Action/Abstraction at the St. louis Museum of Art

Sunday, I attended the Action/Abstraction show and the Art Museum with Audra. She had free passes and strangely, couldn't find anybody to go with her! I jumped at that since I love abstract expressionism and free things. Plus, I hadn't been to the art museum yet. The show was pretty good, many pieces I've seen before. The audio tour was awful. It was mainly about the two critics responsible for promoting the abstractions of deKooning, Jasper Johns, and Pollock, and how they feuded, ignored artists of color and women, and were basically asshole who did more harm than good.

The other weird thing about the audio tour I found to be grossly inappropriate was the narrators descriptions of some of the pieces. While listening to the commentary about a Norman Lewis painting, Twilight Sound, the narrator began to lead the listener to "the upper right hand corner, where you'll see an image of a face."

It actually took me aback a little, to hear this on an audiotour. Abstract expressionism is meant to evoke the viewer's imaginative and emotional responses on an individual basis. How dare these narrators think its necessary to guide my mind's eye this way? I was very disappointed and did not listen to the remainder of the audiotour.

The rest of the show was good though. I could have used more factual info about the artists and their lives, and less about the damn critics fighting over the art. A Mark Rothko painting was hung prominently in the third room, which brought me much joy as Mark Rothko is one of my favorite artists. Several of the Ad Reinhardt painting also made me very happy and I enjoyed studying them very much.

I hope to return to the museum soon, because one of their permanent exhibits is a Mummy! YES. I haven't seen a Mummy since King Tut came to the Museum of Natural history in NY. Mummies will always be cool, just like dinosaurs!