Ellipsis

Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents Ellipsis, an exhibition inviting visitors to listen, look, touch, taste, and pause—celebrating the senses and embracing a range of individual and collective experiences with art. Bringing about unexpected variations in perception, interaction, and awareness, the exhibition features works by Janet Cardiff, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Odilon Redon, Roman Ondák, John Bresland, Thylias Moss, and the debut of a specially commissioned work by John Lucas and Claudia Rankine, in addition to a rotating selection of works by Doris Salcedo, Jean (Hans) Arp, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra, Gedi Sibony, and Mark Rothko. With both visual art and poetry, and a focus on the ways in which we experience them, Ellipsis encompasses much of what makes the Pulitzer unique.

Many works featured in Ellipsis underscore the experience of the exhibition as one that changes over time. Roman Ondák’s performance Clockwork, for example, asks visitors to provide their name and the current time to a gallery attendant, who inscribes the information directly on the gallery wall, contributing to an ongoing chronicle of visitors. Activating the dramatic space of the Pulitzer’s expansive main gallery, Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet channels the voices of forty choral singers into separate audio speakers; as listeners move through the space, the shape of the music varies from individual voices to a polyphonic confluence of sound. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Placebo-Landscape-for Roni) invites visitors to remove and eat the hard candies of which the large work is comprised, thus depleting and dispersing it over time.

The role of single artworks within a larger series is considered through Odilon Redon’s lithographic portfolio “In the Dream,” while a rotation of works by Doris Salcedo, Jean (Hans) Arp, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra, Gedi Sibony, and Mark Rothko offers variable experiences of the exhibition through a series of unique pairings. Ellipsis also features a focused presentation of video poetry and a video essay that, together, call attention to the human body in a variety of sociocultural contexts, with works by Thylias Moss and John Bresland, as well as the inaugural presentation of a video by John Lucas and Claudia Rankine.

Like the grammatical mark that inspires its title, Ellipsis encourages visitors to both draw connections and linger in the spaces between works, forging new relationships between art and its audiences.

About Pulitzer Arts Foundation
Pulitzer Arts Foundation is a non-collecting arts institution that presents experimental, progressive, and multidisciplinary exhibitions and programs, encompassing both historic and contemporary art from across the globe. Founded in 2001, the Pulitzer is dedicated to utilizing the naturally lit, contemplative spaces of its Tadao Ando-designed building—one of the country’s most celebrated examples of contemporary museum architecture—to create multilayered experiences that link the visual arts with other cultural forms and heighten audience understanding and enjoyment. Through diverse exhibitions and public programming, the Pulitzer seeks to deepen community engagement with art, and to inspire audiences to think differently about art and its relationship to their lives. Deeply committed to serving the broader St. Louis community, the Pulitzer is an integral part of the Grand Center arts district and the wider cultural and civic landscape in St. Louis.

The Pulitzer is free and open to the public Wednesday through Saturday. Hours are 10am–5pm on Wednesday and Saturday, 10am–8pm on Thursday and Friday. For more information, visit pulitzerarts.org or call T 314 754 1850.