Bellwether Gallery of St. Louis Artists
Art in the Age of Josephine Baker from St. Louis Collections
April 28 - September 3, 2006
Setting the scene for the exhibition Josephine Baker: Image and Icon in the adjoining History of Jazz Galleries, the additional galleries of the Sheldon Art Galleries will feature related exhibits focusing on the art and culture of the 1920s – 1940s. In the Bellwether Gallery of St. Louis Artists, Art Deco and other works of art from important St. Louis collections will be on view. Paintings, prints, photographs, fashion, jewelry and decorative arts and design objects will tell the story of the dynamic period of the 1920s to the 1940s, when Josephine Baker became a phenomenon in Europe. The exhibition is organized by the Sheldon Art Galleries.
The exhibition is made possible by Peggy Symes.
Gallery of Photography
An American in Europe: Photographs from the Baroness von Oppenheim
Collection of the Norton Museum of Art
April 28 – August 19, 2006
Drawn from the Baroness von Oppenheim Collection of Photography at the Norton Museum of Art in Palm
Beach, Florida, the exhibition features over 35 photographs from the 1920s and ‘30s by renowned European
photographers Lucia Moholy, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Florence Henri, Lotte Jacobi and
others. The exhibition presents a look at the “New Vision” in photography, ushered in after World War I. The
New Vision was characterized by a strong drive towards renewal and experimentation. The period after World
War I was a time of exuberance and upheaval; a period in which utopian plans were made and social and political
unrest were common. In the arts, a new way of seeing was promoted which spurned the old tired traditions and
fostered a new way of looking at the world – one that celebrated the machine age and the beauty of the
commonplace. Selected to complement the exhibition Josephine Baker: Image and Icon, this group of important
photographs will help the visitor gain insight into the cultural context of the Josephine Baker phenomenon.
Bernoudy Gallery of Architecture
Chez Josephine: the Adolf Loos House and Les Milandes
April 28 – August 19, 2006
Josephine Baker had a special relationship with architecture throughout her life. In 1928, the important modern architect Adolf Loos created plans for a fantastic residence for Baker. The three-story house, clad in dramatic stripes of black and white marble, featured a café and at its center, an indoor swimming pool with windows for underwater viewing. Loos saw in Baker a chance to express his view of her modernity through the language of architecture, but unfortunately, the home was never built. In this exhibition visitors will be able to see plans for the house Loos designed, along with the ambitious plans that she put together for her home, Les Milandes, where she lived from 1940 to 1969. Les Milandes was the headquarters for Baker's dream of racial brotherhood and harmony. The home Baker created for her 12 adopted children, “the rainbow tribe,” who were all of differing races would serve as a base to start her utopian "model community." The exhibition is organized by the Sheldon Art Galleries.
AT&T Gallery of Children’s Art
Regarding Josephine: St. Louis Children’s Art Inspired by Josephine Baker
April 29 – September 9, 2006
This exhibition presents a selection of drawings, collages bead dolls and photographs created by St. Louis-area young people in several workshops on Josephine Baker sponsored by The Sheldon Art Galleries. Workshop participants were shown a presentation of photographs of Josephine Baker and read the story Ragtime Tumpy by Alan Schroeder. Workshop leaders were the local artists Adelia Parker Castro and Edna Patterson-Petty. The exhibition is organized by the Sheldon Art Galleries.
The exhibition is made possible by the Elissa and Paul Cahn Foundation.
