and in 2011, he won the French national Urbanism Grand Prize. Desvigne’s landscape projects include Millennium Park in London’s Greenwich Peninsula, Luxemburg’s Draï Eechelen Park, and the New Qatar National Museum in Doha.
The new museum sculpture garden with its already completed landscape improvements is generating a lot of attention. Alongside Sir David Chipperfield’s design of the Art Museum’s East Building that opened in summer 2013, the whole atmosphere is bound to be a major attraction.
The Saint Louis Art Museum sculpture garden development will eventually provide a conducive setting to enjoy modern sculpture. A visit is also an opportunity for guests to enjoy the museum’s exceptional collections including Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes, and European art. The museum also has exceptional American art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with particular strength in 20th-century, and German art. The addition of the new sculpture garden further elevates the status of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
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