AR 01-02 final - Saint Louis Art Museum

to enjoy these popular pieces that had not been displayed
together in more than 20 years. Also in late
2003 we installed art from the 1980s and 90s in the
newly renovated Gallery 322 and found an elegant,
open space for these contemporary works. The same
gallery hosted an installation of Assemblage sculpture
from the collection in 2004, which included several
boxes by Joseph Cornell on view for the first time at
the Museum. Gallery 336 was reinstalled with largescale
Pop and Minimalist art from the 1960s and 70s;
our major works by Chuck Close, Ellsworth Kelly,
Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol are perfectly housed
in this expansive, light-filled space.
The care and preservation of the collection is primarily
carried out by our conservation staff, who spent much
of the two-year period preparing the works of art
scheduled for new placements in the African, American,
and arms and armor galleries. They also worked on
other art in the collection, among these a large floor
sculpture by Richard Serra and an outdoor sculpture
by Claes Oldenburg. In its overall commitment to
the best care of all the works in the collection, the
Museum created its first dedicated space for paper
conservation and began construction of a new print
study room. The state-of-the-art paper lab and study
room will substantially improve the preservation of
our thousands of prints, drawings, and photographs
and enhance their viewing and study by visiting scholars
and students.
In 2003 and 2004 the Museum had an active publishing
program. Many years of research and discussions
coalesced into the publication of our new Handbook
of the Collection, a beautifully illustrated guide to
the 300 most important works in the collection. The
Museum also celebrated two of our collection-based
exhibitions with catalogues—German Art Now and
University City Ceramics—each of which provided
new research on works of art in our collection as they
contributed important insights to their respective
fields of art history.
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