Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

As of March 6, the Spencer Art Reference Library will reopen by appointment only in its new location in the Bloch Building.

If you have an on-site reference need, you may schedule a time between 1 and 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Please contact the library to make your appointment.

Keep your eyes open for a feature article in The Kansas City Star about the new library.

You know spring is near when workers appear in Walter De Maria's site-specific sculpture, One Sun / 34 Moons on the Museum's north Plaza. The sculpture's ledge is a popular spot for people to rest, talk or wait for friends while they enjoy the scenery.

As tempting as it may be, we ask that visitors refrain from getting in the reflection pool.

Previously I told you about some fun new toys the Museum will have when the Bloch Building opens in June. There will be four kiosks in the Bloch Building and one in the Nelson-Atkins Building that will allow visitors to complete several transactions including event registration and ticket purchasing, paying for parking, directions to galleries and even looking up certain works of art.

Members will be able to experience this new technology at upcoming member preview events. If you're not a member, join today and be part of this historic moment at the Museum.

On June 9, the highly anicipated and long awaited Bloch Building will open to the public. The completion of the building as well as renovations to the original Nelson-Atkins Building signals a new era for the Museum and for Kansas City. The city is bursting with new life from a $6 billion rennaisance that includes a new performing arts center designed by Moshe Safdie and the Kansas City Power and Light District, both of which are scheduled for completion in 2007.

Once again, I believe we can say that "everything is up to date in Kansas City." Or at least it soon will be.

I was in the Bloch Building last week and for the first time, the gallery doors were open as I walked through. The experience was completely different. I really felt the openess and understood the amount of space in the new building.

I took the opportunity to poke around in the new contemporary galleries. Out of the corner of my eye, I was shocked to see someone standing along the wall. It took me a second to realize it was Museum Guard by Duane Hanson. "Roy," as we call him, has been delighting Museum visitors for 30 years (see previous entry). He was removed from his previous post in the Nelson-Atkins Building so it was good to see him back on duty.

I noticed that he is placed next to Wayne Thiebaud's Jawbreaker Machine. I wonder if he would like a piece of gum?

Recently, both an original painting by N.C. Wyeth featured in the book Drums as well as a special publisher edition of the book were presented to the Museum.

Originally published for adults in 1925, James Boyd's first historical novel Drums was so popular that the publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons, reprinted the book in 1928 with 17 color illustrations by artist N.C. Wyeth. The book was part of the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series which included titles such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Yearling, all illustrated by Wyeth.

Famed historian and author David McCullough sites Drums as one of the books from his childhood that inspired him to study history:

"I learned to love history by way of books. There was The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds, The Last of the Mohicans, with those haunting illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, the Revolutionary War novel Drums by James Boyd, with still more Wyeth paintings."

The painting is on view in Gallery 219. The book is part of the Spencer Art Reference Library's special collections and may be viewed in the new Library Reading Room in the Bloch Building under supervised conditions. Please contact the library to make an appointment.

The Nelson-Atkins has been free of charge at least one day a week since we opened in 1933. When the current construction and renovation project began in 2001, the decision was made to drop admission fees entirely during the span of the project. Public response was so favorable that in 2002 the Museum decided to keep admission to the collection free of charge indefinitely.

It was just announced that for the Bloch Building opening weekend (June 9 and 10), there will be free admission for featured exhibitions as well as free parking in the Museum's garage. In addition, the Museum will be open extended hours both days from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Nelson-Atkins' stellar collection of early Northern paintings is getting a new, evocative display in the Cloister on the first floor of the 1933 building. Ten paintings from the 15th and 16th century are being installed in the 14th-century stone period room that sits directly off Rozzelle Court Restaurant.

Masterpieces including Virgin and Child in a Domestic Interior by Petrus Christus (above) and The Three Graces by Lucas Cranach the Elder will be back on view after several years out of the spotlight.

A full-color catalog of the German and Netherlandish Paintings collection is available in the Museum Store.

To follow up on my last posting, the Northern European paintings have been installed in the Cloister and they look wonderful.

As I was admiring them today, one of my colleagues pointed out an interesting fact. These paintings were all done on wooden panels. During research for the recently published catalog German and Netherlandish Paintings 1450-1600, the paintings were examined by a dendochonologist from the University of Hamburg to verify the attributed dates. Dendocrhonology is the study of tree rings that helps determine the age of wooden objects. I fetched our copy of the catalogue and found a very interesting article by Peter Klein about the process. He writes:

"Dendochronology allows us to establish a terminus post quem, or the earliest possible date, of a painting on a panel by determining the felling date of the tree from which the panel was cut....However, the dendrochronological analyses of the fourteen oak panels in the Nelson-Atkins Museum provide an important technical confirmation of the dates arrived at for these pictures based on art-historical evidence..."

Through research, it was discovered the boards used in the Museum's Portrait of a Man by Lucas Cranach the Younger, were from the same tree as nine other paintings that now reside in museums in Berlin, Chicago, Hamburg and Stockholm. How amazing.