Explore contemporary sculpture outdoors at SLAM

Visitors might be familiar with the Grace Taylor Broughton Sculpture Garden located outside the Saint Louis Art Museum’s South Entrance, which features an international collection of 20th-century and contemporary sculpture nestled among walking paths and hundreds of trees. However, this is not the only place you can see art outdoors at SLAM. Several other locations on the Museum grounds feature notable contemporary sculptures.

Strolling around outdoors at SLAM, you’ll see sculptures dating from the 1960s onward. The sculptures highlight ways artists explored more abstract visual languages, ranging from Mark di Suvero’s kinetic piece Praise for Elohim Adonai to Andy Goldsworthy’s Stone Sea, a 300-ton stone sculpture—the largest object in the Museum’s collection.

“As you move around the Museum, you’ll see that outdoor sculpture has been the source of some of the most inventive and challenging modern and contemporary art,” said Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art, who curated the outdoor sculpture installation.

Now, you can also consult a new collection guide while viewing sculptures on the Museum grounds. Kelly, Melissa Venator, and other St. Louis art professionals walk you through pieces found on campus, offering a variety of perspectives on the works.

We’re highlighting some sculptures in this blog post you can view next time you visit. From the South Terrace to the road right in front of the main entrance, you might be surprised at what you’ll find while exploring the Museum grounds.

To Encircle Base Plate Hexagram, Right Angles Inverted by Richard Serra

Embedded into the road between the Museum and Art Hill on Fine Arts Drive, this large, circular sculpture might go unnoticed by visitors. Richard Serra’s work includes two identical steel semicircular components, one upright and the other inverted. In each piece, a horizontal metal plate is joined to a vertical outer band, forming an L-shape in profile. Serra intended viewers to walk and drive over the work, with the goal of them becoming more aware of the street and the sculpture’s relationship to it. He drew inspiration for this piece from a trip to Japan, where he admired carefully placed temple gardens in Kyoto. After the trip, Serra started thinking of the land or street as integral in his art.

Giant Three-Way Plug, Scale A by Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg drew inspiration from everyday consumer objects to create his sculptures, as seen in Giant Three-Way Plug, Scale A. Located outside near the Museum’s Main Building entrance, this enormous three-way electric plug includes a body of Cor-Ten, or corrosion-resistant steel, and polished bronze plugs, and is partially buried in the ground. Oldenburg once described the piece as “an implement left over from a war, returning to nature.” He liked the idea of the sculpture changing, or even slowly disappearing, because of forces of nature.

Placebo by Roxy Paine

Nestled among the trees on the west side of the Museum is Roxy Paine’s monumental stainless-steel sculpture. The work mirrors real trees nearby while also contradicting them due to its steel composition. Paine created the sculpture by welding together standard industrial piping, reflecting the complex relationship between human-created objects and the natural world.

Charioteer by Bryan Hunt

Located outside SLAM’s South Building, on the Mary Ann Lee Plaza, Bryan Hunt’s sculpture comprises two forms: an abstract, headless body of a chariot driver, and a parallel vertical of the driver’s reins. Hunt drew inspiration for this piece from a more naturalistic sculpture from 5th-century BCE Greece. He worked in wet plaster to create fluid folds in the charioteer’s garments, mirroring techniques used in ancient art.

Two Open Triangles Up Gyratory II by George Rickey

On the Museum’s east lawn, visitors will find George Rickey’s Two Open Triangles Up Gyratory II. The sculpture consists of two triangular forms atop a stainless-steel base. Rickey relies on elements of physics, such as gravity and equilibrium, to create kinetic sculptures like this one, which moves with the weather. He uses spare geometric forms to emphasize spatial relationships between moving parts.

Phrygian Cap by Alexander Calder

Located on the Museum’s Albert G. Blanke Sculpture Terrace, Alexander Calder’s sculpture comprises shapes cut from sheet metal that he then painted. While this sculpture is nonobjective, the curling red shape at the top of the sculpture references a Phrygian cap, or an ancient hat style that became a symbol of liberty during the French Revolution of 1789.

Standing Figure by Henry Moore

In this work located on the Mary Ann Lee Plaza, Henry Moore takes an experimental approach to portraying the human body. He abstracts the body by removing elements of the torso, which creates noticeable departures from the human form. The resulting figure has two pin-like eyes, thin strips to represent arms and legs, and more substantial forms showing hips and knees. Two triangles at shoulder height give a warrior-like quality to the sculpture.

Untitled by Ellsworth Kelly

This work, located on the Museum’s South Terrace, reflects Ellsworth Kelly’s work in large-scale sculpture. Measuring 14 feet wide by over 6 feet high, the piece comprises two curved planes that join in a central angular axis. Kelly drew his initial inspiration for the shape of the sculpture from cutting and folding the top of a take-out paper coffee cup.

Stone Sea by Andy Goldsworthy

Located in an outdoor courtyard, Stone Sea is the Museum’s largest piece on view. Weighing approximately 300 tons, the sculpture comprises 25 arches built from blocks of limestone. Visitors can walk through the piece, or they can view it from multiple vantage points inside and outside the Museum. The installation is open for walk-throughs on a first-come, first-served basis on certain days. Stay tuned for a blog post this summer with more information about the origins of Stone Sea.