At this point, it's was time to make some strategic choices
and so 17th century European art (not one of my favorite centuries for it) got
nixed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and I headed for the
elevator. On the second floor I toured the Native
American Collection, and this was my only disappointment. Many of the exhibition cases had no or
inadequate lighting. Additionally,
several of the general lights in the gallery were also burnt out. I said something to the one and only
guard and he said it was the job of the museum's engineer. How's that for a career--get a job in
engineering and become the chief light bulb changer at an art museum?! It being Sunday, there wasn't any
reason to pursue my concern any further, but it was a major disappointment.
And then on to the American art. Lots to see here and I'm sharing several of my
favorites. When I left this
gallery, I decided to skip the Asian/Chinese art and move on. It's a reason to return to Kansas City
and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on another day
"Still Life with Liqueur and Fruit" 1814, Raphaelle
Peale (American) 1774 - 1825
The Peale's are the United State's first Artist
dynasty. Charles Peale opened the
first museum in the U.S. before it was the U.S. and today it's the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
"After the Rain in the Salt Marshes" circa 1874,
Martin Johnson Heade (American) 1819 - 1904
If it wasn't Haystacks in Salt Marshes, then it was
Hummingbirds, OR Magnolia blossoms.
You can sum up the lion share of Heade's oeuvre in these three
topics. Yet I do find his work
sublimely interesting.
"Two-tiered Still Life with Fruit and Sunset
Landscape" circa 1867, Severin Roesen (German/American) 1815 - 1872
"Gloucester Harbor" 1873, Winslow Homer (American)
1836 - 1910
"Stonehenge" 1876, Jasper Francis Cropsey
(American) 1823 - 1900
Cropsey was an American artist who sold a lot of his
paintings in England. When he
first sent works depicting the autumn foliage, they were mocked by some critics
as outlandish and garishly colored, because they had never seen North America's
far more colorful fall displays.
"Looking Over the Hudson at Milton" circa 1887,
George Inness (American) 1825 - 1894
I am big fan of Inness, but this one is really rather
atypical of the style he is best known for. This work is more intimate and more detailed. I like seeing other aspects of any
artist's work.
"Grand Canyon"
1912, Thomas Moran
(English/American) 1837 - 1926
"The Sun Porch" 1922, Richard Edward Miller
(American) 1875 - 1943
No matter where I go to an Art Museum, I inevitably find a
painting that reminds me of my friend, Donnamarie. It's a gift.
"Francisco Bernareggi" circa 1908, John Singer
Sargent (American) 1856 - 1925
"Himmel" circa 1914, Marsden Hartley (American)
1877 - 1943
"Persephone" 1938-1939, Thomas Hart Benton
(American) 1889 - 1975
"Apple Blossoms" 1930, Georgia O'Keeffe (American)
1887 - 1986
"January Full Moon" 1941, George Ault (American)
1891 - 1948
"Light Battery at Gettysburg" 1940, Edward Hopper
(American) 1882 - 1967
Honest to Pete--it's a Hopper! I can't help but think that being painted in 1940 on the
cusp of World War II that the timing didn't have something to do with the
subject matter.
"The Bathers" 1928, John Steuart Curry (American)
1897 - 1946
I happened to be in this room when a curator came through
with a group of his friends and told the story of how the museum acquired this
work. Back in 1998 they were
working on a retrospective of the artist's work when the director realized that
the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art didn't actually own any of Curry's
paintings. The chief curator of
the exhibition knew that this painting was in private ownership and that the
patron might be willing to sell.
The owner was dying of cancer at the time, and agreed to sell in order
to raise money for his treatment (something that he'd been doing with other
works in his collection).
"Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives" 1870,
Frederic Edwin Church (American) 1826 - 1900
I've gone a little bit back in the chronology to feature this
painting. It's always good to find
at least one painting that you want to contemplate a little deeper when
visiting art museums. This one
grabs your attention for its shear size--it's over 6 feet tall. The magnitude of the work allows the
artist to include a wonderful amount of detail, as the following close-ups will
attest. When asked toward the end
of his life which painting was his masterwork, Church sited this one. Context in time is everything,
too. This work was conceived just
5 years after the United States Civil War had ended and artist were rife with
metaphorical statements about the zeitgeist of the wounded nation. Here I am compelled to think that
Church was guarded optimistic. He portrays a holy place, a shining city on a
hill--to borrow from
Jonathan Witherspoon's famous sermon--bathed in new light it
emerges from the darkness of the storm.
You can bet this was on Church's mind as he created his masterwork.
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