GREAT ART IN AMERICA'S GREAT PLAINS

The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri opened in 1933 during the middle of the Great Depression.  Visitors were amazed at the innovations and the luxury of the massive Beaux Art Building.  Still, operations were modest: only three telephones serviced the entire building; lights in the galleries were turned off when people left a room; at opening and closing times, a huge bell was rung manually. 

Photo courtesy: www.nelson-atkins.org

William Rockhill Nelson was the founder of The Kansas City Star newspaper. When he arrived in Kansas City in the early 1880s, he described the town as “incredibly ugly and commonplace” and determined that “if I were to live here the town must be made over.”  So he set about beautifying the city, which at the time was becoming a major transportation hub, by creating parks, boulevards and planting trees.  As a man who loved beautiful architecture and the great paintings of Europe, part of his quest for making over Kansas City included the creation of an art gallery.  William Nelson died in 1915.  His will stipulated his estate be used to purchase works of fine art “which will contribute to the delectation and enjoyment of the public generally…” Nelson’s wife survived him by six years, and his only child, Laura died five years later. Upon their deaths, the will provided for the “construction of a building in Kansas City, Missouri, to bear the name of William Nelson and to be followed by the words "Gallery of Art.”  Laura’s husband, Irwin Kirkwood, survived her by less than two years. After he died, in 1927, the Nelson mansion and the 20 acres were deeded to the city as a building site for Nelson’s art museum.

Photo courtesy: www.nelson-atkins.org

Also during this same time, but unknown to William Nelson, there was another citizen of Kansas City who had a love of European art and a strong sense of community involvement. Mary McAfee was a school teacher who moved to Kansas City to marry James Burris Atkins.  James Atkins, like Mary, was originally from Kentucky, but he moved to Kansas City in 1865 to enter the milling business and to speculate in Kansas City real estate.  When he died in 1886, he left Mary grief-stricken but very wealthy.  At the beginning of the 20th century Mary began traveling to Europe, immersing herself in the collections of the Musée du Louvre and Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, the National Gallery of Art in London and the Saxon Royal Museum in Dresden.  Mary Atkins died in 1911; in her will she bequeathed $300,000 to build a museum.  By 1927 the $300,000, wisely invested, had increased to $700,000.  In 1927, by consensus among their respective trustees, the Nelson and Atkins funds were combined, resulting in a total of more than $3 million to build an art museum that would rival the best in the country.

Thus, what was created from this collaboration was:

We approached the museum by walking through the Kansas City Sculpture Park.  As you recall from my previous post, we walked to the museum from our hotel in a nearly 100° temperature.  Reaching the street corner of the museum, we walked through a winding, tree-lined pathway where on display were sculptures by some well-known artists:

Seated Woman (1958-1959) by Henry Moore

Eventually the pathway opened up into the vast open area of grass where we could see two easily-recognized, but much larger-than-life objects:

Shuttlecocks (1994) by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen

The husband and wife team of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen were commissioned in 1994 to design a sculpture for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. They responded to the formality of the original neoclassical building and the green expanse of its lawn by imagining the Museum as a badminton net and the lawn as a playing field. The pair designed four birdies or shuttlecocks that were placed as though they had just landed on opposite sides of the net. Each shuttlecock weighs 5,500 pounds, stands nearly 18 feet tall and has a diameter of some 16 feet. (Courtesy: Nelson-Atkins.org)

We turned around 180 degrees to face the entrance of the museum, and we were greeted by the pensive sculpture of:

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

We haven't even made it inside and already loads of great art...

Unfortunately no photos were allowed in the Bloch exhibition, but non-flash photography was permitted in the permanent collection.  

Of course I always start with the Impressionists which really are my favorite group of artists.  Well, my goodness, nothing like starting out the visit by seeing this:

Waterlilies (1916-1926) by Claude Monet

This painting is just short of 14 feet wide and nearly 7 feet high!  The panel is the right-hand side of a triptych of a Waterlilies study that Monet painted.  No wonder it took him over 10 years to complete it...that's 42 feet of paintings!  The other two panels are at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the St. Louis Art Museum.  Click here to see the painting in my blog post about the St. Louis Art Museum.

Another spectacular work by Monet is this early-career painting of the view from his house he was renting:

View of Argenteuil: Snow (1874-1875) by Claude Monet

And another early masterpiece of the streets of Paris by Monet:

Boulevard des Capucines (1873-1874) by Claude Monet

Another wonderful, but maybe not so well known, French Impressionist landscape painter was Alfred Sisley:

The Embankment at Billencourt: Snow (1879) by Alfred Sisley

Camille Pissarro is called the Dean of the Impressionist Painters, not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also because of his wisdom and personality.  Here are four prime examples why: 

Poplars, Sunset at Eragny (1895) by Camille Pissarro

The Garden of Les Mathurins at Pontoise (1876) by Camille Pissarro

Wooded Landscape at L'Hermitage, Pontoise (1879) by Camille Pissarro

Market at Pontoise (1895) by Camille Pissarro

There is a beautiful work by Pissarro's great friend and fellow painter, Paul Cézanne.  Cézanne's somewhat abstract style like in this painting would lead to the Cubism style of Picasso and Braque.

Mont Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cézanne

Here is another view of the Degas painting that was the subject of my previous blog.  Click here to read more.

Rehearsal at the Ballet (1876) by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas

Here are two wonderful portraits by two masters:

Portrait of Paul Haviland (1884) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Portrait of Lise Campineanu (1878) by Édouard Manet

And then there is the genius of Vincent van Gogh, executed at a time when his style was at its most agitated and expressive.

Olive Orchard (1889) by Vincent van Gogh

This is an example of van Gogh's early work when he was still painting with dark, moody colors:

Portrait of Gysbertus de Groot (1885) by Vincent van Gogh

Of course, I can't forget my German Expressionists.  Here are paintings by three of the German Expressionist masters.  Such bold colors! 

Portrait of the Poet Guthmann (1910) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Baccarat (1947) by Max Beckmann

Masks (1911) by Emil Nolde

There were several other paintings that I photographed just because I liked them, but I was not necessarily familiar with the artist.  For example, I just love the colors in the painting, the heavier brushstrokes and the simplicity of the subject matter: a boat and its reflection on the water. 

Starboat (Tugboat and Riverboat) 1966 by Wayne Thiebaud

In this painting I just like the colors here and the great detailing...all that garbage took a great deal of time and effort to paint.

Heineken (1976) by Idelle Weber

Normally, I don't favor modern or contemporary art.  However, I did photograph these two works by Willem de Kooning because I haven't seen too many examples of his work in other museums plus keeping on the same theme, I love the bold colors.  The composition of the paintings, however, is another story... 

Woman IV (1952-1953) by Willem de Kooning

Boudoir (1951) by Willem de Kooning

The Nelson-Atkins Museum is one of the finest museums in the United States, if not the world.  Its collection contains more than 33,500 works of art.  Whether displayed in the original 1933 neoclassic building or the new 2007 modern, translucent-glass Bloch Building, the permanent collection rivals any museum I've personally visited.

For more information visit: http://nelson-atkins.org.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

4525 Oak Street

Kansas City, MO   64111

Phone: 816.751.1ART (816.751.1278)

For directions: click here.

• Admission is FREE every day for all visitors.
• There may be a charge for special exhibitions.
• Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
• Closed New Year's Day, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
• Open 10:00-4:00 on Wednesday.
• Open 10:00-9:00 on Thursday and Friday.
• Open 10:00-5:00 on Saturday.
• Open 12:00-5:00 on Sunday.

NOTE: All photos of the paintings in this blog post were taken by me on my visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in August, 2007.

GREAT ART IN BREW TOWN

Milwaukee, Wisconsin's nickname is "Brew Town", the city being famous for its many breweries.  Milwaukee has many other great places to visit.  I love visiting zoos and one of my favorites is the Milwaukee County Zoo. 

Driving to the zoo will allow you to pass Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.  Even though I am a Cubs fan, I've always wanted to see a game in this park.  It's said to be one of the most beautiful baseball parks in the Major Leagues.

And of course as I wrote about in my last post, Milwaukee has a world-class art museum.  Not only is the building itself an architectural masterpiece, the collection itself contains many masterpieces.  Here are some of my favorites.

We'll start with the Impressionists...

Here are two beautiful paintings by Monet:

The Cliff at La Porte d'Aval (1883) by Claude Monet

Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect (1900) by Claude Monet

Here is a painting by Camille Pissarro, an artist who I haven't mentioned previously.  He is known as "The Father of Impressionism" and was a mentor to Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin.

Sunset at Rouen (1885) by Camille Pissarro

In my blog post about the American painters at the Art Institute of Chicago, I showed a painting by William Glackens.  The Milwaukee Art Museum has another of his wonderful paintings...

Breezy Day, Tug Boats, New York Harbor (1910) by William Glackens

Ernest Lawson, along with William Glackens, was a member of the same art movement group called The Eight; an artistic movement that came into prominence during the early part of 20th century, best know for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York.

Boat Club in Winter (1915) by Ernest Lawson

Another member of the same The Eight group was Maurice Prendergast. Though he was a member of The Eight group, he really was a "Post-Impressionist" painter...most of his work is more reminiscent of his friends, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, who belonged to the Nabi art movement with its bright, bold use of color.

Holiday in the Park (1913-1915) by Maurice Prendergast

 

And yet another member of The Eight group was John French Sloan.  He too was known for his paintings of the life and nature around New York City. 

 

Dunes at Annisquam (1914) by John Sloan

Another one of my favorite painters is Maurice de Vlaminck. He is considered one of the founders of the Fauvist art movement, known for its bold use of color.  The colors in this painting are so vivid! 

The Wheat Field (1906) by Maurice de Vlaminck

 

Georges Braque, in the early part of this career, was another major contributor in the Fauvist movement...in his later years Braque, along with Picasso, created the Cubist art style.

Seated Nude (1906) by Georges Braque

And speaking of Pierre Bonnard, here are two marvelous examples of his work, this one painted late in his life in the area of southern France (fantastic light and colors; remember Vincent van Gogh and his incredible Arles work) where he lived for over twenty years.

View from the Artist's Studio, Le Cannet (1945) by Pierre Bonnard

I love this painting below:

Girl in Straw Hat (1903) by Pierre Bonnard

I have mentioned in several posts that it was during my visit to this museum that I discovered the fantastic work of the German Expressionists painters, and specifically the work of Gabriele Münter.  Here are three superb paintings: the colors are so bold and bright!

Road in Multicolored October  (1959) by Gabriele Münter

 

In Schwabing (1912) by Gabriele Münter

Staffelsee (1920) by Gabriele Münter

There are many other wonderful paintings by other German Expressionists:

Isn't this painting fantastic?  It's incredible that during the early years of the Nazi regime over 300 of Max Pechstein's paintings were confiscated from German museums and sixteen of his works were included in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) Exhibition of 1937.

Calla Lilies (1914) by Max Pechstein

Early Morning, Leba (1922) by Max Pechstein

I've written in several other blog posts that Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is one of my favorite painters.  Like Pechstein's works, in 1937 the Nazis confiscated nearly all of his paintings that were in German museums (over 600).  Already suffering from mental problems (he suffered a nervous breakdown during his service in World War I), Kirchner committed suicide in 1938.  The painting below of his psychiatrist's stepmother was painted while he was a patient at the Bellevue Sanitarium in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland during World War I.

 

The Visit: Mrs. Binswanger (1917) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Emil Nolde is another one of the marvelous German Expressionists whose works were confiscated by the Nazis during the early 1930s; the Nazis removed over 1,000 of his paintings, more than for any other artist.  Unbelievable as it seems, in 1941, the Nazis even forbade him to paint at all, even in the privacy of his own home.  How ironic that Nolde had actually been a Nazi supporter in the 1920s and believed he would be immune to the Nazi propaganda campaign since he was not Jewish.  But like Pechstein and Kirchner, Nolde's works were also included in the 1937 Entartete Kunst Exhibition. 

Roses on a Path (1935) by Emil Nolde

I wrote about Max Beckmann in my post discussing my visit to the St. Louis Art Museum and the largest collection of paintings by Max Beckmann.  Beckmann actually lived and worked in St. Louis.  Beckmann also was subjected to the same injustices as the other German painters: losing his job at the art school and having his works confiscated and displayed as "degenerate" art.

Wally Barker (1948) by Max Beckmann

If you would like to read more about the German Expressionists, click here to read that blog post.

The Mrs. Harry L. Bradley Collection

"Assembled by Mrs. Harry L. Bradley during the second half of the 20th century, the Bradley Collection contains important European and American painting, prints, watercolors, and sculpture from the late 19th century to the early 1970s.  Work includes Fauve paintings by Georges Braque and Maurice de Vlaminck, seminal Expressionist paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Vassily Kandinsky, and magnificent works by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti.  A generous challenge grant from the Bradleys gave rise to the construction of the Bradley Wing in 1975, which features Mrs. Harry L. Bradley’s impressive collection."  Taken from www.mam.org.

The paintings shown above by Maurice de Vlaminck, George Braque, Pierre Bonnard and two of the paintings by Gabriele Münter are part of the Bradley Collection.  Here are a few of the other 380 works of art that Mrs. Bradley gave to the Milwaukee Art Museum:

The Horseman (1966) by Marc Chagall

Fragment I for Composition VII: Center (1913) by Wasilly Kandinsky

Completed after Nazi troops evacuated Paris in November 1944, this painting by Pablo Picasso celebrates the liberation of the city.  The rooster, the emblem of France, announces the rising sun and the dawning of peace after years of war.  Opposite the rooster is the dove of peace.

The Cock of the Liberation (1944) by Pablo Picasso

Yellow Guitar and Blue Vase (1950) by Fernand Léger

Pale Woman with Red Hair (1911-1912) by Alexei Jawlensky

Not part of the Bradley collection, this is a wonderful painting by Alexei von Jawlensky...

Sleeping Woman (1910) by Alexei von Jawlensky

Along with its fantastic permanent collection, the Milwaukee Art Museum has hosted several major temporary exhibitions in the past: 

Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper: 

Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper presents 125 drawings, watercolors and pastels by some of the greatest artists in the history of Western Art. Active in France during the second half of the nineteenth century and closely associated with avant-garde movements, artists such as Manet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Seurat, Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec created works on paper that may be less well-known than their paintings but which are just as significant. Organized by the Museum in partnership with the Albertina in Vienna, the exhibition demonstrates how these artists chose to emphasize drawing, thereby ceasing to recognize the traditional distinction between drawing and painting.  (Photo and description http://mam.org/exhibitions/allPastFeatures.php)

Jan Lievens: 

Daring and innovative as a painter, draftsman, and print maker, Dutch artist Jan Lievens (1607-1674) created a number of memorable character studies, genre scenes, landscapes, formal portraits, and religious and allegorical images. This exhibition will, for the first time, present an overview of the full range of Lievens’ career, with about 45 of his finest paintings and a select group of his drawings and prints. (Photo and description courtesy http://mam.org/exhibitions/allPastFeatures.php) 

(Really sorry I missed this one!; Lieven's was Rembrandt's contemporary, not his student as it was thought in the past.)

Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape: 

This exhibition will explore the remarkable transformation of Camille Pissarro's landscape paintings over the course of an important decade in his career, from 1864 to 1874. During this time, he moved from being a student of the Barbizon school to becoming one of the leaders of the emerging Impressionist movement. This critical period of his evolution as an artist laid the groundwork for an entire generation of painters, many of whom were influenced by his experimental techniques and vision.  (Photo and description courtesy http://mam.org/exhibitions/allPastFeatures.php) 

(I saw this exhibition.  It was fantastic; even my non-arty sister-in-law liked it.)

Rembrandt and His Time: Masterworks from the Albertina, Vienna: 

This fall, the Milwaukee Art Museum and Wisconsin Energy Foundation present some of the greatest drawings and paintings ever produced by Netherlandish artists in the exhibition Rembrandt and His Time: Masterworks from the Albertina, Vienna. Including 115 drawings and prints from the Albertina and 15 related paintings, the exhibition explores the pivotal and influential role of Rembrandt as a draftsman in mid-seventeenth-century Holland.  (Photo and description courtesy http://mam.org/exhibitions/allPastFeatures.php)

Degas Sculptures: 

Degas Sculptures presents a rare opportunity to view in a single exhibition all 73 bronze sculptures by the great French Impressionist master, Edgar Degas. The exhibition explores one of the most fascinating aspects of the work of this seminal painter and sculptor whose innovative compositions, skillful drawing and perceptive analysis of movement made him one of the late 19th-century masters of modern art. (Photo and description courtesy http://mam.org/exhibitions/allPastFeatures.php)

This summer this exhibition is coming to the museum: 

Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and his Contemporaries

Posters of Paris (June 1, 2012–September 9, 2012) examines the story of the French artistic poster in all its complexity. In addition to the posters themselves, this exhibition features rare preparatory drawings and watercolors, maquettes, and proofs to show how the artist went from idea to final execution. The show will highlight work and artists well known to the public—Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Cassandre—as well as artists less familiar, but equally as powerful in their impact on the affiche artistique in fin-de-siècle Paris. (Photo and description courtesy http://mam.org/exhibitions/allPastFeatures.php)

Milwaukee may be famous for its beer, but its art museum matches any other U.S. museum for its collection and exhibitions.

For more information visit the website: http://mam.org 

Milwaukee Art Museum

700 N. Art Museum Drive

Milwaukee, WI 53202

Phone: 414.224.3200

Fax: 414.271.7588

Email: mam@mam.org

For directions: click here.

• Admission fee is $15.00 for adults
• Admission fee is $12.00 for students, seniors and military.
• Featured exhibitions are included in admission price.
• Closed Mondays.
• Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
• Open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-5:00
• Open Thursday until 8:00.

NOTE: All photos of the paintings in this blog post were taken by me on my visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum.