Who would have thought that there would be more children at the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) than at a local park on a warm sunny day? The hustle of children running around with a scavenger hunt of art for their school field trip is quite the site. As a bystander, all I can do is send a secret blessing to the supervisors who watch after the kids, excitedly going in different directions to discover what art is in the next room. They notice things more than adults do, I think. Children aren't afraid to either ask questions or sneak a touch of a sculpture whenever someone isn't looking. They see art in a different way but then again, I think we all see art in own perspective.

An exhibit I saw let me look at the artist's work in my own unique way.

One of the traveling exhibits feature artist and film animator William Kentridge, the recent recipient of the Dean's Medal from Washington University Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The South African native left me tilting my head and thinking throughout the 44 different pieces of work that are shown together in his two recent series of prints, "Thinking Aloud" and "Nose."

"Nose" is Kentridge's interpretations of the short story of the same name written by Nikolai Gogol in 1836. This exhibit of 30 prints, completed from 2007 to 2009, is laid out in picture storybook style. "Nose" is the story of a nose that escapes from its owners face and travels through many iconic settings that tell a story about art and history in modern Europe. A few pictures are sexually suggestive but overall left me grinning and quietly laughing to myself. While I was looking at the prints so were groups of children who mimicked my behavior- stare, tilt, and chuckle! This exhibit is on display until June 19 at SLAM.

Brenna Seger, brenna@stlrac.org