Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

Volunteers bring their own unique perspectives and talents to their roles in the Museum. Maxine Thompson, a volunteer in Coat Check, is a great example.

Maxine noticed that some children are reluctant to leave their stuffed animals in Coat Check, but the “fuzzy friends” are not allowed in our galleries. To make the process easier on our youngest visitors, Maxine brought small quilts from home. Now, when a child needs to leave a stuffed friend behind, Maxine carefully wraps the animal in a quilt, places it on a rack with a great view of the Bloch Lobby and she and the child urge the toy to take a nap while the child visits the Museum.

Maxine looks forward to the child’s return to Coat Check. “The brightest smiles I've ever seen were on the faces of two very small visitors as they came back to the Lobby, spied their fuzzy friends in the racks, and broke into a run. The fuzzy friends were then "awakened" and carefully returned to their masters. Yes, this is one of the many joys of being a coat check volunteer! (The grateful looks from parents are another reward.)”

I know that baseball season has been in swing for about a month now but at the Museum, we are getting ready for summer exhibition season. Tomorrow is opening day for our two featured exhibitions for late spring/early summer this year: Sparks! The William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative and Print Lovers at 30: Celebrating Three Decades of Giving.

We had a preview of both exhibitions yesterday. It was my first chance to see Print Lovers at 30 and I am eager to spend more time there. Hugh Merrill, printmaker and professor at the Kansas City Art Institute, is the guest curator. He gave an excellent overview of the different aspects of the exhibit and paid tribute to George McKenna, who was the Museum's curator of the print collection for almost 40 years until he passed away in 2007.

Next, we were treated to a tour of Sparks! led by Robert Storr who is the Dean of the Art School at Yale Univeristy and a former curator for the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is comprised of 36 works of art that have been acquired over the past 9 years through a generous contribution from the William T. Kemper Foundation.

Even though I am familiar with a good portion of the works, it was wonderful to get a new perspective as Storr explained the reasons behind what works of art were chosen. For instance, Marcel Duchamp's Box in a Valise and Man Ray's Object Indestructable are seminal pieces that help form a solid foundation for the contemporary collection. He also mentioned that during the collecting process, many artists were chosen because they have been overlooked and perhaps underappreciated. There are also several local artists including Stanley Whitney who help connect the Nelson-Atkins to our community.

My favorite parts of the tour were when Storr spoke about the artists themselves. He referred several times to the "elders of the tribe" including Louise Bourgeois and Dorothea Tanning, both of whom are in their nineties and still producing art. He also explained the connections between some of the artists and how they influenced each other either through personal or professional relationships.

I'm ready for the season to start. Play ball!

The new American Indian galleries, scheduled to open in November 2009, will include 38 glass cases for the display of objects. These cases were designed by Museum staff and are being fabricated in Milan, Italy, by Laboratorio Museotecnico Goppion, one of the world’s most prestigious casework manufacturers, who also made the cases for the African and contemporary ceramics galleries in the Museum’s new Bloch Building.

Some of the American Indian cases will contain glass panes as tall as 10 feet, and 13 feet wide. The resulting weight is such that special structural steel beams have been attached to the existing ceiling and wall infrastructure to provide support. Shown here are some of these red iron beams, looking for all the world like a steel trapeze frozen in time and space.

Prints have always fascinated me. Creating them is usually a very intensive process, but the results are pretty amazing. Print Lovers at 30 is right up my alley. First, it features works on paper from the Nelson-Atkins’ print collection; and secondly, the prints exhibited are a part of the collection I’ve never seen.

One print in particular caught my eye immediately. It is Arthur L. Werger’s, Krishna. It is a brightly colored print of a young girl’s body as viewed from underwater. It looks just as if the young girl has bobbed to the top of the water. I know, you wouldn’t get that from the title. The title does, however, add an element of symbolism for those looking for it (or those who read the image label).

Apparently in a certain state the Hindu god, Krishna, can take on any form in the universe. The reflection of her body on the water above gives the impression of extra arms, hence making her a Krishna-like figure. It is also an idea of “one into many” and the intricacy of a person’s identity.

The symbolism is great and all, but the print is pretty much just really cool. The vivid colors create a visually stunning print; the color of the water is particularly arresting. Werger did an amazingly detailed job adding in the lines the sunlight creates on her legs and arms through the water. It really looks just like you would expect a person underwater on a sunny day to look.

I have to admit that my favorite aspect of the print is the girl’s bathing suit. It has a tropical print and a little ruffle around the waist. It adds an interesting element to the work with the varied colors and bold pattern. The reflection of her suit in the top of the water is really beautiful. I also liked that it looked like a bathing suit that any girl could have had growing up as well. I’m pretty sure I had one similar in pastels.

A new exhibition opens in the contemporary project space tomorrow. It features Siah Armajani, an Iranian-born artist whose uses simple sculptural forms to convey complex ideas.

The space will hold 12 works including a sketch of the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge in Minneapolis, a pedestrian bridge that spans 16 lanes of traffic to link the Walker Art Museum and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Bridges are Armajani’s most enduring subject.

Other works in the exhibition, including Table by Window, come from Armajani's Dictionary of Building project in which he defined the primary units of buildings (doors, windows, stairs and closets) and their functions.

The exhibition is free.

Yesterday, I had a chance to visit one of the Museum's new exhibitions, Sparks! The William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative. On my way to the galleries, I picked up and audio guided tour.

I only got through the first part of the exhibition but I really enjoyed the audio tour entries about Marcel Duchamp's Box in a Valise and Man Ray's Object Indestructable.

Both works of art are related to the Dada movement which was an informal movement began in Switzerland during World War I. The movement included artists, poets, musicians and others who were disillusioned with the atrocities of war and the inhumanity of mankind's acts against one another. Many of Dada's followers believed that the world had lost all its reason which they reflected in their art including poems made of nonesensical words and music that had no harmony.

Box in a Valise is simply ingenuis. Duchamp worked for five years on the material for what he called his "portable museum." It combines 68 photographs, miniature replicas and color reproductions of his life's work. It contains versions of Nude Descending a Staircase and his masterpiece, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass). My favorite part is the "readymades" which includes a tiny urinal like the one he purchased from a plumbing store and presented as a work of art called Fountain and signed it "R. Mutt."

I was not as familiar with the piece by Man Ray. Object Indestructable is a common ordinary metronome with the photograph of an eye attached to the pendulum. The pendulum doesn't move but if you look from side to side, the eye winks open and closed. I enjoyed listening to the "tick, tick, tick" on the aduio guide as the narrator described how the work challenges traditional expectations about time and art.

I was interested to learn that the first version of this work was made in 1923 and called Object to Be Destroyed. That one actually was destroyed in 1957. The Museum's is the last version and was made in 1975. As far as I know, we have no plans to destroy it.

If you pick up the latest copy of Vanity Fair magazine, you will see a dazzling spread by the Gap advertising their artist edition t-shirts. The Gap is a sponsor of the 2008 Whitney Biennial and they have teamed up with previous Biennial artists to created a limited edition collection. The artists include many who have ties to the Nelson-Atkins.

On the back cover of the magazine is Chuck Close wearing a t-shirt with an image of his print of Philip Glass. Phil is featured in the Museum's current exhibition Print Lovers at 30: Celebrating Three Decades of Giving.

Inside the front cover is Kiki Smith whose work Constellation was installed in the Museum's contemporary project space last year and who is currently featured in the exhibition Sparks! The William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative.

Finally, there is a montage of artists that includes Kerry James Marshall whose work Memento #5 is included in the Sparks! exhibition as well. Marshall will visit the Nelson-Atkins on May 29 for a free lecture. I hope I have my t-shirt by then!

Bill Snead has had an amazing career as a photographer, and this Saturday, May 17, he’ll be at the Nelson-Atkins giving a free lecture. Snead’s career has taken him all over the world, and he has been a witness for the world during many crucial times such as the Vietnam War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. For a kid from Lawrence, Kansas, his life took him on many adventures far away from home.

In his 53 year long career, Snead has never once had to apply for a job. His work became instantly recognizable in the journalism world. After graduating from Lawrence High School in 1955, he worked as a one-man photography department for four years at the Lawrence Journal-World. After taking a job in Delaware, Snead was asked to run the photography department for United Press International in Saigon during the incredibly violent years of the Vietnam War. He has also served as picture editor for National Geographic and worked at the Washington Post for 21 years.

In 1993, Snead returned to his roots and became the deputy editor at the Lawrence Journal-World. He is a man known for his modesty and quick wit. Snead is quick to recognize that he’s been very lucky in his life and his career. His photographs line the second floor hallway of the journalism building at the University of Kansas. I have walked by these images many times, but they always manage to catch my eye and make me pause to take a better look. Lawrence is proud to call him a local; and the Lawrence Journal-World has done a lot to make his images well-known on a regional level. Don’t miss the chance to hear this local treasure speak about his photographs of the famous and infamous.

Robert Rauschenberg was a pivotal artist during the 1950s. His artistic methods led the way in transitioning from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg passed away this week at his home in Florida.

Rauschenberg is probably most famous for his combines, the combinations of non-traditional materials and objects to create art. The most notorious example of this is Monogram, a work of art primarily consisting of a stuffed angora goat with a tire around its middle.

Many art historians believe that every artist working today has been influenced in some way by Robert Rauschenberg. He was ingenious when it came to his artwork. I remember studying Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning and being fascinated by his idea that he was creating art by taking one away. That piece is exactly what it sounds like, by the way.

The Nelson-Atkins is lucky enough to have a Rauschenberg in its Modern & Contemporary Art collection. Tracer is one of his silkscreen paintings from the mid-1960s. I’ve always liked how his work seems incredibly abstract from a distance, but find with closer inspection that the images do relate. I have no doubt that artists for generations to come will continue to be inspired and influenced by Rauschenberg’s incredible body of work.

This past Saturday, photographer Bill Snead visited the Museum for a free lecture. Bill's photo of the Beatles is featured in the exhibition In the Public Eye: Photography and Fame. Bill spoke about his 50-plus-year career and told some wonderful stories. One constant theme was about how he felt that luck had so much to do with his career as a photographer.

The first image he showed was of the great actor Alec Guiness (he will always be Obi Wan Kenobi to me but I hear he had a very distinguished career outside the Star Wars trilogy). Bill was working for the Washington Post and happened to be the one who answered the phone when "Katharine" called down. That would be Katharine Graham, the Post's publisher during the 1960s and 70s.

Another great story was that as a young photographer in D.C., Snead was roommates with another newspaper photographer. One night, Bill came home to find a party in full swing. Among the guests was Ansel Adams. Bill asked him if he could get him anything to drink. Adams told him he wanted vodka with a splash of water. Bill provided the vodka and asked him if he would like to dance. When Ansel asked him why, Bill told him he had met many people who had told him about meeting Adams but none of them could say they had ever danced with the famous photographer. Adams agreed and the two danced. As Bill told the story, he added that no on there had the sense to take a photo.

After the lecture, Snead was gracious enough to sign copies of his book Bill Snead Photographs The First 50 Years.

Yesterday, the Nelson-Atkins was awarded the Best Art Museum or Gallery in Kansas City at the Visitor Choice Awards. The awards are conducted by the KC Convention and Visitors Association. The nominees are chosen by folks who live outside of Kansas City (more than 200 miles away, I believe). The Museum was also nominated for Best of Kansas City which was a great honor.

Today, we found out that we have been nominated for a Nickelodeon (yes, as in the TV channel) Parent's Pick Award. The category is Best Museum for Teens. The voting period is through June 30. Their website is still in the beta phase but as soon as I find out how to vote, I will pass it along.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Siah Armajani’s artwork at first. His work is featured in Dialogue with Democracy currently being exhibited in the Bloch Building project space. Although very interesting, I was not sure I was getting it. I was mostly thinking, “That green wood stain is really cool; I wonder if I could find that at a hardware store…” But then, I began to read, contemplate and understand the artworks.

The first piece that made me really begin to understand a bit of Armajani’s ideology is Chair for Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room. The work is neat by itself, but there is a picture on the wall of the chair in the reading room actually being used – that’s when it clicked. I think it’s really interesting when artists want their art to be utilitarian and of the everyday. Armajani seems to make art at a level that all people can understand – because they can use it, touch it and interact with it.

I was also intrigued by the simplicity of the forms he uses. The wall text says his aesthetic is that of a “one-room school house and the small-town church.” And those curators sure know what they are talking about, because that is exactly what it looks like. His work is truly American, and he strives to bring about social interaction in his work.

Elements #16 is comprised of a recurring aspect of his work, the bridge. Not only has he actually created city bridges, but he encourages the viewer to really think about what the term “bridge” means. He uses functional items such as a bridge and a table for people to begin thinking about his art in terms of meeting places and human interactions in the everyday.

If you’re ever in doubt of a certain artist or wonder if you don’t quite understand the meaning of the work, make sure you read. Those scrupulously designed texts on the wall and labels really do serve their purpose. I ended up leaving the exhibit thinking about art in a new way.

P.S. If you are an admirer of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, you definitely need to check Dialogue with Democracy out.

Yesterday I mentioned that the Nelson-Atkins was nominated for Best Teen Museum in Kansas City by Nickelodeon. It turns out we are also nominated for Best Teen Artsy Class. The good news is that the voting is now live. So if you're ready to warm up for election season, click here and vote for a good cause!

Every summer, I look forward to catching up on my reading. I'm happy to say the Nelson-Atkins is doing its part to help with a new Book Group.

My favorite reading selection comes in July with the children's classic From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg.

I have to admit I just recently read this book when I found it on my daughter's Scholastic book order form. Even as an adult, I loved reading about the antics of two grade-school children who outwit their parents and other adults to spend a week hiding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The discussion includes a tour of the Nelson-Atkins secret places. Even though I work here, I'm sure I'll find a spot I didn't know existed.

Other selections include Susan Vreeland's incredibly popular Luncheon of the Boating Party and Susan Roe's The Private Lives of the Impressionists. Happy reading!

As a way to get to know each other, the Museum's monthly all-staff meeting features a brief conversation with one employee. Everyone is asked the same seven questions. My favorite question is "If you could hang one work of art from the Museum's collection in your living room, which would it be and why?" Of course, it is assumed that there would be no consequences to removing the said work of art from the gallery and walking out the door with it.

Until recently, I would have answered with one of my top faves, such as the Chinese Guanyin or perhaps Monet's Water Lilies (not that it would fit in my living room, mind you). However, since the exhibition Print Lovers at 30 opened earlier this month, I have to add Art, by Robert Cottingham to that list.

I remember my first reaction when I saw it was, "wow! that would look great in my living room!" I love the vibrant colors and crisp, clarity of the image. I also love the context of the image. The letters that form the word "art" appear on a neon marquee. Cottingham has cropped the image so the word almost fills the entire frame. As someone who works in an art museum, I think it would be great to have this lovely picture hanging above my mantel to remind me every day of the beauty of art.

With all the talk of cutting vacations this summer, I was happy to find a new focus exhibition from our prints collection that features a variety of locations to transport you at absolutely no cost.

Landscapes: Real and Imagined includes classical ancient ruins, mysterious Egyptian remains and idyllic European pastorals.

There were several that I really enjoyed. An engraving by Samuel Palmer called The Lonely Tower looks like something out of an illustrated book from the turn of the century. In fact, it was inspired by a poem by John Milton called Il Penserosa. I was mesmerized by the depiction of the sky. The engraved lines create a sense of vivid movement in an otherwise calm depiction of the countryside. The twinkling stars and crescent moon behind layers of misty clouds give the picture a mysterious quality.

I also loved Johan Barthold Jongkind's Windmill Near Rotterdam (above). Having lived in Germany as a child, it reminded me of trips my family took to Holland. Jongkind lived in Paris during the 1860s and became very influential to the Impressionists. Jongkind was concerned with capturing rapidly changing light and atmospheric effects. The loose, free brushstrokes and simple outlines of boats and people clearly indicate an early Impressionist style. He was a mentor to Claude Monet, who actually called Jongkind his "true master."

One more that intrigued me was by Andre Lhote and is simply called Landscape. The label told me that it depicts a minimalist style of "delicate and poetic cubism." What I liked best about it is that it reminded me of a style used in Japanese scrolls. The perspective appears as if you are floating above looking down through the clouds into this village.

There were several others that were just amazing in this intimate exhibition in Gallery P27. Since admision is free to the Museum every day, you owe it to yourself to come take a quick mental get away.

The Bloch Building is the only place in Kansas City where you will find The Beatles, Charlie Chaplin and Ernest Hemingway all hanging out in the same room. Well, portraits of them that is. In the Public Eye: Photography and Fame invites you to gaze at these and other well-known faces as envisioned by the likes of Irving Penn and Annie Leibovitz – both of whom have shot extensively for some of my favorite magazines, like Vogue and The New Yorker. But the exhibit closes June 15, so you will have to hurry.

The walls enclosing In the Public Eye comprise a veritable landscape of celebrities, authors, musicians, politicians and the list goes on. The two things each of these portraits have in common is, one, the subjects are famous and, two, the photographers are famous as well. And if you can recognize every portrait and photographer in the exhibit, you will be better off than I was. After a recent visit, I had to berate myself a bit for not knowing a few of the names noted on the white information cards, like early 20th century starlet Evelyn Nesbit (below) and famous portraitist Yousuf Karsh (note to self: Read more!!).

On one wall you will find a familiar aesthetic representation: A single shot displayed in a pattern of four that can only be Andy Warhol. An aged but still beautiful Lana Turner was his subject and Warhol meticulously sewed the four black and white photographs together with thread. Next door is a portrait of author William S. Burroughs as shot by Richard Avedon. In a very effective use of the rule of thirds, Avedon placed Burroughs to the extreme left of the photograph against a stark white background. I liked this photograph of Burroughs a lot for its simplicity and because his well-worn face (Burroughs is an older man in this photograph) draws you in. Burroughs' expression is almost as blank as the background and you wonder what he’s thinking about.

Another wall gives you a stunning portrait of Ernest Hemingway (top), circa 1957, shot by Yousuf Karsh. In this picture Hemingway definitely looks the way he feels (perhaps a bit sad and run down?) but he also exudes a remarkable larger-than-life persona, helped along by the fact that the portrait is the largest frame on the wall. Further down the wall are a couple of shots done by Irving Penn of Spencer Tracy and Duke Ellington, both shot in a bare corner of Penn's studio. Ellington's tall frame looks too big for the space, but the expression on his face says that his good nature makes him game for anything. Penn has always been excellent at bringing out his subjects' personalities through the use of simple framing techniques and that amazing photographer's "eye" of his.

Throughout the exhibit you will find Hedy Lamarr, Greta Garbo, and even Richard Nixon. Posed images are mixed with photojournalistic entries, one of the most memorable of these being a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr (above). Photojournalist James Karales deviated from the more well-known repertoire of King images by giving us a charming view of the activist at home with his young daughter. King did a lot of great things for the Civil Rights movement in his public life, but it is this view of him in his private one that is the most powerful portrait of King I've seen yet.

Last night, I attended a free lecture by artist Kerry James Marshall (featured in the current Sparks! exhibition). He was amazing. He spoke at length about his career but also about what it takes (in his opinion) to be a succesful artist. He talked a lot about why he creates the works he does. Surprisingly, it has little to do with a need for "self expression" or having a a sudden inspiration.

Marshall grew up in the 1960s in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. He remembered knowing at a very young age that he wanted to "make pictures." His first trip to a museum came in elementary school when his class visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Marshall noticed right away that there was a lack of black figures in the art works as well as an absence of black artists in the collection. He made it his goal to rectify that situation. One way of doing that is to create very large canvases that contain prominent images of black people. Small works, he said, can be easily missed. Some of his canvases are 10 feet by 10 1/2 feet or larger.

In talking about the progression of his art work, Marshall mentioned the various series and groups of objects that he has created. I was interested to hear him talk about his Memento series, of which the Museum owns Memento #5 (above). The series deals with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the importance of the time in American history. Memento #5 is the final painting in the series. Marshall said he wanted a way to close the group so he painted the angel closing the silver curtain to give closure to himself as an artist but also to put closure on that time period. He also mentioned that the setting in the painting is his mother's living room. In fact, the settings in all five of the paintings are houses of relatives or close family friends. The reason for this is that they were all adults during the 1960s and would have experienced that time in a "real way." What was happening literally determined where they would be able to live, what kind of jobs were available to them and what they could aspire to achieve in the future.

It amazed me to hear him talk about this painting that I have seen so many times. I have read the label next to it in the gallery and I've heard docents and curators speak about it on many occassions. Now that I know the personal story behind it, I don't think I'll ever look at it (or perhaps any other work of art) the same way again.