Blue Black

American artist Glenn Ligon has guest-curated a lyrical meditation on the colors blue and black for the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Regarded as one of the most significant artists of his generation, Ligon’s body of work critiques the complexities of American history, race, language, and identity, an endeavor that is also apparent in his curatorial practice. Ligon conceived of Blue Black during a visit to the Pulitzer where he first encountered Ellsworth Kelly’s 28-foot-tall painted aluminum wall sculpture of the same title. Standing in front of Kelly’s soaring panels of color, in his mind Ligon heard Louis Armstrong’s voice singing “What did I do to be so black and blue?” Although Kelly’s work is about color, shape, and form, the lyrics from this profound song reminded Ligon that “blue” and “black” have myriad other meanings. 

The resulting exhibition brings together works ranging from abstraction to portraiture, from Norman Lewis to Andy Warhol, and includes well-known works by Ligon himself. Enabling viewers to follow their own paths and experience numerous connections within and across the Pulitzer galleries, Ligon’s curatorial vision resists fixed interpretations, instead enlisting the colors blue and black to pose timely and nuanced questions.

Blue Black, which will not travel, will be on view at the Pulitzer from June 9 through October 7, 2017.

About the Pulitzer Arts Foundation
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, in St. Louis, MO, is one of the nation’s leading presenters of experimental, progressive, and multi-disciplinary art. With exhibitions and public projects that encompass both historic and contemporary art from across the globe, along with a diverse agenda of creative public programs, the Pulitzer seeks to heighten community engagement with art and to inspire audiences to think differently about art and its relationship to their lives.

A non-collecting institution, the Pulitzer occupies one of the world’s most celebrated examples of museum architecture, a Tadao Ando-designed building that comprises spacious galleries illuminated by abundant natural light, creating poetic, multilayered experiences of the art within. For more information, visit pulitzerarts.org.

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: pulitzerarts.org or T 314 754 1850

Pulitzer Arts Foundation press contacts:
Lucy O’Brien: lucyobrien.comm [​at​] gmail.com / T 646 590 9267
Stephanie Markovic: smarkovic.comm [​at​] gmail.com / T 347 628 4688