Saint Louis visit in January 2020

photographs taken January 3rd of 2020

If you will click on any pictures you will be able to view much larger versions of the images.


Detail from “Odyssey” (2016) by Ai Weiwei, a sort of wallpaper design depicting the conditions and experiences of refugees and modern conflcit in the early 21st century. Young boys hold soccer balls, men kneel in prayer, and two young men share a blanket as they stand outside their tents, in the background a fence topped with razor wire looms.	The wallpaper in this gallery (as well as the hanging mirrored orb) are part of “bombs” (2019), a wallpaper display 65 feet (20 meters) by 36 feet (11 meters) depicting 43 life-scale images of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear bombs, sarin gas bombs, cluster bombs and so forth. Intimidating.	Forever Bicyles (2019) by Ai Weiwei, a monumental arch created with 720 bicycles. Displayed in the Washington University Kemper Art Museum in late 2019 into the first week of January 2020.

Ai Weiwei took this photograph in 2008 after he was harassed by police sent to intimidate him upon his return to China to give testimony in support of Tan Zuoren, an activist who was researching the deaths of students caused by shoddy construction that made schools collapse in the Sichuan earthquake. The photographs is entitled Illumination. The photograph features the reflection of his cell phone’s light illuminating the scene, but the photograph also illuminates the way the Chinese government responded to independent investigators such as Ai Weiwei and Tan Zhuren trying to uncover the truth and expose decisions and behaviors that caused at least 4,851 students (the number of names confirmed by Ai Weiwei, Tan Zuoren, and their associates) to die in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.	This is the massive work: Forever Bicycles by Ai Weiwei (2012).	This is another view of the 720 stainless steel bicycles assembled into an arch called Forever Bicycles. The name of this work refers to the brand name of a popular bicycle from the artist’s youth. In 1992 I used a bike to get around Beijing, but upon my return to the city in 2012 I was of the opinion that it had become too dangerous to ride a bike around that city.

Detail of the work Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar in which Ai Weiwei has had porcelain artists depict refugees’ stories using the aesthetic of Yuan Dynasty blue and white ceramics. So, here the artist takes a recognizable antique style and uses it to present the viewer with highly affecting images of current events. In the image above we can see refugees, perhaps from Afghanistan or Syria, walking across a mountainous landscape, carrying bundles containing their possessions.	Adults and children cross a rugged landscape as they flee from war, terrorism, or oppression. The figure represents refugees of the current day or recent decades, but the style of their depiction dates to Chinese styles of ceramic art dating back about seven hundred years ago. A detail from Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar by Ai Weiwei.	Refugees cross a sea during a storm; one cradles a baby in his arms. These could be refugees trying to get to Greece from Turkey in recent years, but they are painted in the style of ancient Chinese ceramics. Detail from Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar by Ai Weiwei.

At the top of Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar by Ai Weiwei we can see modern armored tanks and soldiers as well as ruined cities, perhaps in Syria or Iraq.	Behind the porcelain Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar by Ai Weiwei we see the wallpaper Odyssey, which deals with the same themes of continuing warfare and the resulting misery of refugees seeking safety. In this photograph we see a part of the porcelain showing a lightening storm over the Aegean Sea as refugees try to make it from Turkey to the Greek Island of Lesbos.	Adjacent to the Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar visitors to the exhibit could admire the 2017 work Blue-and-White Porcelain Plate (The Journey), another example of Ai Weiwei having skilled artisans use 14th century techniques and style to depict stages in the odyssey of refugees. These stages include: 1) war; 2) ruins in the aftermath of war; 3) escape over land; 4) escape over sea; 5) refugee camps; 6) demonstrations and protests. In the context of the Syrian conflict, the demonstrations and protests (The Arab Spring of 2011/12) can also represent the start of the cycle. This plate (one of six) clearly shows us the escape over land.

At the base of Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar by Ai Weiwei we can see refugees protesting and throwing stones, while tear gas canisters are spewing noxious fumes.	Detail from the base vase in Porcelain Vases as a Pillar, showing the riot police. Two are firing tear gas canisters, and others behind them hold up shields. One police in riot armor in front runs toward a protester who lies on his back; the police holds a baton and the protestor feebly holds up one hand to protect his face from the expected strike from the baton.	Toward the middle of Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar we can see this crying mother with a weeping child and a dead person in the mother’s lap. This is part of the ruins in the aftermath of war. Behind the little trio of misery we can see concrete shapes with rebar sticking out of them. Even the foliage, which droops down from the top of the jar, conveys a sense of fatigue and sorrow.

This portion of Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar shows two children with an adult standing near a small pine tree and looking down from a height. Below them are rows of tents, the refugee camp. In this work, this scene marks the end of the escape theme and begins the refugee camp theme.	A scene of the refugee camp. In the foreground are tents, and we can see a person who seems distressed or bored, holding their hand up to their face as they sit in their tent. Another person hangs clothing on a stick to dry. In the background people play with a ball in front of a large number of tents.	In this scene in the refugee camp we see migrating birds flying over the camp, and leaves blowing in the wind. Perhaps it is autumn. The birds can fly to safety, but the refugees remain in the camp. This is from Ai Weiwei’s Stacked Porcelain Vases as a Pillar.

Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei. Here we see conflict and war, with classical Greek and Persian motifs presented with images of modern warfare and riot police, emphasizing the universal issue of warfare and violent conflict.	Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei: This detail shows the ruins of war, with an image of a woman holding a man with bullet holes in his shirt. The pose of the woman and the victim is like that of Mary and Jesus in the Pietà by Michelangelo. The larger image includes scenes of men holding decapitated heads in a cemetery and other gruesome details.	Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei, a large wallpaper installation depicting violent conflict and war, the resulting destruction of war, the escape of refugees by land and water as they flee the violence and death, the refugee camps, and the demonstrations and discontent of some refugees. The escape from war over land is here depicted with refugees riding on a truck loaded with bundles, and below this, refugees ride on large rafts as they cross the sea.

Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei. This part of the wallpaper shows the escape over land, with Europa riding a bull amidst the refugees fleeing the conflict in Asia. Below this, we see the escape over water, with people arriving from a raft in Greece.	Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei: Ai Weiwei appears in the Odyssey wallpaper. He is, after all, a refugee himself, having been kicked out of China after enduring persecution there. He places himself on a raft at sea, and he holds what might be a net. He also appears elsewhere in Odyssey (the 2016 wallpaper) as part of a crowd listening to music.	Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei. This scene shows the refugee camp: families with children and laundry and barbed wire.

This part of the Odyssey wallpaper shows political demonstrations and the protests of refugees, who demand the right to survive.	Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei: This part of the wallpaper shows demonstrators and the instruments of surveillance. Clouds of tear gas are also present.	In this part of the Odyssey wallpaper we see riot police and trucks collecting the rags and possessions left by the refugees after they have been cleared away. Below this we see images of war and destruction, including modern armaments and adults holding dead children.

Through, 2007-08. Ai Weiwei. Wooden tables and beams and pillars from dismantled temples dating to the Qing Dynasty. The old and traditional wooden beams and tables represent crafts and values that are now displaced as China builds itself a new infrastructure. These beams and pillars are connected in a composition that is both heavy and delicate, balanced and chaotic.	This assembly of bricks and concrete is called Souvenir from Shanghai (2012), and Ai Weiwei made it by saving some of the rubble after the Chinese authorities demolished his art studio in Shanghai. The rubble is framed by a rosewood bed frame that dates to the late Qing Dynasty.	Grapes (2015) by Ai Weiwei. This is an assembly of 34 three-legged stools dating from the years before the Republican Revolution (1911). The title of the work is supposedly based on the idea that the stools look like a cluster of grapes. Ai Weiwei had carpenters take apart the stools and then reassemble them so that the stools share legs.

Detail from Odyssey (2016) by Ai Weiwei. The wallpaper has long horizontal images that work like a hybrid graphic novel and the images on a classical Greek vase. The layers can be read as describing war, ruin, fleeing by land, fleeting by water, refugee camps, and protest.	¡Otra Margarita! (Another Marguerite!), 1892. By the Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923). The title is a reference to the Margaret (Gretchen) who kills her infant in Goethe’s play Faust. This is based on a scene the artist saw on a train between Madrid and Valencia.	Paysans des Vosges fuyant devant l’invasion de 1814 (Vosges Peasants Fleeing the Invasion of 1814). Gustave Brion (Alsacian French, 1824-1877) painted this in 1867. This shows refugees (Alsacians) fleeing from an invasion launched by the Prussians (Germans) against France toward the end of the Napoleonic wars. It is similar to the work by Ai Weiwei shown elsewhere on this page.

Julien Dupré, French 1851-1910. Haying Scene, 1882. An example of realist painting, which was very popular in France and the United States in the late 19th century.	Le lundi (Mondays), 1858, is a painting by Jules Breton (1827-1906) depicting a Monday in a local tavern in his hometown of Courriéres. In the tradition of realism, this painting shows working-class persons taking off from work and trying to find distraction or pleasure in tobacco, alcohol, games, and the company of friends. The fact that no one in the painting looks especially happy or healthy tips off the viewer that Breton is a social critic (as most painters in the realism tradition were), but I can’t tell whether he is more disapproving of the recreational pastimes of his neighbors from the village depicted in this scene, or the social system that drove them to this sort of recreation and the fact that no better distraction was popular.	Charles Émile Jacque (1813-1894) painted this shepherdess in his Landscape with Sheep (c. 1870-80). She sits beside her companion sheep dog with a staff at her side, and her sheep graze and rest above her on the slope.

Detail of Thomas Cole’s Aqueduct near Rome, 1832. The skull is visible, and you can even see that there are tiny human figures near the Aqueduct (but you may need to click on the image to bring up the larger version to do that).	Thomas Cole (1801-1848) painted this painting, Aqueduct near Rome, in 1832. The painting depicts the Tor Fiscale, a medieval watchtower, and the remains of an ancient Roman aqueduct spreading out under Mount Albano and the Sabine Hills. The time of day is evening, and the unseen sun is setting off to the right, casting an end-of-day light on the remains of empires. A skull sits out on the ground by a stream. Cole founded the Hudson River school of landscape painting, in which light in the landscapes and meditations on spiritual themes (such as mortality and the fading of empires, as in this painting) were common themes.	Frederic Edwin Church, 1826-1900. Twilight: Mount Desert Island, Maine, 1865. Church studied painting under the mentoring attention of Thomas Cole, and became a master of light in landscape. Church, however, was not as interested in the moral allegories or messages in his landscapes as Cole was, and instead, he concentrated on details and emotions in his portrayal of grand landscapes. In March of the year this was painted, Church lost one son and one daughter to a diphtheria outbreak, and in April as the nation was ending the long and murderous Rebellion of the Southern Slaveholders, President Lincoln was assassinated. Perhaps the painting contains both some grief, but also some hope or solace.

This is detail on the left side of A New England Landscape by Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886). After Thomas Cole died as a young man, Durand became the leading figure in the Hudson River school of painting. This is an idealized scene of rural New England, and shows a cottage, a dirt road, and someone in a red jacket riding a horse-pulled wagon toward the cottage. Beneath a small grove of trees (elms, I think) two women sit, and a well-dressed man gestures with an arm.	This is detail on the right side of Asher Brown Durand’s 1870 painting, A New England Landscape. Durand (1796-1886) was an American painter in the Hudson school of landscapes. That school painted landscapes with spiritual implications and an emphasis on light and luminosity. These sorts of landscapes were popular from the 1830s through the 1880s, but were especially welcome in the decades following the War of the Rebellion of the Southern Slaveholders, when survivors preferred placid, bucolic scenery that represented the opposite of the rapid industrialization that was transforming the country at that time.	Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap, 1851-52. A painting by George Caleb Bingham (“The Missouri Artist”) depicting settlers from the British colonies (or the newly independent United States) crossing the mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. Bingham would have followed along a similar path about five decades later as a young boy in 1819 when his family moved from Virginia to the floodplain of the Missouri River in central Missouri. Bingham had an interesting career, first learning some artistic skills while working as a janitor in his mother’s school, and then practicing cabinet making and preaching. He was a Missouri politicians, and helped preserve Missouri against the machinations of the rebellious slaveholders in the 1860s, and ended his days as an art professor.

George Inness, 1825-1894. Storm on the Delaware, 1891. The storm seems to be a small one, and it may have just passed, because we can see a double-rainbow over the Delaware River.	Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1823-1880. Early October in the White Mountains, 1860. A large lake reflects the early snow atop the White Mountains (perhaps Mount Washington), and the hills between the lake and the mountains show a touch of yellow and orange foliage. Two cattle wade in the shallows of the lake.	Le chemin des vieux, Luzancy, Seine-et-Marne, 1871-72 (the old people’s path). By Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875). Corot was a very productive landscape painter, and a leader in the Barbizon school of France, a sort of stage between the Neoclassical and Impressionist movements.

Peasant Girl, 1891. By Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922). This child would have been born in rural France in the early to mid-1880s. I wonder what sort of a life she experienced. Was she dressed up for a special occasion, or is this how girls who lived on farms in her village typically dressed? Bonnat taught at the École des Beaux-Arts, where his students included Thomas Eakins and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.	Before Sunrise (Morning Twilight, at Daybreak), 1906-07. By Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925). Tryon is one of the lading American tonalists. Tonalism was a sort of successor to the Hudson River school, in which painters were concerned with symbolic meaning of landscapes, but tonalists gave their attention to color, and using harmonic colors that did not offer strong contrast, they attempted to make paintings work like musical compositions, with harmony and gentle contemplative themes.	Diamond Cove, Isles of Shoals, 1908. By Childe Hassam (1859-1935). This painting is one of a series showing islands off the coast of New Hampshire (Star Island, Lunging Island, Seavey’s Island, etc.). Hassam was a significant American impressionist, and as you can see, his work captures a sense of water moving gently against rocks.

Detail from the lower right corner of L’oeil du silence (The Eye of Silence), 1943-44. By Max Ernst (1891-1976). The human mask with bright red and blue colors suggests a human figure, possibly under water. There is a melancholic aspect to the picture. There seem to be geological shapes or possibly fossils amidst the ruins and rubble. I like how the painting is both a landscape and architectural.	Detail from the upper right corner of L’oeil du silence (The Eye of Silence), 1943-44. By Max Ernst (1891-1976). Ernst ranks with Kandinsky, Tanguy, Arp, and Tobey among my favorite 20th century artists in the fields of surrealism and abstraction. Ernst was in exile in the United States during the War, and this painting presents viewers with his feelings about the violence and ruin of Europe.	Glimmer of Violence, 1958. By Roberto Matta (1911-2002). I sometimes confuse the work of Matta with that of his friend, the Armenian Arshile Gorky. Matta’s works are abstract or surreal, and I usually like them. This one seems to have shapes that could refer to skeletons or ribs and bones.

Detail from the lower center of La tour marine (Tower of the Sea), 1944. By Yves Tanguy (1900-1955). Clicking on the image will bring up the full painting, which is very tall. Tanguy's works from the late 1920 through to the early 1950s generally have this aspect to them. There is a field, usually empty, and a few shapes or structures in the foreground or middle ground, and perhaps some lines or wires. The colors are muted and calm.	Detail from the lower right of La tour marine (Tower of the Sea), 1944. By Yves Tanguy (1900-1955). Tanguy is second only to Kandinsky among my favorite masters of abstraction and surrealism. His paintings, including this one, always feature barren landscapes with strange shapes arranged like architecture reminding me of the structures in the Garden of Earthly Delights (Hieronymus Bosch) or some sort of playground in a dream. There are strong shadows, suggesting a bright spotlight or sun on some alien world, and the selective use of bright colors and sharp distinction against the blurry plains of ashes and shadows seems to me an apt metaphor for how our attention is drawn into focus on ideas or motives while all else leaves our conscious thought, withdrawing into the unconscious or unperceived gloom.	This is a detail from the left side of If This Be Not I, 1945. By Philip Guston (1913-1980). Guston was briefly an art professor at Washington University, and this is one of his first paintings after his appointment. This painting refers to the horrors of the War and the extermination camps, which were on everyone’s mind in the mid-1940s. The work is mysterious and troubling. It seems that the children might be putting on a play or performance, but what sort of a drama are they enacting? They child lying down is wearing something that reminds me of what prisoners in Nazi concentration camps wore. The boy with the carnival mask on his face and a paper bag for a hat peers over his mask at the viewer with an intense gaze.

Les belles cyclistes (the beautiful female cyclists) 1944. By Fernand Léger. Painted while he was living in exile in New York City and teaching at Yale. Léger was also a sculptor and filmmaker. He was interested in cubism and painted in his own individual style of cubism in the 1910s.	Untitled (Colored People Grid) 2009-10. By Carrie Mae Weems. In this grid of photographic images of young boys and girls and single-color rectangles Weems plays with the once-pejorative term “colored” in her use of colors and depictions of innocent young children. In some ways this work refers to minimalist and abstract art, but she is addressing themes usually ignored in those styles.	As one enters the Kemper Art Gallery at Washington University, these colorful geometic objects with faces that are made of polarized lenses so that the colors change as you look through them seem almost to float up near the ceiling.

Ursus arctos horribilis, a brown bear. This is a grizzly bear at the St. Louis Zoo.	The grizzly bear seems to be smiling.	This grizzly bear was quite active, and we enjoyed watching it move around.

If you click on the image, you will see both of the grizzly bears in the St. Louis Zoo.	Elephant architectural detail at the St. Louis Zoo. This was the original elephant house, constructed in 1917.	This young gentoo penguin is showing us a profile.

Two Humboldt penguins peer through the glass at their human visitors.	Milan in the Humboldt Haven.	Milan and a Humboldt penguin gaze at each other.

Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)	This Gentoo penguin is looking straight at us.	Portrait of a king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Immature non-breeding Atlantic horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata)	The Penguin habitat. King Penguins and Rockhopper Penguins. My wife says that rockhopper penguins look like a mean old professor who always likes to scold people.	Humboldt Penguins walk around in the outdoor section of the penguin habitat.

Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua)	Arthur and a Humboldt penguin look at each other through a window, only about 20 centimeters apart.	Arthur kneels down to admire two Humboldt penguins who walk by him, separted only by inches and a glass window.

Gentoo penguin walking on rocks in the penguin habitat.	Milan walks toward me, with Arthur behind him on the left and Blake behind him on the right.	A Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata).

Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii). This old lady is Merah, I think. If I’m right, she is the 50-year old (as of January 2020) Orangutan who has been in Saint Louis since 1992. I probably first saw her the week I got married back in October of 1992. She is a great-grandmother, grandmother, and her latest baby is Ginger (born in December of 2014). She was born in the Netherlands, and immigrated to Miami (Metro Zoo), before finally coming to stay in the Fragile Forest exhibit at Saint Louis.	This guy is taking it easy while the younger chimpanzees swing around. I’m guessing this is either Hugo or Jimiyu, two of the older males (aged 26 and 27 in January of 2020) living in the St. Louis Zoo. This is a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), a critically endangered close cousin to humans (we had common ancestors probably less than six million years ago).	This Grey-winged Trumpeter (Psophia crepitans) was not shy at all, and came right up close to me as I walked around in the bird house.

This is a western lowland gorilla, and if I had to guess, I’d say this was probably Nadaya, one of the four older bachelor males in the Fragile Forest exhibit (along with Little Joe, Jontu, and Bakari). If this is Nadaya, he was 18 when I took this photograph (in January 2020). Nadaya has thinner hair over the middle of his forehead and more wrinkles under his eyes.	Here is another portrait of Nadaya, an 18-year-old western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) hanging out in the Fragile Forest exhibit at the Saint Louis Zoo.	The Horned Guan (Oreophasis derbianus) is a bird you might see in Guatemala or Chiapas, Mexico. That bright red horn on its head starts out as two little horns that eventually grow together. This is an endangered species.

This is an Elegant Crested Tinamou (Eudramio elegans) from southern South America (Bolivia and Argentina) living in the St. Louis Zoo.	This cute tiny owl is a Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia).	Here we have a close-up of an endangered Horned Guan from the highlands where the Mayan people live.

This is a mountain lion, also known as a cougar or puma (Puma concolar), one of the few potentially dangerous mammals a hiker or camper in the USA must be aware of (along with bears). They are very shy, so I never worry about them, but when my boys were small and we went hiking in “cougar country” I never let the boys get far away from me.	The mountain lion is a beautiful creature. They are amazingly strong for their size. A ranger in Yellowstone once told us about tracking a cougar that had killed a deer, and finding that at one point the big cat had transported the carcass up a sheer rock face that could not have been climbed (about 3 meters or 9-10 feet high), evidently leaping up that distance with the 100+ pound carcass in its mouth.	This bird was fun to watch. It is a Sunbittern (Eurypyga helias).

This is a male lion (Panthera leo). I think his name is Ingozi, and was roaring. When Lions roar, they sound to me like they are sick, but that’s just how I hear them.	Here we have a young Grevy’s Zebra (Equus grevyi) with his mare. Unlike other zebras and horses, the Grevy’s Zebras live fairly solitary lives, although mares stay close with their foals. Also, while other zebras are common, Grevy’s Zebras are endangered; when I was young there were estimated to be over 15,000 in the wild, and recently there were perhaps only 2,000 in the wild (in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia). I hope this species can be saved before it goes extinct in the wild.	It seems the islands off the coast of Asia sometimes have their own unique versions of pheasants. This is a Palawan Peacock-Pheasant (Polyplectron napoleonis), which occurs in nature only in the humid forests on the island of Palawan (in the Philippines). It is listed as threatened, but not yet endangered.

This cute harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) is named Nunavut (“Nuna”), and she seems to have a cataract problem in her left eye. Anyway, she was very interested in her human visitors, and seemed especially playful and eager to interact with her guests. She is 20 years-old (her 21st birthday is July 8, 2020).	Milan is meeting Nuna the harbor seal. She was interested in us, and even interacted with us, rolling around in the water as we spun around on our feet. She was by far the friendliest animal we met at the zoo.	As we left the zoo we walked through the Discovery Center, and here you can see Rose walking under the Great White Shark hanging from the ceiling.

Nuna the Harbor Seal examines her visitors just before closing time at the Saint Louis Zoo. She gave her attention to adults and children standing at the window, swimming so that her face was at about the same eye-level of each human, looking at each person’s face, and then moving on to the next guest.	These are some of the sea lions (Otariinae) in the St. Louis Zoo. I don’t know who these are: maybe Roby and Dixi or Nipper, or… I can’t tell, really. There are about ten of these sea lions in the zoo, and they zoom around so fast I’ve never been able to tell them apart. These few were holding still and enjoying the remarkably warm day (over 10 degrees C / over 50 degrees F) for the season.	This is a life-sized model of a Giant Squid (Architeuthis) in the Discovery Center at the Saint Louis Zoo.

The Apotheosis of St. Louis (a statue of King Louis IX of France): The city of St. Louis started out as a French city, and was named after this king/saint. For many years when St. Louis was ruled by the Spanish Empire, most of the residents were still French and honored their traditions. The 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis marked 100 years since the city had been brought into the United States of America (along with the rest of the Louisiana Purchase), and this statue was made (by W. R. Hodges following a design by Charles Henry Niehaus) for the occasion of the World’s Fair.	Under the watchful eyes of St. Louis (the statue) many of the citizens of St. Louis like to go sledding down the hill (“Art Hill” because it is the hill sloping down from the art museum) on snowy days. When our boys were young and we lived in Richmond Heights we joined in the tradition and went sledding here. But whether the ground is or isn’t covered in snow, the statue greets visitors to the St. Louis Art Museum, one of the nation’s best museums, and a place that is “free to all” always (residents of the city of St. Louis pay a small tax that helps pay to keep it free).	A Christmas Tree decorating the main hall of the St. Louis Art Museum.

The St. Louis Art Museum was constructed as a permanent structure for the Louisiana Exposition of 1904 (the World’s Fair). This was the Palace of Fine Arts, built in 1902-03. I remember visiting Forest Park and the zoo and art museum with my great-grandfather in 1982, and he told me about visiting the 1904 fair when he was about 11 years-old. Strange to think of him returning to this place after 78 years.	These lovely fountains in the lagoon below Art Hill shine with illumination at night.	The interior of the Saint Louis Art Museum with holiday decorations.

This is the main entry into the Art Museum, and you can see the lovely holiday lights above the doors.	This is a detail of a kain panjang made by Go Tik Swan (1931-2008) in honor of his adopted grandson’s miraculous recovery from a serious illness. The design is “Sri Sadono’s Broken Daggers on a White Background” (parang rusak Sri Sadono latar putih), and was made in the 1980s. Go Tik Swan was from Surakarta, Central Java Province, Indonesia.	This lower body wrap (kain panjang) was made by the famous Go Tik Swan (K.R.T. Hardjonagoro), who lived from 1931-2008. This particular design is a “chicken footprints” (ceplok cakar ayam) motif. Chickens work hard to scratch at the dirt with their feet to get food, and this design makes a good gift for young people, blessing them with a good work ethic.

This offers a close-up look at some detail on the woman’s tubular skirt (kain sarung) c. 1880-1920. This is from Semarang, Central Java.	Woman’s Tubular Skirt (kain sarung) from the late 19th to early 20th century. This is from Semarang, Central Java. Red dye is from the Indian mulberry and the blue die comes from Java indigo. This blue-and-red design style is called bang biru (red-blue). The pattern shows Chinese and European stylistic influences on the Indonesian artists who made this.	A kain dodot using the blumbangan white diamond central field (representing a sacred lake as as a source of energy) surrounded by patterns of lotus leaves and flames, with a darker pattern of anthropomorphic firefly beings on the rest of the wrap. This was made in Yogyakarta in the late 1950s or 1960s.

This is a ceremonial lower body wrap (kain dodot) dating to the late 19th to early 20th century. The design is a “Sprouting Growth” (sěmèn) motif, and such designs were restricted only to aristocrats until recently. The dyes are from natural sources: browns from yellow flame trees and indigo.	This broken dagger on a dark background pattern dates to the 1950s-1970s, and comes from Sukarta, Central Java. Such broken dagger patterns were once only worn by members of royal families in Sumatra and Yogyakarta, and date back to the 17th-century. Supposedly Sultan Agung of Mataram (Central Java) was meditating and gained some sort of insight into royal power and cosmic energy that inspired the curved wavelike design.	Woman’s tubular skirt (kain sarung) with design of floral bouquets, birds, and butterflies on a rice grain (beras wutah) background. This dates to the 1950s, and used synthetic dyes. This is a style from Pekalongan, and would be worn in times of mourning.

This is a woman’s tubular skirt (kain sarung) made in the 1970s by Oey Pek Sien, of Pekalongan, Central Java. This is a completely hand-drawn pattern from Kedungwuni made with synthetic dyes. The design features flowers, birds, and butterflies.	Oey Pek Sien made this batik design with seaweed and flowers patterns in vibrant colors (because of artificial dyes).	This woman’s tubular skirt (kain sarung) dates to the 1950s, and it has flowers, birds, and butterflies made with synthetic dyes. It is from the north coast of Java, and was made in a Peranakan (Javanese-Chinese) workshop.

This is a detail of the Matheron style kain panjang featuring the mythical Garuda motif. Here in close up you can see the smaller of the two Garuda designs, with the wings and fan tail. The pattern was made by hand. This was made by someone in Banyumas, in central Java.	Woman’s lower body wrap (kain panjang) with design of double-winged and fan-tailed Garuda (sawat gurdo) amidst flowering plants, 1930s-1940s, from Banyumas, Central Java. The pattern has shapes representing mythical birds (garuda or gurdo) and flowers and leaves. The colors are red, dark blue, and black on an ivory background, a color scheme inspired by Dutch (the colonial overlords of Indonesia) taste. This type of color scheme and design is a Matheron or Materos style.	Sewing Chair (c. 1870) by the Herter Brothers furniture makers. Rosewood light and dark wood marquetry, ash, paint, gilding, brass. The upholstery is reproduction silk and wool. I remember that most of my elderly relatives had a chair like this in their homes when I was a little boy, but I hardly see them any more. These days, not many people sew.

Early in the Western Zhou empire this device was part of some horse’s armor. This is a horse chamfron (dang lu), part of the armor for a horse that protects the horse’s head. It has an animal head design. It dates to the 11th-10th centuries BC (early Western Zhou dynasty: the Western Zhou ruled from c. 1050 to 771 BC, approximately the same period of Hebrew rule under kings in Israel and Judea).	This glass beaker dates to the 1st century, and comes from the Eastern Mediterranean (Roman Empire). There is a slight green tint to the glass (perhaps some copper mixed in with the sand?), and some leaf patterns on the surface.	Tabouli I had for lunch when visiting the Saint Louis Art Museum. Lots of cucumbers and tomatoes and grilled yellow bell peppers mixed in with the sprouted bulgur, chopped parsley, and mint. Yes, it was yummy. The prices are high for the Midwest ($8.50 for this bowl, I think), but having just recently been in the Pacific Northwest (where everything is about 20% more expensive than in the Midwest) it didn’t seem extortionate.

This ding (tripod food vessel) dates to the 12th century BC, which puts it in the late Shang Dynasty (1600-1050 BC). You can see animals portrayed in panels under the top rim, and a large horned animal (with antlers or multiple horns) taking up much of the side. Animal motifs were very widely used.	This is the largest known sculptural mask from the Western Zhou dynasty, and it dates to the 10th century BC. The mask depicts a creature with tusks and a broad nose, large feathery eyebrows, and two horns.	This is a marble sculpture depicting the head of a young man. It dates to the mid-to-late 1st century. The young man has a wreath of laurel crowning his head, indicating that he won something in a competition. Laurel trees were associated with Apollo, and Apollo was the patron god of poetry and music, so perhaps this young many was a poet or singer.

This is a Persian book cover dated to 1806, a style popular early in the Qajar dynasty (1796-1925). Red flowers and green leaves and vines outlined in gold on a white field.	This is a bottle made in Bidar, India in the 18th century (Mughal period). This sort of metal object made of a medal with a zinc alloy that turns black when bathed in an acidic solution to highlight the silver inlay is called Bidri ware.	This tile dates to the late 16th to early 17th century. It was made in Iran during the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736).

Detail of an ornamental glass window panel that was installed in the Frederick Lothrop Ames House in Boston, Massachusetts (1882). The panel features these flowering cherry blossoms. Designed by John La Farge (1835-1910).	George Grant Elmslie and Louis Sullivan designed this mahogany ornamental panel (1899), which was used in the Women’s Lounge and Writing Room of the Schlesinger and Mayer Building in Chicago.	Hanging Lanterns from the Robert R. Blacker House, Pasadena, California (c. 1908). Designed by Charles and Henry Greene. Charles and Henry spent a lot of their youth in St. Louis, and graduated from the Manual Training School of Washington University and then studied architecture at MIT. They practiced architecture in Pasadena, California. The Japanese influence on their work may have originated in their visits to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and their time at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.

Neuf Series, 1995 by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne/Arapaho). The word “neuf” is the Cheyenne word for “four” and there are a series of paintings on this theme. The paintings are “inspired by the cedar tree family and canyon lands. These works are about sovereignty and landscape, and they speak to the issues of homeland and beauty.” I see patches of bright colors with jagged edges filling the canvas.	Sandstorm, 1947, by Alice Mahon (1904-1987). Alice was a surrealist poet as a young woman in France (using the name “Alice Paalen”), but she was traveling in Mexico in 1939 when The War broke out, so she remained in Mexico with her friend Frida Kahlo. She associated with various writers, painters, and other intellectuals who came to Mexico City, and she travelled frequently through her life. Her paintings are deeply influenced by her travels throughout Mexico.	The Brederode off Vlieland, c. 1645. By Willem van de Velds the Elder (c.1611-1693). The Brederode was the newest and largest military vessel when this was drawn. The Dutch had constructed it and other warships to escort convoys of merchant ships into the Baltic to trade for timber and grain without paying tolls to the Danish king.

Judah and Tamar, 1644. A painting by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680). In this painting, Tamar is seducing her father-in-law Judah into helping her get pregnant after she has lost her first and second husbands (Judah’s eldest and middle sons) and dispairs that as a widow she will not be able to carry on her family’s line.	Detail of An Elegant Company Playing Cards, c.1660. By Jan Havickszoon Steen (c.1626-1679). This is a close-up view of the card table where the woman is about to win against the soldier who sits across from her. The sword on her chair may have already been won by her when the soldier lost an earlier round.	Detail of A Wijdschip in a Fresh Breeze, c. 1665-70, by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707). This is the wijdschip (a small cargo boat for inland waters and safer bays), and it’s going in some fairly choppy little waves on a windy day.

The Old Violinist, 1660. By Frans van Mieris, the Elder (1635-1681). The violinist seems to be lost in thought. His violin sits on a window ledge near the table where he has been eating shrimp. Perhaps he is thinking over his career as a music-maker who has brought delight to common people during their festivities and parties.	Portrait of a Young Woman as Flora, 1633, by Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638). The model is not dressed as Dutch woman would be in the 1630s; rather, she is wearing a fanciful costume as if she were a sort of shepherdess, yet her clothing and flowers as accessories are all referring to Flora, the goddess of spring and fertility. There was a fashion for paintings such as this in the 1620s and 1630s when many Dutch readers were reading about romantic activities of shepherds and shepherdesses in the ancient world, a common topic in Dutch literature of the day.	Still Life with Flowers, 1709, by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). Rachel was the daughter of Frederick Ruysch, a botany professor and supervisor of the Amsterdam botanical garden. She became very famous as a great artist, and was court painter to Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II in Düsseldorf. In fact, she painted this still life for him. The painting was probably made in May, as these flowers (apple blossoms, poppy, tulips, narcissus, and gentian) can be found in early May.

Detail from Portrait of the De Kempenaer Family (The Margaretha Portrait), c.1653. Here is an unusual family portrait in which no father or male figure appears, but Christina Lepper is dressed in black mourning clothing, and there are two cypress trees in the center of the painting, and the family dog has his back to turned toward us and is looking for someone. These three facts alert us to the fact that Jacobus de Kempenaer has recently died, and we have here his widow and three daughters: Margaretha seated with a doll in her arms, Jacoba sits in her carriage, and Christina stands to the right.	Susanna and the Elders, 1615, by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). The story of how two well-respected wealthy and powerful men tried to extort sexual favors from a young wife (Susanna) and then tried to punish her when she refused them by publicly accusing her of committing adultery (the false accusations were intended to get her executed). Daniel, who was then just a young boy, questioned the elders separately about what they had seen, and as their testimony didn’t match, they were executed instead of Susanna. For the story to make sense to audiences over the dozens of generations since it was put down, audiences must recognize that powerful older men sometimes tried to use their power to force young women into illicit relationships, and the point of the story is to show that God is with the oppressed against such abuses of power and deceit.	Detail from Winter Landscape near a Village, c. 1610-15 by Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634). This particular figure of the old man coming toward us from the gate is based on earlier images of “Old Man Winter” to personify the winter season. The “Little Ice Age” (1560s-1650s) brought about decades of unusually cold weather in Europe, and Avercamp specialized in painting winter scenes such as this one.

Wooded River Landscape with Shepherd, c. 1655-60. By the Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29 - 1682). It appears a recent storm knocked off the top of the oak and blew down the birch tree by this river. The hills suggest this could have been inspired by a visit to the southeastern part of the Netherlands in the 1650s.	Detail of a small Dutch landscape dating to 1570-80 painted by Jacob Grimmer (1525-1589). This landscape is set in the month of February, and was made not very long after Pieter Bruegel painted the first Dutch winter landscape Hunters in the Snow. The painting is sometimes called The Month of February.	Detail from View of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam, c.1667-70 by Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712). The full painting shows the Westerhal with the Protestant church Westerkerk (construction completed in 1631) behind it, but in this smaller detail I show a man working on a boat, and such figures were probably painted by Adriaen van de Velde, who often collaborated with van der Heyden, who specialized in architectural depictions.

Detail of Twilight View of Schwanenburg Castle, c. 1672. By Joris van Der Haagen (c.1615-1669). The painting has a lovely early evening pink light as the sun begins to set in Cleves, a city now in Germany rather than the Netherlands. The herdsman is watching a couple cows and some sheep while the majestic Schwanenburg Castle looms behind him. Such paintings are time machines for us to enjoy history.	Detail from The Town Hall at Haarlem with the Entry of Prince Maurits, c. 1630, by Pieter Janszoon Saenredam (1597-1665). Saenredam specialized in paintings of architecture and churches, but he had his friend Pieter Post paint the figures in the painting. The painting depicts a political coup in October of 1618. The City hall still stands, although it has been extensively remodeled over the centuries.	Detail from View of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam, c.1667-70 by Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712). Adriaen van de Velde helped Jan van der Heyden with painting the human figures. I wonder what the woman with the bucket is doing with that pole she is sticking down into the canal. I like the woman sitting at her doorstep looking at the woman who is walking while holding the hand of a young boy.

Detail of An Italianate Landscape with Travelers on a Path, 1645-50. By Jan Both (1618-1652). The full painting shows a sweeping view of a path and a stream cascading down from the rocky heights, but here I am focused on three figures resting under a tree, with the central person lovingly caressing a dog. Behind them some goats are enjoying a late afternoon rest.	Detail from An Italianate Landscape with Travelers on a Path, 1645-50. By Jan Both (1618-1652). In this view you can see the overall view of the landscape. Like many Dutch painters, Jan Both visited Italy and made many sketches and drawings to inspire the paintings he made when he got back to the Netherlands.	Detail of A Frozen River with Skaters, 1637, by Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (1596-1656). People are enjoying the ice, and someone has set up a sort of tent in which hot refreshments are probably being sold. Off in the distance a windmill and church steeple can be seen. As is typical with van Goyen’s paintings, the horizon line is rather low, and much of the painting depicts the sky and the clouds.

Detail of Winter Landscape with Two Windmills, c.1675, by Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682). The windmill on the right is clearly a sawmill.	Detail from Landscape with an Elegant Hunting Party on a Stag Hunt, c.1665-70, by Nicholas Berchem. The full painting shows the deer cornered by dogs against a body of water, but here I am focused on the elegant hunters. The man in the red coat has our focus in the foreground, but just behind his horse I see a woman accompanying a man in a light-colored jacket. That couple must be along to observe the hunt, and not to kill the deer. Berchem was from Haarlem, where hunting was popular during the 17th century Dutch Republic.	Detail of Crossing the Ford, mid 1640s, by Isack van Ostade (1621-1649). Isack and his brother Adriaen specialized in painting the lives of peasants and common persons, much like the Realism painters of the 19th century would do a couple centuries later. The Netherlands are flat, and I suppose puddles and little streams must have regularly flooded roads. The woman is barefoot, and I wonder if she has removed her shoes to avoid the mud, or whether she simply doesn’t wear shoes.

A Landscape in Brazil, 1663, by Frans Post (1612-1680). The Dutch briefly had a colony in Brazil (Nieuw Holland, 1630-1654), and this painting shows a romanticized view of how Frans Post imagined Dutch merchants would like to see the colony. Post had visited the colony and painted more realistic documentary paintings of the colony before it was recaptured by the Portuguese. In fact, the families brought as enslaved workers in Nieuw Holland suffered the highest mortality rates of any slave populations in the Americas, which tells us something about the management practices of the Dutch and Portuguese slaveowners in Nieuw Holland that is not depicted in this painting. Sadly, it seems no Dutch artists came to see and paint the Dutch colony in Taiwan (1624-1662), so we do not have so many propaganda images documenting life in Formosa as this work portrays life in Dutch Brazil.	Detail from Church of Saint Cecilia, Cologne, c.1670-80, by Gerrit Adrianensz Berkheyde (1638-1698). Gerrit travelled to Cologne with his brother in the 1650s, and he made many sketches and drawings of what he saw, which he used when he returned to the Netherlands to produce paintings such as this very realistic and accurate view. This was the habit of most Dutch painters, who would travel around Europe sketching and drawing, and build up a supply of impressions and inspirations to supply their painting work for decades afterward. As always, I am interested in the figures in this view; a woman seems to be selling carrots and other vegetables in the middle of the street, and another woman seems to be doing her washing right by a well.	Detail of Winter Landscape with Figures in a Snowstorm, c.1655-60, by Art van Der Need (1603-1677). Most 17th century Dutch winter landscapes show people outdoors enjoying fine winter weather and playing on ice or exploring a landscape of snow. Here, however, we have van Der Neer’s impressions of an actual snow storm, with strong wind driving the snowflakes at the man and his dog standing on the bank by the river. Despite the snow, many people are out on the ice, and it appears that some small persons would like to fish in the hole cut out of the ice.

Arthur, Blake, Milan, and Rose.	The friends stand in front of one of Monet’s paintings of the water lilys in his garden at Giverny, France.	Four friends at the Saint Louis Art Museum during our day trip on Friday the 3rd of January, 2020.

Arthur is going to get the first slice of pizza (and offer it to me). Back when his grandparents still lived in the St. Louis area, we used to get a Pi pizza when we came down to visit them. I very much like Pi pizza.	Blake is about to get his first taste of Pi (π) pizza. He liked it.	The boys try out for the Lollipop Guild. Delmar has changed significantly since I used to hang out here in the early 1980s. It was rougher back then.

Photographs

The Divine Springtime

By Eric Hadley-Ives

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