Ok, so this isn’t technically in the Bloch Building but it is part of the ongoing transformation project at the Nelson-Atkins.
Two galleries dedicated to works of modern artists (between 1900 and 1945) are open in the Nelson-Atkins Building. The contemporary collection will be housed in the new Bloch Building when it opens in 2007 (there, I worked in something about the Bloch Building, therefore justifying this post). You can see a glimpse of those galleries in a previous post.
The newest modern gallery just opened a few weeks ago on the Plaza Level. It covers a few of the “isms,” including Cubism and Surrealism, as well as Abstraction and Dada.
The gallery is a mix of medium from furniture and decorative arts to paintings and sculpture. Max Ernst’s Capricorn looks so much bigger in the gallery compared to its previous location in the massive Kirkwood Hall. Other artists included are Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miro, Juan Gris, Man Ray, Wassily Kandinsky and Alexander Calder. All in this intimate space; it’s quite powerful.
Across the hall is the other modern gallery. This one is dedicated to Expressionism. It includes paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde as well as stunning works of decorative arts and sculpture.
So if you’ve been missing the modern collection since most of it went off view last year, be sure to stop by. It will be worth the trip!