This year the Pulitzer Arts Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary by presenting an exceptionally personal exhibition organized by its founder and board chair, Emily Rauh Pulitzer. Dialogues & Conversations draws in large part from Mrs. Pulitzer’s own art collection, assembled over many decades with her late husband, Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., and the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums and Saint Louis Art Museum, where she began her curatorial career. This milestone project assembles approximately 70 sculptures, drawings, paintings, and photographs—by artists ranging from Edgar Degas and Medardo Rosso to Alberto Giacometti and Doris Salcedo—to examine the nature of artistic influences and exchanges, both writ large in art history and in one person’s life. Dialogues & Conversations sheds light on Mrs. Pulitzer’s passionate interest in the history of drawing and development of sculpture in modern and contemporary art, the latter sparked in part by her extended dialogues over decades with artists like Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly, and Richard Serra. These many influences and ideas are examined within the context of the interdisciplinary approach of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
This exhibition is organized by Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Founder and Board Chair at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, with Molly Moog, Curatorial Associate.
Medardo Rosso (Italian, 1858–1928), Ecce Puer, 1906. Bronze. 17 1/4 × 14 1/4 × 13 inches. Private collection. Photography by Robert Pettus; Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923–2015), Blue Black, 1988. Oil on linen canvas. 95 × 138 1/2 × 1 1/2 inches. Private collection. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation; Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917), Head of a Man, ca. 1858. Black and white chalk with charcoal on wove paper, 15 × 10 7/16 inches. Private collection. Photography by Robert Pettus