Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

You have asked what's next for the Museum so...whether you want to hear about the latest in the European Galleries, wondering what's new with our American Indian Collection or just about anything else housed in the Nelson-Atkins Building... this is your stop. This new blog category will be dedicated to sharing the latest insights on happenings with the collections housed in our beloved 1933 building and the building itself. There's always something new to enjoy, so check back often and tell us what you want to know. Blog on.

To continue the recent stories about casework, we have a new one to report on. This giant wall case ( or GWC as we call it) is a hybrid from the fertile minds in the design and fabrication departments of the Museum.

The team faced two challenges with creating this case. The first it that the façade has to mimic the gallery wall and the second is that the front of the case has to open for access by curators, conservators and preparators.

The solution was to create two cases in one. There is the exhibition case that holds and preserves the works of art and then there is the outer case that will lift open to allow access. The exhibition case itself is constructed of steel tubing and is an independent structure that forms the sealed envelope for the artwork. The inner case has its own glass door that securely seals it creating a conservation chamber environment for the artwork, and the entire structure is totally independent from the façade structure.

The façade wall is primarily a “door” structure that measures 100” tall x 105” wide, and operates by virtue of a custom set of hinges, also designed by Museum employees. The façade wall framing is constructed of aluminum tubing to minimize weight, since part of the illusion requires that the door/wall also carry its own stone base molding. New trades are going to be involved continuing the construction of the façade wall which will include the custom forming of new plaster crown molding.

When the case is completed, it will hold pieces of silver from the Museum’s decorative arts collection. Be sure to come see this marvel of human ingenuity soon in Gallery P21.

No, the Nelson-Atkins hasn't acquired a new piece of art for the modern & contemporary collection. This masterpiece was created by students during a studio art class in the Museum's Ford Learning Center. Students spent time in the gallery to draw inspiration from the Surrealist painting Women at Sunrise by Joan Miro. In the classroom, the group assessed the blank twenty-foot length of paper and then worked together to create a unified mural.

This work and others by students are on view in the Ford Learning Center (on the ground floor of the Nelson-Atkins Building). New classes for spring and summer sessions are enrolling now. Check out our calendar for class descriptions and to sign up!

This Chinese Coromandel Screen is not what I would consider a modern or contemporary work of art. It is from the Kangxi Period (1662-1722). It is temporarily on view in Gallery 206 which use to contain works from the modern & contemporary collection. That collection has been moved and reinstalled in the new Bloch Builidng. You'll be able to see it again when the building opens on June 9.

For now, the Chinese screen is the only work of art in Gallery 206. It is sort of like getting a private viewing of this magnificent 12-panel screen of carved lacquer and clay on wood. If you don't get the chance to view this screen in the current location, it will be reinstalled with other objects from the Chinese collection again soon.

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.

A new exhibition of works on paper in Gallery P13 contains some sketches that are related to other pieces in the European painting collection.

This print by Rembrandt, tells part of the story from the book of Tobit (a scripture that is part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblcial canon). Another part of this story is decpicted by Jean-Francois Millet's Waiting in Gallery P30. The wall label describes the scene:

"Here Tobias, watched sympathetically by an angel, extracts the fish gall that will cure his father's blindness according to the Apocryphal story (Tobit 11). Note the concentration in Tobias' profile, reinforced by the pressure applied with his left arm and by his left knee pushing against the rock. The background is no more than bare paper, but convincingly serves as a foil to the figures, suggesting an extensive background space."

Another interesting piece in the exhibit is a study by Nicolas Poussin for his Triumph of Bacchus that is on view in Gallery P14. This painting was one of a series of three commissioned by the famous French statesman Cardinal Richelieu.

The exhibit is on view through October 7, 2007.

Electromediascope, the Museum's long-running series of experiemental film, video and new media is back for another installment beginning Friday, April 13. This time the theme is Being There: Experiencing Place and Non-place. The films all somehow challenge "what we think we know or recognize about the geophysical, institutional and cultural aspects of particular places."

It brings up interesting questions about places such as airports, shopping malls, highways and even the Internet. It used to be that people defined their sense of place or personal space in terms of location, where they lived or the traditions they followed. These "non-places" distance us from our surroundings by their boredom, repetition and the amount of time we all spend waiting for them.

Artists Peter Hutton, Tacita Dean, Emily Richardson, Aria Sala, Ken Kobland, James Benning and the German collaboration "e-team" are featured in the spring series. Free tickets are available online.

We had 16 children of Museum employees participate in our Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work day last week. The kids were able to learn about many areas of the Museum from security to conservation.

The kids were finger-printed and received official ID badges from our security department, they got a behind-the-scenes tour of the new stacks in the Spencer Art Reference Libray and they enjoyed a gallery activity in the new contemporary galleries in the Bloch Building with a member of our education department. After lunch, they chatted with one of our conservators about the restoration of our Greek Lion and watched Rozzelle Court Restaurant Executive Chef Dwight Hawkins demonstrate some desserts as well as find out how many kids can fit in the walk-in freezer.

One of the coolest parts of the day (at least for me) was a special tour of the Museum's central plant with the head of our operations division. The kids really liked all the machines and noises but we all learned that one of the biggest and most difficult tasks is making sure the galleries are regulated to 70 degrees and 50% humidity at all times.

We also got to see the big drain for when we must drain One Sun / 34 Moons by Walter De Maria and the pump that helps maintain the water in Fountain in the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court.

Jasper Cropsey’s painting, The Backwoods of America (1858), is on display in the Rotunda of the Nelson-Atkins Building thanks to the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Crystal Bridges is a museum under construction in Bentonville, Ark., which will be dedicated to American art and artists.

In addition to this generous loan, the Nelson-Atkins dedication to American art continued with the publishing of the Museum’s first major catalogue of its American Paintings Collection on June 1st. This catalogue is the fourth and most extensive in a series of Nelson-Atkins catalogues. Totaling over 800 pages between two volumes, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 profiles over one hundred works while incorporating biographical information on the artist, and providing insights into the mysteries of the painter’s processes. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store.

Another opportunity to learn about our American paintings collection is the American Painting Symposium on Oct. 20.

One of the Museum's most treasured works of art is getting a little check up. The Seated Guanyin Bodhisattva is possibly the best-preserved and most magnificent sculpture from the Liao Dynasty (907-1125)of Chinese Buddhist art.

The sculpture sits majestically in the Chinese Temple Room which was researched thoroughly a few years back. You can read more about that here.

As part of a research grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Guanyin will be examined, sampled and tested as necessary to understand the decorative history and determine what is the best way to preserve it for the future. The actual examining will take place over the next few weeks.

The Guanyin has always been one of my favorite art works in our collection. I'm glad to know it will be around for many more years.

Sometimes I don't get to visit the Nelson-Atkins very often. I know that sounds strange since I work here but my office is located offsite and sometimes I don't have time to get away from my desk. I was lucky enough today to help with a project in the galleries. As I moved from place to place in the Bloch Building, I was greeted by all the amazing views that have become so familiar to me: the soaring ceilings, the continuous surprises as you move through the galleries and the spectacular views of the Kansas City Sculpture Park and Nelson-Atkins Building.

Then we moved into the Nelson-Atkins Building and climbed the stairs to the second floor where the Chinese collection is on display. Some people may feel restricted because the lighting is artificial and the floor plan is rigid but as soon as I entered the Chinese Temple gallery, I felt the rush of joy and excitement of being in the same room with exquisite works of art dating back thousands of years. The highlight for me is the Seated Gaunyin Bodhisattva . The Guanyin is magnificent on its own but the setting is truly breathtaking.

The large gallery is divided about two-thirds of the way by beautiful wooden gate panels from a temple dating to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Behind the gates you can see the Guanyin sitting serenely against the back wall; just behind it is a wall painting depicting the Paradise of Tejaprabha Buddha. There are additional statues of Gaunyins and bodhisattvas along the left and right-hand walls. There is a peaceful, meditative quality to the space.

I headed back to my office feeling renewed and remembering why I love the Museum so much.

Yesterday I wrote about what could possibly be my favorite work of art from the Museum's collection, the Seated Guanyin Bodhisattva.

I am very excited to announce that in a few short months, we will unveil an interactive feature about the Guanyin including art historical content as well as the findings from a current conservation project.

For an idea of what the online piece might look like, check out our first interactive feature on the Greek Lion.

Just because the shiny new Bloch Building is complete and open doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels. There is still work going on to improve the facilities in the Nelson-Atkins Building. One spot that is nearing completion is the new objects conservation lab. The new space will be completely dedicated to the preservation and restoration of 3-D objects and sculptures in the collection. By the way, objects far outnumber the amount of paintings thanks to collections such as decorative arts which includes the Burnap Collection, British Silver and the Starr Miniatures. There is also the Modern & Contemporary collection and the Kansas City Sculpture Park which keeps the conservators busy year round with routine maintenance and presevation.

Future plans to increase conservation efforts include a special room for heavy-duty x-ray machines that can take images of the Museum's larger and denser pieces of sculpture. Learn more about conservation at the Nelson-Atkins.

This Thursday evening (Aug. 23), you will have a chance to listen to members of a conservation team as they prepare to launch a major project to analyize and study our 1,000-year-old Guanyin Bodhisattva. The program will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Gallery 230 and will be repeated at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

The sculpture is recognized internationally as a masterpiece, yet questions concerning its original appearance remain unsolved. Over a period of 4 days, a conservation scientist is assisting Museum conservation staff with a technical examination of the sculpture, followed by weeks of lab work.

The results of this study will be published as part duex of an interactive feature on the Museum's website. The first half of the feature will cover the art historical background on the sculpture and will appear later this year.

By the way, the Guanyin is one of my favorite works of art in the Museum. You can read more about it here, here and here.

Way back in February (an eternity in blog time) I posted an entry about the Giant Wall Case being constructed for the Folgers Silver Collection.

I finally got to take a closer look at the finished product and found it full of gleaming pieces of silver. The hallway is a little dark probably on purpose to accentuate the glorious glow of the pieces in the case.

The story of the Folgers Silver Collection is interesting too. It was presented to the Museum in 2000 by the Proctor & Gamble Company in the honor of the 150th anniversary of Folgers Coffee. The collection was assembled by Joseph S. Atha for the Kansas City-based Folgers Coffee Company of which he was the president. My favorite piece is the Epergne with its attached baskets and trays. Our curator calls it exotic but I think it looks futuristic and modern. Plus, its fun to say "epergne."

Stay tuned for what I found around the corner!

As I wrote previously, the Seated Guanyin Bodhisattva is undergoing analysis this week by New York conservation scientist John Twilley in conjuction with the Museum's conservation team.

A program at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Aug. 23) in Gallery 230 will explain about the process and what they hope to find. The program is repeated at 7:30 p.m. Admssion is free and no reservations are needed.

Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection closes on Sept. 9. Don’t miss your chance to see this amazing private collection before it leaves the Museum.

Enter the world of Edgar Degas and the Paris Opera with a performance by several dancers from the Kansas City Ballet on Thursday, Aug. 30. The dancers will explore different aspects of performance, from the studio to the stage in this lecture/demonstration. The performance will be repeated on Sept. 6.

The first lecture of the Mary Atkins Series is sold out. The program on Thursday, Sept. 27 features Robert Edsel, the author of Rescuing Da Vinci and co-producer of The Rape of Europa. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket, you are in for a great program about the men and women who recovered some of the world's greatest masterpieces after World War II, which included former Museum directors Paul Gardner and Laurence Sickman.

For those who can't make it to the first lecture, be sure to join us for the rest of the series including artist Otto Piene, art critic and writer Paul Goldberger and a performance by the Kansas City Chorale.

The Plaza Art Fair was this past weekend which signals the official beginning of fall in Kansas City. Never mind that it was almost 90 degrees the entire weekend.

The Nelson-Atkins was awarded the Most Innovative Booth prize for our presence in conjunction with the Arts Incubator, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to working with emerging artists in the development of their careers.

Bravo!

The Museum shows up on lots of other blogs. Most of them are personal blogs of people who have paid a recent visit or have seen the new Bloch Building for the first time. Many of them are architecture sites or big-time art blogs.

It's been awhile since I did some blog shout outs. So here are some of my recent favorites. Happy weekend reading!

Movement of Existence

Architecture for Art

Architecture Week

Modern Art Notes

Square Magazine

A new review of the Museum's Rozzelle Court Restaurant calls it "exquisite" and they are right!

If you haven't been to Rozzelle Court lately, you must come for a visit. The atmosphere alone is worth it but the food is excellent, too. The review mentions that Rozzelle Court is open for dinner on Fridays but it is actually open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Check out all our hours.

Starting Nov. 24, Rozzelle Court will transform into a date-night destination with a served dinner menu. Details will come later.

If you wander through the Chinese collection, you will find evidence of true warriors. These warriors had names such as the “Black-headed General” or the “Golden-winged Marshal” – perhaps you’ve heard of them? These great crickets were held in high esteem. That’s right, crickets.

Crickets have been revered in Chinese culture for their song and their fighting spirit. They were kept as pets by palace ladies and hunted by children during the fall. As cricket fighting gained popularity, it became a serious betting sport, and the accoutrement grew increasingly sophisticated.

On display are intricately carved cages made of wood, gourd and ivory for these pets and warriors to reside. The tickler made of ivory and rat hair used to entice crickets to fight is a particular favorite of mine. These crickets ate out of porcelain dishes and slept in beds of ivory. Not too bad a life for an insect, eh?

If you have a hankering for all things related to American art, come to the Nelson-Atkins this weekend. On Saturday, the American Painting Symposium features seven of the nation’s top American art historians for talks on key paintings in the collection. Speakers will discuss the works of artists including John Singer Sargent, Frederic Church and Thomas Hart Benton.

Speaking of Benton, the ten panels from his American Historical Epic are scheduled to be removed from Gallery 214 next Monday. They will be reinstalled in the Museum's Atkins Auditorium by the end of November.

Among the hundreds of Benton's works owned by the Nelson-Atkins, the American Historical Epic is not only a popular favorite but a seminal work in the artist's long career. This series of paintings signaled a new aesthetic from his previous abstract paintings to a new vision of modern American art that came to be known as Regionalism.

Be sure to pay a visit before they make their temporary departure.

A new self-guided tour of the Museum’s collection is an excellent way to connect objects you have seen in our exhibition Rising Dragon: Ancient Treasures from China with the rest of our collection.

At the exit of the exhibition, you will find a sleek red brochure that gives you the names and locations of several objects that have connections to the exhibition. The tour will lead you through the European, African, Asian and Ancient galleries to make connections between cultures with varied nationalities, ethnicities and religious beliefs.

Don’t worry about getting lost in the different galleries; there are green or tan labels adorned with a dragon to help you find which piece you are looking for. The worst thing that could happen is you stumble across a piece of art not on the tour that is also pretty amazing, right?

The labels offer great additional information for all the pieces on each thematic tour. It was neat to see certain pieces of the permanent collection in a new way and experience them through the eyes of each culture.

The Collection Connections tour felt like a mini treasure hunt and was fun to do with a friend. So, go see Rising Dragon and on your way out, pick up the Collection Connections brochure, explore and enjoy!

A few weeks ago, we posted a popular blog about the cricket paraphanalia on view in the Chinese collection. We had a request for more pictures so here is one of the installation. Of course, you can only do it justice if you come see it for yourself.

Something I didn't know is that the Chinese word for cricket literally means "one who stimulates spinning." The chirping of the crickets in autumn was a signal to the weavers in the rural towns and villages to get busy making their blankets and items for the winter.

I can't believe that another year has gone by and it is time for the third annual Member Appreciation Weekend. Beginning tomorrow, the Museum presents a weekend full of special programs to celebrate the ongoing support of our members and community.

The weekend is filled with many activities including the first ever members book club, unique workshops and tours, family presentations, a holiday cooking class, musical performances and more.

If that isn't enough to convince you to come on down, on Friday, members will enjoy an extra 5% discount in the Museum Store plus free gift wrapping.

Members of the public may enjoy some of the activities, too, but the real fun will be had by our deserving members. If you're not a member, join today so you won't miss any of the fun.

The Museum's new objects conservation lab is up and running. Among the myriad of projects underway is the continuing research on the Museum's Guanyin Bodhisattva. So far they have discovered some modern-day restorations to the Guanyin including nails, screws and a mending plate that is holding together a crack in the sculpture's body.

Overall, the Guanyin is in excellent condition which is very rare for these types of scultpure. Conservation scientist John Twilley continues to study the pigment to find out what is original to the sculpture and what has been added in the past 1,000 or so years.

Something else I spotted when I was in the objects conservation lab was this beautiful Egyptian relief from the 3rd millenium B.C.E., Relief of Ka-aper and His Wife Tutti. It is a relief from a tomb that depicts the inhabitant of the tomb and his wife. It has been in the Museum's collection for over 60 years.

The conservators have been treating the surface to consolidate and control the flaking. The stone contains a lot of soluable salts that have dried out and started flaking with exposure to air. They have also been able to remove some stains that were caused by previous restorations.

The next step is to decide how to cosmetically restore it. The piece will be examined by an Egyptologist from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since this is an archaeological piece, our conservators prefer to do less restoration than more. Anything they do to the relief could cause further damage. The challenge will be to decide how much they can do to increase the legibility but maintain the piece's natural integrity.

The Nelson-Atkins elves are busy getting ready for Thanksgiving weekend. The day after turkey day kicks off a weekend of special programs, events, dining and shopping at the Museum.

One of my favorite traditions is the annual Tree-Lighting Ceremony and Holiday Concert in the Museum’s glorious Kirkwood Hall. Holiday songs by the respected Kansas City Chorale and family caroling will provide a harmonious accompaniment to this beloved event.

The 22-foot tree is quite majestic but it is what's under it that catches everyone's attention. Placed around the tree’s base are dozens of 18th-century Neapolitan nativity-scene figures, or presepio. An important part of the Italian Christmas season, the presepio was first popularized by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 in the Italian village of Greccio. Spectacular compositions of scenes and characters were displayed in churches and the chapels of noble families in 17th- and 18th-century Naples.

Construction of the new American and American Indian galleries is now fully underway. The entire 2nd floor south corridor is a dedicated construction site. The American galleries on the east side of the building, including the Rotunda, are open at this time, and we hope that they can remain so throughout the project.

The galleries that remain open are 217, 219 and 220 containing such masterpieces as Mrs. Cecil Wade by John Singer Sargent, Persephone by Thomas Hart Benton, Himmel by Marsden Hartley and Raphaelle Peale's Venus Rising from the Sea - A Deception.

The newly installed collections will open in 2009. We will be sure to keep you updated on the progress.

This Sunday, Dec. 2, Professor David Driskell will give a lecture on Kansas native Aaron Douglas. A prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Douglas' work appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair and Opportunity on a regular basis. In 1934, he was commissioned to paint murals for the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library.

Professor Driskell is the Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus, university of Maryland and the premier authority on Douglas.

The lecture celebrates the Museum's recent acquisition of Douglas' Study for "Aspects of Negro Life: An Idyll of the Deep South." The drawing will be on view when the new American galleries open in 2009, which sounds like a really long time but will be here before we know it. Until then, be sure to come to the lecture this Sunday to learn more about this important American artist.

Aaron Douglas is called the Father of Black American Art. The Topeka, Kans - born artist was a leader in the Harlem Renaissance and a freedom fighter for the "universality of humankind." Professor David Driskell is considered the foremost authority on Aaron Douglas. He spoke this past weekend at the Museum to celebrate the acquisition of a new work.

In case you missed the lecture, you can hear an interview with Professor Driskell on the local NPR affiliate KCUR-FM.

Paul Goldberger, the acclaimed architect critic for The New Yorker, will speak tonight to a sold out crowd at the Nelson-Atkins. His lecture will focus on the enduring effects of architecture.

This has been a very busy year for Goldberger who received both the Lifetime Achievement Award in Literary Arts from Guild Hall and the Award for Professional Excellence from The Ed Bacon Foundation.

Goldberger wrote a glowing review of the Bloch Building earlier this year in which he states, "As it turns out, the building, which will open in June, is not just Holl’s finest by far but also one of the best museums of the last generation. Its boldness is no surprise, but, in addition, it is laudably functional, with a clear layout, handsome and logically designed galleries, and a suffusion of natural light. Furthermore, Holl’s five glass structures, punctuating the hill, don’t mock the old building as you might expect; they dance before it and engage it."

Today was the official staff open house for the new objects conservation lab. Normally, we're not allowed in unless we have a very good reason for being there (i.e. finding interesting things to blog about).

The new lab is completely state-of-the-art with fancy hoses and lights dangling from the ceiling that can be controlled with the push of a button. Their new location on the ground floor allows them to work on even the largest works of art (they were previously located in a penthouse on the roof of the Nelson-Atkins Building).

For instance, if one of the Henry Moore sculptures in the Kansas City Sculpture Park needed to be brought in for repairs, they could bring it right into the lab and park it in the new clean room (above). It doesn't look that big from the picture but it can hold something roughly the size of a Mini Cooper.

If you are a conservation geek like me, be sure to check out conservation on our website.

2007 is nearly wrapped up and as publications across the country are rounding up the year, the Nelson-Atkins has found itself atop one of the best lists... TIME magazine has declared the Bloch Building the #1 Architectural Marvel of 2007. From Beijing to San Francisco, Kansas City tops the list. So if you've been waiting to stop by, now is the time. And remember, the Museum is free everyday for everyone, so come on over.

A beautiful, 2,500-year-old woman made her way into the objects conservation lab this week. Meretities was the daughter of a high-level priest in the fourth or fifth century B.C. She wears an elaborately decorated robe and an expression of serenity.

Meretities will remain in the conservation lab for awhile. Museum conservators will do a complete technical analysis to determine her exact condition and what might need to be done to ensure she will last for many more years. They will also study the rare pigments that were used to decorate her.

The coffin is part of a recent Museum acquisition that includes a gilded mask, statuettes of goddesses and 306 tomb figures.

The conservation lab will not be Meretites' final resting place. She will be