4 R E P O RT O F T H E D I R E C T O R The phrase “dedicated to art and free to all” is carved in stone above the main entrance of the <strong>Saint</strong> <strong>Louis</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>. This dual charge to artistic excellence and public accessibility has shaped the initiatives and activities of the two years past just as it has informed the 125-year history of this great institution. It is my privilege to report on the specific accomplishments of the <strong>Museum</strong> in 2003 and 2004. A major focus in 2003 and 2004 was the reinstallation of significant aspects of our collection to improve our visitors’ experience and understanding of the works of art on view. Galleries for African art, American painting and sculpture, and arms and armor were reinstalled in 2003, and galleries for Japanese and south and southeast Asian art in 2004. The works of art in these collections were comprehensively reviewed and evaluated, with new curatorial research upgrading our knowledge and our records. Quality was the primary criterion not only for the selection of what would be on view but also for design of the galleries. Improved lighting and mounts, more appropriate casework and gallery arrangements, and extensive interpretive texts were designed to enhance the quality of our visitors’ experience of the extraordinary works of art in our care. A key initiative in our 125th anniversary year was the publication of a new <strong>Saint</strong> <strong>Louis</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> Handbook of the Collection. This beautiful and informative book tells the history of the growth of our collection and chronicles the extraordinary gifts and contributions that have helped to develop its texture and character. It will serve as both a fitting souvenir and general introduction to our remarkable holdings for visitors and students as well as a reference for scholars and institutions. The <strong>Museum</strong>’s collection grew in important and significant ways during 2003 and 2004. Thanks to a generous group of donors, the <strong>Museum</strong> acquired 16 major works by the contemporary German artists Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Jörg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Markus Lüpertz, A. R. Penck, and Sigmar Polke. This acquisition further strengthened the <strong>Museum</strong>’s already world-renowned collection of 20th-century German art. Other notable additions to the collection included the 17th-century painting Apollo and Marsyas by Bartolomeo Manfredi, purchased with the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. John Peters MacCarthy, Phoebe and Mark Weil, and Christian B. Peper; an 18th-century Mughal Fly Whisk, funded by the Young Friends in celebration of their 10th anniversary; Roxy Paine’s 50-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture Placebo, commissioned by the <strong>Museum</strong> with funds given in memory of John Wooten Moore; an outstanding collection of over 100 works of German and Austrian art from the second half of the 20th century, the partial and promised gift of Betsy Millard; and an important late painting by Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXII, the partial and promised gift of the Donald L. Bryant Jr. Family Trust. The <strong>Museum</strong>’s exhibition schedule featured innovative, noteworthy, and compelling shows. Some exhibitions originated here, while others came to us from peer institutions worldwide. We were honored to host Treasury of the World: Jeweled <strong>Art</strong>s of India in the Age of the Mughals, organized by the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait National <strong>Museum</strong>; Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance & Baroque Engravings, Etchings, & Woodcuts from the Baltimore <strong>Museum</strong> of <strong>Art</strong>; and Painted Prayers: Books of Hours from the Morgan Library. Among the exhibitions organized by our curators was German <strong>Art</strong> Now, an overview of postwar German painting and sculpture from the <strong>Saint</strong> <strong>Louis</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> that celebrated our new acquisitions and then traveled to the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt, Germany. The Illustrated Garden, an illuminating collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden, presented their superb and virtually unknown collection of illustrated botanical treatises. Several 2004 exhibitions helped commemorate the bicentennial of the <strong>Louis</strong>iana Purchase and the 100th anniversary of the World’s Fair, which took place in and around our monumental Cass Gilbert building. <strong>Art</strong> of the
Giuseppe Scolari, Italian, active 1550–1607; The Rape of Proserpina, after 1582–1607; woodcut; image: 17 5/8 x 13 5/8 inches; Friends Fund 18:2004 5
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