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Tony Fitzpatrick, American, born 1958; C, 2012; etching; plate: 7 x 5 inches, sheet: 11 x 9 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Ted L. and Maryanne Ellison Simmons; and funds given by the Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and Drawings, Museum Purchase, Friends Fund, The Sidney S. and Sadie Cohen Print Purchase Fund, and the Eliza McMillan Purchase Fund 564:2020; © Tony Fitzpatrick

Catching the Moment: Contemporary Art from the Ted L. and Maryanne Ellison Simmons Collection

This audio guide features contemporary art from the Ted L. and Maryanne Ellison Simmons collection. Listen to the Director's welcome, narrators from the Saint Louis Art Museum, and artists in the exhibition.

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    AUDIO GUIDE TRANSCRIPT

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Introduction

  • Speakers

    Min Jung Kim
    Barbara B. Taylor Director
    Saint Louis Art Museum

    Elizabeth Wyckoff
    Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
    Saint Louis Art Museum

    [Min]
    Hello, I am Min Jung Kim, Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum.

    I am delighted to welcome you to the audio guide for Catching the Moment: Contemporary Art from the Ted L. and Maryanne Ellison Simmons Collection, an exhibition we’ve organized to celebrate the acquisition, in 2020, of over 800 works of art from the Simmons collection. This acquisition enhanced and deepened an impressive strength in the Museum’s collection—art made in the United States between 1960 and now. The exhibition reflects the distinctive character of the collection, with its emphasis on art that responds to issues that have defined the lives of the collectors. To tell you more, I would like to introduce Elizabeth Wyckoff, curator of prints, drawings, and photographs and one of the cocurators of the exhibition.

    [Elizabeth]
    Thank you, Min. This exhibition presents a striking and, we hope, a compelling and inspiring survey of art from the last 60 years, mostly prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures produced in multiple, made predominantly in the United States. Included are successive generations of artists whose work is in dialogue with contemporary culture and politics as well as art history. The earliest generation came of age during World War II, while many of the core artists from the next generation, like the Simmonses, were impacted by that war’s immediate aftermath and the Vietnam War. You will see work by artists who were deeply affected by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the artists address colonialism, racism, and other issues in ways that encourage us to pause and consider our personal and collective histories.

    Catching the Moment marks an important milestone for the Saint Louis Art Museum. Of the 43 artists in this acquisition, 25 are completely new to the collection, and the works add many new themes to the myriad stories we can tell. These artworks create further opportunities to connect with and reframe the Museum’s expansive collection, which draws from across the globe over thousands of years.

    The exhibition is a collaborative effort, and I would like to acknowledge my cocurators, Andrea Ferber, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; and Clare Kobasa, assistant curator in prints, drawings, and photographs. We had crucial assistance from associate paper conservator Sophie Barbisan. Maryanne Ellison Simmons and Ted L. Simmons have been unfailingly generous throughout the process. I encourage you to tune in to hear from all of us—including the Simmonses and others in this audio guide.

  • Gallery Text

    Catching the Moment celebrates the Saint Louis Art Museum’s acquisition in 2020 of more than 800 contemporary artworks from the collection of Ted L. and Maryanne Ellison Simmons. Collecting has been an active and collaborative enterprise for the couple throughout their marriage. Initially they pursued early American furniture and ceramics, but since 2000 their focus has shifted to contemporary art, largely but not exclusively works on paper. In this pursuit they have particularly sought out objects that speak to the artistic and political concerns of their generation.

    This exhibition reflects the depth and breadth of the Simmons collection. It is anchored by three galleries dedicated to artists collected extensively by the couple: Kiki Smith, Enrique Chagoya, and Tom Huck. The works on view—by a total of 39 artists—range from the personal to the socially engaged, from whimsical ruminations to deadly serious statements. They offer encounters with pointed appropriations from popular culture, alongside anti-war imagery, and wide-ranging responses to colonialism and racism.

    Ted L. Simmons was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020. A first-round draft pick for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1967, he played as a catcher and switch-hitter for the team until 1980. He then played for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves—while maintaining ties to St. Louis. Maryanne Ellison Simmons received a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Michigan School of Art and a master of fine arts from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the founder of Wildwood Press in St. Louis, which publishes fine-art prints by an international roster of artists. 

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