The Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection features more than 36,000 objects, and it continues to grow every year thanks to generous gifts of art and funding as well as Museum purchases. As of writing this in December, nearly 300 works have been accessioned in 2023, and more often are received as end-of-year gifts.
To enter the collection, works typically first pass through the collections committee, which is comprised of a group of Museum board members. When SLAM curators propose buying a work and when a donor offers to give art objects to the Museum, the committee often will have the final say on whether the artworks should be added to the collection.
Tonita Peña, San Ildefonso Pueblo and American, 1893–1949; Eagle Dance, c.1932–33; oil on beaverboard; 49 x 96 inches; (The William P. Healey Collection of Native American Art); © Estate of Tonita Peña
In 2023, works from several mediums, spanning various histories and cultures entered the Museum’s collection. Among the works were 100 pieces—including drawings, painting, and sculpture by 62 Indigenous artists—as a promised gift by retired real estate developer and avid collector William P. Healey, of Wyoming. The collection is focused on 20th-century works from artists based primarily in Oklahoma and New Mexico and will introduce 55 new artists to the Museum collection including major names in the field such as Fred Kabotie, Stephen Mopope, Pop Chalee, and Allan Houser.
SLAM this year was also the recipient of a gift of 157 pieces of Continental European art pottery from Dr. Martin Eidelberg, of New York. The works represent a broad selection of forms and approaches to ornament by Austrian, French, Belgian, Dutch, German, Italian, and Scandinavian makers from 1875-1925 and make SLAM one of the leading collectors of European art pottery in the country. The greatest concentration in the Eidelberg gift is more than 50 works by French and Belgian makers, bringing context to the Museum’s holdings of works by Taxile Doat, the former Sèvres decorator, who was then working at University City.
To close out 2023, here is a selection of some of the other pieces that entered SLAM’s permanent collection during year.
Wole Lagunju’s Irawo II
Irawo II is a powerful image of Irawo, a Yoruba ruler from southwestern Nigeria. Painted by Nigerian born Wole Lagunju, details in this contemporary work highlight connections between royalty, nature, and the divine world. Irawo wears a beaded crown featuring a group of birds on top. It was purchased by the Museum at EXPO Chicago Art Fair in April 2023, with funds from the Northern Trust Purchase Prize. The Museum was one of three national institutions to receive the award of this prize, enabling the purchase of artwork at the Fair.
The work is currently on view in the Gary Werths and Richard Frimel Gallery 248.
Yoruba artists; Man's Robe (agbada), late 19th century; silk (alaari), cotton; 49 × 92 in. (124.5 × 233.7 cm); Saint Louis Art Museum, Funds given in memory of Pauline E. Ashton 12:2023
Yoruba artists Man’s Robe (agbada)
The bright magenta color of the Man’s Robe results from alaari, dyed waste silk traded into Nigeria through the trans-Saharan trade. Here, the brilliant purple and light pink stripes are complemented by finely woven stripes of black and white cotton threads. This piece was purchased through funds given in memory of Pauline E. Ashton.
It is currently on view in the textile exhibition Aso Oke: Prestige Cloth from Nigeria in the Carolyn C. and William A. McDonnell Gallery 100 through March 10, 2024.
Augusta Savage, American, 1892–1962; cast by Roman Bronze Works, New York, New York, active 1897–1980s; Untitled (Girl with Pigtails), c.1931–40; bronze; 8 1/4 x 5 x 3 1/2 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase, Bequest of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, and Gift of Mrs. Ophelia Hollowell, all by exchange 44:2023
Augusta Savage’s Untitled (Girl with Pigtails)
This bust-length portrait of a young African American girl conveys sweetness without sentimentality. Though quite small, the sculpture, purchased by the Museum, demonstrates Augusta Savage’s remarkable ability to capture a sense of childhood. Savage was a leader in the Harlem Renaissance, an important early 20th-century African American cultural movement. Sculptures by Savage are rare, due to constraints on her time and funding.
The work is currently on view in Gallery 333.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Enrolled Salish, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, MT, born 1940; State Names Map: Cahokia, and Trade Canoe: Osage Orange, 2023; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Siteman Contemporary Art Fund, and funds given by Barbara and Andy Taylor,The Werner Family, John and Susan Horseman, Christine Taylor-Broughton and Lee Broughton, Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg, Pam and Greg Trapp, Mr. and Mrs. Gary Wolff, Dottie and Kent Kreh, Dwyer Brown and Nancy Reynolds, Suzy Besnia and Vic Richey, Clare M. Davis and David S. Obedin, Yvette Drury and John Paul Dubinsky, Judith Weiss Levy, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Lowenhaupt, and Mary Ann and Andy Srenco; © Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York; Image courtesy of Counterpublic, Photograph by Jon Gitchoff
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s State Names Map: Cahokia and Trade Canoe: Osage Orange
Using collage and gestural painting, Quick-to-See Smith’s State Names Map: Cahokia reconfigures the United States map, using text with only those state names based on Indigenous words. In Trade Canoe: Osage Orange, the artist created the frame of a canoe using wood from an Osage Orange tree, and inside the canoe are cast-resin objects—mirrors, guns, liquor, and a beaver—that highlight the destructive qualities of European trade goods on Indigenous peoples. The Museum purchased this pair of new works after they were featured in the 2023 Counterpublic triennial civic exhibition.
As part of the fundraising campaign to purchase these works, SLAM also acquired Kay WalkingStick’s Personal Icon, which was featured in the final gallery of the 2023 exhibition Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s. Personal Icon is among the last major works available from a pivotal era in WalkingStick’s career. During the mid-1970s, WalkingStick turned away from figuration and experimented with different media while also investigating Native history for the first time.
James Brown, American (active Mexico), 1951–2020; The Moroccan, 1993; bronze with verdi patina; 16 x 15 x 7 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of John and Susan Horseman 19:2023; © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
James Brown’s The Moroccan
A bronze sculpture with green patina, this piece strengthens the Museum’s representation of artists exploring what is now considered neo-expressionism and working in the East Village in the 1980s and 1990s. Originally from Los Angeles, Brown moved to New York in 1979 and gained recognition for his work including paintings, sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking. His work was described as “reticent yet intensely seductive…poised between roughness and refinement, violence and grace.” (K. Marriott Jones, May 1995, Artforum). The Moroccan was gifted to the Museum in 2023 by John and Susan Horseman along with six other works by 20th-century American artists. The Horsemans have given more than 30 works of art since 2017.
Najla El Zein, Lebanese (active Netherlands), born 1983; Seduction, Pair 06, 2019; Iranian red travertine; 27 9/16 x 62 5/8 x 18 11/16 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Marjorie Wyman Endowment Fund 38:2023a,b; © Najla El Zein, courtesy of Friedman Benda and Najla El Zein, photography by Damien Arlettaz
Najla El Zein’s Seduction, Pair 06
Seduction, Pair 06, the second in a three-part narrative series of sculptural seating by Franco-Lebanese designer Najla El Zein, represents a meeting of two figures. As the two forms, each sculpted separately, come together, they relax into one another, folding and overlapping into a comfortable pile. Each part in the series is sculpted in a different material, which for El Zein is imbued with psychological weight. The work was purchased through the Marjorie Wyman Endowment Fund.
Fritz Scholder, Luiseño and American, 1937–2005; New Mexico #45, 1966; oil on linen; 71 3/4 × 53 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (182.2 × 136.5 × 3.8 cm); Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Julian C. Eisenstein, and Gift of the Ford Foundation, by exchange 8:2023; © Estate of Fritz Scholder
Fritz Scholder’s New Mexico #45
Gestural bands of loose paint evoke the stratified landscape of northern New Mexico. Blues, greens, and yellows reflect the lush palette of a rain-soaked desert. This painting is among the final contributions to Scholder’s New Mexico series, which the artist started in 1964 after moving to Santa Fe. This work was featured in the 2023 exhibition, Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s.
The work is currently on view in the Alvin and Ruth Siteman Gallery 253.
Pietro Calvi, Italian, 1833–1884; Selika, 1874; marble and bronze; 38 x 19 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequest of Edith J. and C.C. Johnson Spink, Gift of the Ford Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Rice, Bequest of Pearl B. Wright, and Dr. Byron Mansfield Wagner and Jedonna Prince Wagner, all by exchange 6:2023
Pietro Calvi’s Selika
The striking marble and bronze sculpture Selika, by the Italian sculptor Pietro Calvi (1833-1884), depicts the character of the African queen “Selika” from the 1865 opera L’Africaine. An interest in ethnography led Calvi to explore the creation of sculptures featuring people or popular characters of color—not a common subject for sculpture in this period. The newly acquired work is the pendant piece to Calvi’s Othello, which was accessioned by SLAM in 2020.