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Indepth Arts News:
"Ando Constructed: Photographs of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts by Robert Pettus, Curated by Mel Watkin"
2001-09-07 until 2001-11-14
Forum for Contemporary Art
St. Louis, MO,
USA
More than ten years ago, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts put into motion
an architectural project that would culminate with the construction of the first
public Tadao Ando building in the United States. When construction on the
building began three years ago, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
commissioned nationally recognized architectural photographer Robert Pettus
to photograph the process.
For three years prior to its completion, Pettus spent weekends roaming the
construction site analyzing every detail. Alone, without the construction crew's
presence, he shot hundreds of images that reflect the minimalist elegance of
the Pulitzer Foundation's building and collection, which includes among its
holdings, numerous works by Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra.
Robert Pettus' exhibition at the Forum for
Contemporary Art (FCA) will consist of
five to 10 photographic arrangements
that do not document the building's
construction so much as they capture its
essence. Each arrangement will consist
of three to 12 close-up photographs that,
when seen together, create simple
poems of light, texture and shape. In one
photograph light falling across the bright red liner of a reflecting pool create
an abstraction in red and black worthy of Barnett Newman. In another
arrangement close-up shots of blackened concrete forms broken up by
white circles of light read as a flat, but refined painting, dotted with luminosity.
Robert Pettus has been a major influence
in St. Louis' architectural circles for many
years. He received his degree in
architecture from St. Louis' Washington
University in 1964, where he has taught
since 1974. Immediately after his
graduation from Washington University,
he took a position with Hellmuth, Obata
and Kassabaum, St. Louis' biggest
architectural firm. Eventually Pettus
struck out on his own establishing Robert
Pettus/Architectural Photography in 1974.
His photographic works have appeared in
major architectural magazines including:
Architectural Record, Architecture,
Domus, and Japan Architecture. His work
also has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. He has
exhibited numerous times including recent exhibitions at Martin Schweig
Gallery, St. Louis, and the University of Missouri at St. Louis, the Saint Louis
Art Museum and the Tucson Art Museum. Pettus' work can be found in a
number of public and private collections including: the Museum of Modern Art
in New York, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C., A.G. Edwards and Mark Twain Bank (FirsStar) in St. Louis.
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