Another one by Richard Serra, Joe at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Yes, Joe is Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., the late publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Serra's friend and patron. It is in a courtyard, not visible from the street, but its huge size (13.5 feet, 4 meters tall, spiraled inward) makes its physical presence all the more impressive. You can see a view from above at https://pulitzerarts.org/collection/ (scroll down a bit).
From a post in November, looking up at the sunset sky from within the spiral of Richard Serra's monumental steel sculpture, Joe. It is located in the courtyard shared by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and our Contemporary Art Museum. Not to everyone's taste but it's my favorite of the year.
And so to 2024. May the people of Gaza, Israel, Ukraine--and you--find peace. May Trump go away forever and may the skies be clear for the total eclipse in April. May artificial intelligence not become overlord and may Twitter/X fold. May we have enough water and shelter from the heat. May we learn our lessons, so many lessons.
A silhouette of Richard Serra's Joe with the Scottish Rite Masonic temple looming behind. I'm not sure what goes on in there these days. If you look carefully you can see a couple of lights on in the building but the Masons aren't such a big deal any more.
Inside the spiral of Joe, the grand, deliberately rusting Richard Serra sculpture seen in my post yesterday. Near sunset in the plaza between the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
You must walk just over 360 degrees through the spiral to reach the center of Joe. The visitor arrives at a nearly circular enclosure. There is plenty of room but you might feel some panic about being able to escape over the high walls. (The museum staff won't let you bring in a grappling hook and rope.) Of course, the way you came in is still there but the space can give you the feeling of being trapped with plenty of space.
I looked through the archives and found one overeposed shot in which you can look down and see the overall shape. https://tinyurl.com/yyfx32ap
The courtyard of the Pulitzer contains Richard Serra monumental sculpture Joe, named for his friend and patron Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. You can hardly take a bad picture of it on a clear day but it's also impossible to view the whole unless you find an elevated viewpoint. Maybe that's part of the point. It is made of bent slabs of COR TEN steel, solid as rock but with a lovely rusted patina. The walls are at least twice as high as me and I'm medium-tall. You wander into the curve as if into a maze of light, dark and space. I think we'll see what you get to tomorrow, depending on what happens overnight.
