Saint Louis Art Museum Welcomes Artist Isaac Julien

The Saint Louis Art Museum welcomes artist Isaac Julien to the Auditorium for a free discussion of his work and a screening of his film True North. The film is part of a larger project, also entitled True North, that includes a series of one-meter square color photographs. The exhibition Currents 99: Isaac Julien, on view through March 11 in Gallery 335, includes eight of the images in the project.

True North was inspired in part by the story of Matthew Henson, an African-American who accompanied the white U.S. explorer Robert E. Peary on several expeditions, including one on which they were believed to have discovered the North Pole. Both the film and the photographs feature a small, recurring cast of characters in a wintry landscape and suggest a narrative in which meaning shifts with each new iteration and context.

Isaac Julien (British, born 1960) is interested in representation, aesthetics and politics in film and photography. His work has long been celebrated in Europe for its theoretical sophistication, lush sensuality, intelligence, wit and emotional complexity. Currents 99: Isaac Julien is the artist's first exhibition in St. Louis. -- www.stlouis.art.museum