Summer Vacation Redux #7: Kansas City: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

My final stop in Kansas City during my recent cross-country road trip to see the Total Eclipse of the sun was the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.  The museum is not large; however, the galleries are expansive.  I saw works from their collection, as well as two special exhibitions.  The first was called "Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960's to Today" and featured the work of 21 women of color--including DC's favorite color field artist Alma Thomas, (1891 - 1978).  The other show was considerably smaller, but no less interesting "Women to Watch|METALS" featured the work of five contemporary artists.  The one I found most intriguing was Cheryl Eve Acosta who created some very otherworldly piece of ornamentation (Jewelry seems too small a word to contain her vision.)  All in all the Kemper is a lovely little museum.

From the regular collection:

 "Crying Giant" 2002, Tom Otterness (American) 1952 -

 "Spider" 1996, Louise Bourgeouis (French) 1911 - 2010

 "Nabis" 1998, Red Grooms (American) 1937 -

 "Les Femmes du Maroc: La Grande Odalisque" 2008, Laila Essaydi (Moroccan) 1956 -

 "Study for Sunday Shoes" 1994, Stephen Scott Young (American) 1957 -

 "Still Life with Open Book" 1990, Janet Fish (American) 1938 -

 From the exhibition "Magnetic Fields"

 "Magnetic Fields" 1991, Mildred Thompson (American) 1936 - 2003

 Right: I failed to copy down the appellation

Left: "Sea Grass" 1998, Evangeline "E.J." Montgomery (American) 1930 -

 "Illumination #1" 1984, Nanette Carter (American) 1954 -

 "Consume #2" 1969, Betty Blayton (American) 1937 - 2016

 Three works by Cheryl Eve Acosta from the exhibition "Women to Watch|METALS".

Summer Vacation Redux #6: Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, part 1 of 9

The second day of my Total Eclipse cross-country road trip in Kansas City was a day of Art that began at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  The city's traditional main museum of art opened in 1933 in a two story neoclassical structure made possible by combining two major bequests made by William Rockhill Nelson and Mary McAfee Atkins (they did not know one another in life).  In 2007 it received a major modern addition of the Bloch Building to feature works of Contemporary Art, African Art, Photography, and modern Sculpture.  Because there is so much to cover, I am breaking this visit up into smaller chunks of images and examples from the collections by topic.  We begin with the contemporary galleries in the Bloch Building.

You conveniently enter this building from the parking garage.  The first thing you encounter is a monumental weaving.  I, however, could find no attribution for it anywhere.  So we are left to simply say it's beautiful and move on.

 "Interior with a Book" 1959, Richard Diebenkorn (American) 1922-1993

 "Starboat (Tugboat and River)" 1966, Wayne Thiebold (American) 1920 -

 "Jawbreaker Machine" 1963, Wayne Thiebold (American) 1920 -

I LOVE Thiebold. He applies paint with the apparent viscosity of icing and it's all I can do to just not stick out my tongue and lick his canvas!

 "Central Savings" 1975, Richard Estes (American) 1932 -

My favorite photo-realist painter.  At one point I fashioned some of my watercolors after his work.

 "Saint Adrian" 2006, Kehinde Wiley (American) 1977 -

"My works quote historical sources and position young black men within the field of power." ~ Kehinde Wiley.

The hottest ticket in any town.  He not only derives motifs from Renaissance portraiture, he also has created a workshop around it--the modern equivalent to Medieval ones from cultures European, sub-asian Indian/Persian, and far East Asian Chinese/Japanese/Korean.  Kehinde embodies the Renaissance human of the 21st century, and after failing to see his blockbuster retrospective exhibition in Atlanta or Brooklyn, fate saw it clear to let me wallow in it in Seattle in March of 2016.  If there is a museum in North America that doesn't own at least one of his works...it's a pretty huge hole in their contemporary collection.

 "Spell" 2006, Maria Lassnig (Austrian) 1919 - 2014

I love her work, and I'm seeing it more and more in contemporary collections since her death.  She was born the same year as my mother--if only my mother had lived so long...

 "Research in a Growth Hormone" 1978, Alfred Jensen (American) 1903 - 1981

The way this work emulated a quilt resonated with me.

 "Mural" 1943, Jackson Pollock (American) 1912 - 1956

This one is part of a two painting focus exhibition called simply "Pollock and Motherwell".

"Chromoplastic Mural" 2011, Luis Tomasello (Argentinian) 1915 - 2014

Summer Vacation Redux #6: Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, part 2 of 9

Next, it's a short walk to the African Gallery of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.  Not one I expected to spend much time in, but I was mistaken.  The range of artifacts and art contained in this relatively small space were tremendously captivating.  I only wish the lighting would have allowed me to take better photos.

 "Water Deity Headdress" circa 1915, Etim Abassi Ekpenyong (Nigerian) dates unknown

 "Nkisi Nkondi (Power Figure)" circa 1830, Kongo Culture

 "Divination Board" 1900's, Yoruba Culture

 "Adinkra: Stamped Cloth" circa 1950, Akan-Ashanti Culture

 Detail: Cloth ink stamps, Akan-Ashanti Culture

Left to Right:

"Soul Washer's Badge" 1900's Baule Culture

"Chief's Crown" 1900's, Yoruba Culture

"Pipe" 1900's, Bamun Culture

Summer Vacation Redux #6: Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, part 3.1 of 9

Adjacent to the African Art Gallery at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City are a couple of galleries dedicated to Photography.  One displayed works from the museum's collection that were general and chronological in nature, and the other contained a focus show of Depression Era images titled "Dignity versus Despair" with photos by artists who basically made their names documenting this desperate time in our nation's history.  Although I seem to have been unconsciously drawn to the photos by Dorothea Lange--which confirms her iconic status in my mind.  I will begin with images from the focus exhibition.

 "Oklahoma Farm Family on Highway Between Blythe and Indio, California" 1936, Dorothea Lange (American) 1895 - 1965

My mother's family grew up in Oklahoma and knew the dust bowl years well.  More than one uncle and many cousins made this very trek from the despair of western Oklahoma to California.  And what I thought of when I saw this image was the intro to the TV show "Beverly Hillbillies"!

 "Sharecropper Who Receives $5 a Month "Furnish" from Landowner, Macon County, Georgia" 1937, Dorothea Lange (American) 1895 - 1965

 "J. R. Butler, President of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, Memphis, Tennessee" 1938, Dorothea Lange (American) 1895 - 1965

 "Against the Wall, San Francisco" 1934, Dorothea Lange (American) 1895 - 1965

"This photograph of the man with his head on this arms--five years earlier, I would have thought it enough to take a picture of a man, no more.  But now, I wanted to take a picture of a man as he stood in his world--in this case, a man with his head down, with his back against the wall, with his livelihood, like the wheelbarrow, overturned." ~ Dorothea Lange.

 "Former Texas Tenant Farmers Displaced from Their Land by Tractor Farming, Hardeman County, Texas" 1937, Dorothea Lange (American) 1895 - 1965

"All displaced tenant farmers.  The oldest is 33.  All Native Americans, none able to vote because of Texes poll tax.  All on WPA.  They support an average four persons each on $22.80 a month. 

Where we gonna go? 

How we gonna get there? 

What we gonna do? 

Who we gonna fight? 

If we fight, what we gotta whip?"

~ Dorothea Lange

 "Mr. and Mrs. Andy Bahain, Kersey, Colorado" 1939, Arthur Rothstein (American) 1895 - 1965

 "Farmer and Sons in Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma" 1936, Arthur Rothstein (American) 1895 - 1965

"Joe's Auto Graveyard, Near Easton, Pennsylvania" 1935, Walker Evans (American) 1903 - 1975