Vote Your Art 2020
In the spirit of election season, vote for your favorite work of art among four candidates from the Museum’s art of the Americas collections, selected for their visual appeal, craftsmanship, and diversity. Get to know the nominees by viewing them below or in the galleries and read their position statements asserting why they deserve your vote.
The polls are closed! Thank you for casting your vote.
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Vote Your Art 2020 Results
With 35.78% of the votes, the winner is Gorilla by St. Louis’ own Houston Chandler! Read more about the candidate and his formidable opponents and see the results of the election below. Thanks for voting your art!
Gorilla
Position Statement
This candidate’s polished wood torso and muscular limbs convey one thing above all: power. Gorilla also represents the artistic legacy of Missouri, as its St. Louis-born maker, Houston Chandler, taught at Vashon High School and at the People’s Art Center, the city’s first racially integrated community arts center. Like other gorillas, this candidate is formidable while surprisingly gentle and expressive.
Visit this candidate in Gallery 300E.
Deer Pendant
Position Statement
Deer Pendant exudes elegance through its finely crafted details. Notice how the deer’s profile was cleverly depicted with just a few delicate lines. Carved from a shell, the pendant was perhaps a piece of personal jewelry for a Maya noble or a token of a young hunter’s achievements. This candidate seems poised to evade a predator—who do you think will win?
Visit this candidate in Gallery 114.
Bowl
Position Statement
Bowl is a two-for-one deal, combining expressive bears at each end that come together for a utilitarian purpose. The linear carvings are also artful and imbued with significance; for more than a millennium, Native artists in coastal British Columbia and southeastern Alaska have used, studied, and reimagined sinuous lines with ovoid and U-form shapes to create such formline designs. This candidate may have been made by Rudolph Walton, a key figure in an early group to fight for the civil rights of Alaska Native peoples.
Visit this candidate in Gallery 326.
Grasshopper Floor Lamp
Position Statement
Constructed of steel, aluminum, and brass, Grasshopper Floor Lamp is American-made but comes from the mind of Swedish-born architect Greta Magnusson Grossman. This candidate gets to the point with refined simplicity: only two lengths of tubular steel and a bullet-shaped aluminum shade give the lamp its distinctive, animated form. Lightweight and flexible, this object brings light to the darkest corners of any home.
Visit this candidate in Gallery 130.