The Saint Louis Art Museum is pleased to announce the publication of Monet’s Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych to accompany the featured exhibition, Monet’s Water Lilies, which opens October 2, 2011.  The fascinating and little-known history behind the triptych, recognized as one of Monet’s most impressive accomplishments, is explored in this catalogue.

French artist Claude Monet is one of the most significant and best-known Impressionists, and his Water Lily paintings— approximately 250 in the entire series—represent the culminating achievement of his career.  The exhibition Monet’s Water Lilies reunites the Agapanthus triptych for the first time in more than 30 years.

From new research and technical analysis, this publication investigates the relationship between the 42-foot-long Agapanthus and other related works, and provides new insight on Monet’s incessant reworking of the triptych executed between 1915 and 1926, as well as his original plans for its installation.  Also explored is the posthumous history of the triptych, including its critical reception when first exhibited in the United States in the mid-1950s.

Monet’s Water Lilies: The Agapanthus Triptych is authored by Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Saint Louis Art Museum, with contributions by Mary Schafer and Johanna Bernstein.  Mary Schafer is associate painting conservator at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Johanna Bernstein is a materials scientist at the Institute for Advance Materials, Devices, and Nanotechnology at Rutgers.

Monet’s Water Lilies is organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and The Cleveland Museum of Art. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional support has been provided by Emerson. Financial assistance has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. The catalogue is published by the Saint Louis Art Museum with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art and University of Washington Press, 2011. It is available in the Saint Louis Art Museum Shop and online at www.slam.org

Curated by Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art, the exhibition will be on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum in the Main Exhibition Galleries from October 2, 2011, through January 22, 2012.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the nation’s leading comprehensive art museums with collections that include works of art of exceptional quality from virtually every culture and time period. Areas of notable depth include Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes and European and American art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with particular strength in 20th-century German art. The Museum offers a full range of exhibitions and educational programming generated independently and in collaboration with local, national and international partners. 

Admission to the Saint Louis Art Museum is free to all every day. For more information about the Saint Louis Art Museum, call 314.721.0072 or visit www.slam.org.