Pulitzer Arts Foundation celebrates 25th Anniversary with Exhibition
This year, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary by presenting an exhibition organized by its founder and chair, Emily Rauh Pulitzer.
Dialogues & Conversations explores the nature of artistic exchange, both within Mrs. Pulitzer’s life and across the broader arc of art history.
It traces dialogues between artists, as well as the significant, long-term engagements that have shaped Mrs. Pulitzer as a curator and collector.
Dialogues & Conversations features work by over 35 artists, including Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning, Dan Flavin, Alberto Giacometti, David Hammons, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Medardo Rosso, and Doris Salcedo, among others. These include around 90 sculptures, drawings, paintings, prints, and photographs dating from the late 19th century to the present day. The exhibition offers an opportunity to view works of art from Mrs. Pulitzer’s collection, which she assembled over many decades with her late husband, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., who was an esteemed collector in his own right; masterworks that she helped to acquire as a curator for the Harvard Art Museums and Saint Louis Art Museum; and artworks from The Museum of Modern Art, as well as private lenders alongside works featured in previous Pulitzer exhibitions.
“The title Dialogues & Conversations is on point,” says Cara Starke, executive director. “For Emmy, collecting and living with art is an ongoing conversation with both the artwork and the artist. This nuanced exhibition reflects Emmy’s more than six decades in the field, years spent not only observing vibrant exchanges among artists, but also participating in them as both curator and collector.”
Says Mrs. Pulitzer, “I began my professional life over 60 years ago at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, where I was often asked to show works from the collection to a wide range of people—from professors and students to non-experts from other disciplines. It was through this formative experience that I developed an appreciation for spending time truly looking closely at artworks, as well atthe value of interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. The relationships between artists as well as my own long-term connections and engagement with them have informed the shape of this show.”
Main Image: Alberto Giacometti, Hands Holding the Void (Invisible Object), 1934–35, cast c. 1946–47. Bronze. 60 x 12 x 9 1/2 inches (152.4 × 30.5 × 24.1 cm). Saint Louis Art Museum, Friends Endowment Fund 217:1966. © 2025 Alberto Giacometti Estate / Licensed by VAGA and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York