H.W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University in St. Louis

H. W. Janson, renowned for his influential textbook History of Art (1962), served in the 1940s as curator of the Washington University art collection in St. Louis, now known as the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. An exile from Nazi Germany and former student of Erwin Panofsky, Janson significantly transformed the University collections during his tenure. In contrast to prevailing American ambitions to establish a distinctly American modern art of international acclaim, Janson assembled a collection of predominantly European modern artworks.

To do so, in what can be seen as a bold move for the time, Janson deaccessioned more than 600 objects from the collection, including many 19th-century American canvases. He used the proceeds to acquire such landmark modern artworks as Pablo Picasso's Glass and Bottle of Suze (1912), Joan Miró's Painting (1933), and Max Ernst's The Eye of Silence (1943-44) from New York dealers Curt Valentin, Peggy Guggenheim, Pierre Matisse, and Paul Rosenberg, among others, all of whom were part of the European exile art world. Janson's emphasis on modern and European art had a lasting impact on the development of the University's collection over the following decades.

H. W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art is divided in two parts. The first section features fourteen of Janson's acquisitions, demonstrating his strong interest in cubism, constructivism, and exile art. Rejecting irrational Nazi aesthetics and embracing American preferences for a rational modern art as promoted by the Museum of Modern Art's then-director Alfred H. Barr, Jr., for example, Janson gathered important examples of cubism and constructivism. These include Juan Gris's Still Life with Playing Cards (1916) and Theo van Doesburg's Composition VII: The Three Graces (1917). Exile artworks such as Yves Tanguy's Tower of the Sea (1944) and Karl Zerbe's The Armory (1941) emphasize Janson's interest in artworks that convey cross-cultural influences. The second section consists of twelve artworks that were acquired by Janson's successors, rounding out and building on Janson's initial undertaking. Henri Matisse's Still Life with Oranges (II) (c. 1899), Jacques Lipchitz's Pierrot with Clarinet (1919), and Pablo Picasso's Women of Algiers (Variation "N") (1955) supplement Janson's European agenda, while Mardsen Hartley's The Iron Cross (1915), Jackson Pollock's Sleeping Effort Number 3 (1953), and Arshile Gorky's Golden Brown (1943-44) strengthen Washington University's holdings in modern American art.

The catalog accompanying this exhibition includes an essay by Sabine Eckmann, curator at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, in which she examines Janson's actions in light of his exile from Nazi Germany, his affiliation with the New York exile art world, and his concept of modern art. Also included is a previously unpublished lecture by Janson, delivered in 1981 on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, in which he reflects on the curatorial decisions he made some thirty-five years earlier. Accompanying the color plates of artworks in the exhibition are texts that explore the reception of these seminal examples of modern art within the context of the times in which they were acquired.

The catalog was made possible by the generous support of Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York. Additional funding was provided by the St. Louis Printmarket, Washington University's Hortense Lewin Art Fund and Yeatman Art Fund, and individual contributors. The exhibition debuted at Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, from March 12 to April 6, 2002.

Due to prior loan commitments, two artworks from the original exhibition are not on view. Max Beckmann's Four Men Around a Table (1943) is on loan at the Centre Pompidou, Paris for a Max Beckmann retrospective, and Joan Miró's Painting (1925) is on loan to the exhibition Joan Miró, 1918-1945 in Japan, where it will travel to the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo and the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Negoya.