Cindy Sherman

This month, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture,” the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. The show starts Nov. 16 and runs through Jan. 28, 2008.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumRoy Lichtenstein,*Crying Girl,* 1963.The blonde has been an iconic and highly influential ideal of feminine beauty in American culture since the mid-20th century. Yet beginning with American Pop Art in the early 1960s, the blonde has also become a touchstone for artistic representation and critical inquiry. In November, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture, the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. Organized by Catharina Manchanda, Ph.D., curator of the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will survey how artists have interpreted the blonde in a wide range of visual media, from prints, painting and sculpture to collage, film, video, photography and interactive web projects. Also featured will be a selection of advertisements, magazines, cartoons, film posters, album covers, Barbie imagery and other materials — mainly from the 1950s and 60s — that have helped to shape popular notions about the blonde.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum”Inside Out Loud”This spring, more than 30 campus and community partners will join the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis to present close to 70 events relating to women’s health. Events — which range from exhibitions, concerts and theatrical performances to lectures, seminars and health screenings — are held in conjunction with the museum’s Inside Out Loud: Women’s Health in Contemporary Art, the first major exhibition dedicated to the topic, which will be on view Jan. 21 to April 24.

Hannah Wilke, “Intra-Venus #4, February 19, 1992,” (1992-93)Women’s bodies — nude, adorned, eroticized, abstracted — figure prominently in the history of art. Yet the art of women’s health is shockingly new. In January, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Inside Out Loud: Visualizing Women’s Health in Contemporary Art, the first major museum-level exhibition dedicated to the topic. The show tracks the emergence of women’s health in American art from the early 1980s to the present, and includes approximately 50 artworks in a variety of traditional and cutting-edge media by more than 30 internationally known artists and artists’ groups.