[about the club]
The Saint Louis Art Museum Members Book Club delights in the intersection of art and literature. Since 2010, members have been treated to intimate discussions of books related, directly or tangentially, to the museum’s art. Museum staff members select six books per year and limit registration to 30 to 40 people at each meeting to ensure an intimate gathering. A speaker is brought in to introduce the book and give a short presentation. “People appreciate different perspectives,” says SLAM membership manager Kate Gleason. “When we have particular museum curators lead the discussion, it’s kind of a behind-the-scenes look at the museum.”
Outside experts also are invited to lead meetings. When the group read The Paper Garden, Molly Peacock’s account of the 1772 creation of the first mixed-media collage, which consisted of hundreds of botanically correct cut-paper flowers, the head librarian of the Missouri Botanical Garden spoke. “He used the book as a starting point to talk about the botanical collections at SLAM, and we followed this up with a trip to the garden,” Gleason says.
[about the book]
Emile Zola’s The Masterpiece, first published in 1886, is thought to be a fictionalized account of Zola’s friendship with painter Paul Cézanne. In the book, an artist named Claude Lantier struggles to create a masterpiece that will express his talent and revolutionary ideals, but he is misunderstood and derided by the art world, which clings to traditional definitions of art.
[opinions]
>>“Zola’s prose was rich. It reflected the period and was like a painting in words.” —Gigi Kader
>> “The book is timeless in its portrayal of the struggle for balance between passion, meaningful work and time for family, friends and a life beyond a vocation.” —Margie Kindt
>>“The Masterpiece provides an intimate sense of what it felt like to be an artist in late 19th-century Paris. Some of my favorite parts were the descriptions of Paris. As Claude and Christine stroll through the boulevards at sunset, the city changes before their eyes, and it’s magical.” —Clare Vasquez, Public Services Librarian and Book Club Moderator
[former favorite]
The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock
[up next]
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
Photo by JJ Lane, image courtesy of The Saint Louis Art Museum
Pictured: Saint Louis Art Museum members attend the members-only book club in the museum’s Richardson Memorial Library
