St. Louis works of art everyone in the city must experience

Whether you look inside a museum or on the streets of St. Louis, there are impressive art pieces all around.

by ,

There is great art all over St. Louis, from the masterpieces in museums to the murals on street corners. Think of the list below as a starting point—a scavenger hunt of sorts to set you on your way as you explore all of the sculpture, paintings, architecture, and more that the area has to offer.

Museum Pieces

1. “Little Dancer of 14 Years” by Edgar Degas, Saint Louis Art Museum

Degas is, of course, noted for his fascination with dancers—they were one of his favorite subjects. But the French impressionist was mostly known for paintings and pastel drawings. He only showed one sculpture during his lifetime—the wax figure from which this iconic bronze work was cast. Pay her a visit in Gallery 217. 1 Fine Arts.

2. “Charles I” by Kehinde Wiley, Saint Louis Art Museum

Kehinde Wiley borrowed from a 1633 portrait of Charles I of England by Dutch painter Daniel Mytens I for his depiction of St. Louisan Ashley Cooper against a vibrant floral backdrop. The portrait is one of many similar images by Wiley, who uses traditional portraiture to address the erasure of Black individuals from history. Find the work alongside its inspiration in Gallery 238. 1 Fine Arts.

3. “Red, Orange, Orange on Red” by Mark Rothko, Saint Louis Art Museum

Rothko’s paintings have a way of sneaking up on a viewer. “Oh, look, floating squares again,” and then, bam, total transcendence. The Saint Louis Art Museum has a spectacular one in Gallery 258. There’s a bench in front of it—take a seat, you’ll need it. 1 Fine Arts.

4. “Oenone” by Harriet Hosmer, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum 

This example of the work of Harriet Hosmer, a neoclassical sculptor and the preeminent American female sculptor of her era, is also her first full-length, life-size sculpture. It depicts the nymph Oenone, who in Greek mythology was the first wife of Paris of Troy, left behind in favor of Helen. Visit her at the Kemper Art Museum on Washington University in St. Louis’ Danforth Campus. 1 Brookings.

5. “Untitled (Colored People Grid)” by Carrie Mae Weems, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum 

Carrie Mae Weems’ work includes fabric, text, audio, and video, but she’s best known for her photography, which seeks to capture and explore issues of race and existing power structures. In this large-scale work, portraits of adolescents from her Colored People series live among colorful panels, all of them at the age when the artist has said “issues of race really begin to affect you, at the point of an innocence beginning to be disrupted.” 1 Brookings.

6. “Joe” by Richard Serra, Pulitzer Arts Foundation

Visiting Joe at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation is something you should do over and over, across seasons and with different companions. The spiraling steel artwork invites you to come in and contemplate the ever-changing weather, sky, cast of characters and all the other variables in your life. 3716 Washington.

7. “Painting of an Indian Woman” by Anna Maria Von Phul, Missouri History Museum

Head downstairs to Painting Creole St. Louis: Artist Anna Maria von Phul at the Missouri History Museum to view this small portrait among the the many scenes von Phul captured of daily life and the people of early St. Louis. Von Phul’s legacy as the first-known woman artist in Missouri is uniquely captured by the MHS collection. 5700 Lindell.

8. “Falling Man/Study (Wrapped Manscape Figure)” by Ernest Trova, Laumeier Sculpture Park

Clayton-born artist Ernest Trova spent 45 years working on his Falling Man series, creating prints, paintings, and sculptures featuring an armless figure depicting man as “an imperfect (or) fallen creature.” This piece from 1984 shows the figure wrapped entirely in its own form. Find it at Laumeier, which Trova helped found with his gift of 40 artworks to St. Louis County in 1976. 12580 Rott.

Public Art

9. “St. Louis Wall of Fame Mural” by Grace McCammond

If you want to know who’s who in this town, head for The Grove—4263 Manchester to be exact. The St. Louis Wall of Fame mural, designed and painted Grace McCammond and kids from the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club-Adams Park Unit, features famous St. Louis faces from Miles Davis to Tina Turner, Harriet and Dred Scott to Chuck Berry, Maya Angelou to Nelly, and more. 4263 Manchester.

10. “Man on a Horse” by Fernando Botero

While he may lack the heroic posture of the Apotheosis of Saint Louis just a few miles away at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the chubby bronze equestrian at Wydown and Hanley in Clayton, in Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero’s immediately recognizable style, has a dignity and grace all his own. Wyndown and S. Hanley.

11. Kehinde Wiley’s “Rumors of War”

President Obama portraitist Kehinde Wiley’s sculpture “Rumors of War” features the artist’s trademark style of updating classical tableaux depicting Black Americans with royal, noble bearing. The bronze statue at the front of the new DOORWAYS campus features a young Black man in a hoodie and dreads, in a regal posture astride a horse. 1101 N. Jefferson.

12. “Naked Truth” by Wilhelm Wandschneider

The imperious and dignified lady looking down at you from her seat in Compton Hill Reservoir Park caused quite a stir when she arrived in 1914. The artist’s prizewinning design was almost canceled when the Memorial Association realized she was to be nude. Rendering her in detail-obscuring bronze was a compromise. 1900 Block of S. Grand.

13. “Nothing Impossible” by Robert and Liza Fishbone

This vibrant mural, which takes up one side of STL-Style’s building on the corner of Cherokee and Compton is the work of father-daughter team Robert and Liza Fishbone, both mural artists who have left their mark on St. Louis and beyond. “Nothing Impossible” acts as a gateway to the Cherokee business district and was inspired by St. Louis architecture. 3159 Cherokee.

14. “Eros Bendato” by Igor Mitoraj 

Citygarden, the urban sculpture garden that covers 2.9 acres on Market Street, is home to many great works of public art, among them this large bronze sculpture that feels out of time. “Eros Bendato” or “Eros Bound” shows the head of the god of love and desire on its side, either bound or held together by bandages, depending on your view. 801 Market.

15. “The Awakening” by J. Seward Johnson Jr.

Near Chesterfield’s Central Park is this monumental aluminum sculpture, which measures 70 feet long and 17 feet high at its towering, grasping arm. Since it was first installed in 2009, many have climbed and sat within the mouth of the freshly awoken giant struggling to free himself from the earth. 16100 Main Circle.

Architecture

16. The Abbey Church

If architecture gets you closer to the divine, you’d be hard pressed to do much better than visiting The Abbey Church at Saint Louis Priory School. It’s a breathtaking masterwork designed by Gyo Obata of HOK comprising three tiers of parabolic arches. The church houses some heavy-duty artworks too, including a Madonna and child sculpture from the 14th century. 500 S. Mason.

17. Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

Walking through the doors of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis feels like going back in time, or across the world, to a place and era where soaring ceilings, massive mosaics, and Byzantine details were the norm. But lucky for us, all it takes is a trip to Lindell Boulevard to see the church and its immense collection of mosaics, which covers 83,000 square feet and is made up of some 41.5 million individual grass tesserae. 4431 Lindell.

18. Sebilj of St. Louis

St. Louis’s sizable Bosnian population is centered around the Bevo neighborhood, and in 2013 they built a replica of a 1753 Sarajevo sebilj—a fountain built of wood and stone. A sebilj is an ancient gesture of hospitality to travelers and passers-by, a source of refreshment for all comers. It’s in the pocket park in the 5000 block of Gravois Avenue. 5000 Gravois.

19. The Jewel Box

Forest Park is a literal embarrassment of riches, and it literally houses Saint Louis Art Museum—so the whole thing is a must-see. But the Jewel Box, a gleaming art deco masterpiece and display greenhouse, is truly a showstopper. Wells and McKinley.

20. Noguchi Ceiling at Kingshighway U-Haul Building

Tape. Boxes. A midcentury modern masterwork. The U-Haul building on South Kingshighway at Northrup Avenue has it all. Pop in and check out the extremely groovy lunar landscape by Isamu Noguchi, discovered and uncovered in 2016 after years languishing beneath a drop ceiling. 1641 S. Kingshighway.

Subscribe to St. Louis Magazine's Culture newsletter to receive the latest news and recommendations from the arts scene.
Or, check out all of our newsletters.