Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Vincent

Art museum in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Established	1933
Location	4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri, The states
Coordinates	39°02′42″N 94°34′52″W  /  39.044973°N 94.581009°W  / 39.044973; -94.581009 Coordinates: 39°02′42″Due north 94°34′52″W  /  39.044973°N 94.581009°W  / 39.044973; -94.581009
Website	www.nelson-atkins.org

View of the museum and the Shuttlecocks installation from the south side

The Nelson with the new Bloch add-on

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an fine art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian fine art.

In 2007, Time magazine ranked the museum's new Bloch Building number one on its list of "The 10 All-time (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels" which considered candidates from around the globe.^[one]

On September 1, 2010, Julián Zugazagoitia (b. 1964) became the museum'south 5th Director.^[2] Zugazagoitia had previously served for seven years as the Director and CEO of El Museo del Barrio in New York City.

The museum is open five days a week: Monday from 10 am-v pm, closed Tuesday and Wed, open Thursday 10-5, Fri 10-9, Saturday and Sunday x-v. To maintain social distancing in the galleries, visitors must reserve a timed admission ticket online or by phone.

Admission is free.

History [edit]

The museum was built on the grounds of Oak Hall, the home of Kansas City Star publisher William Rockhill Nelson (1841-1915).^[3] When he died in 1915, his will provided that upon the deaths of his wife and daughter, the gain of his entire estate would get to purchasing artwork for public enjoyment. This heritance was augmented by additional funds from the estates of Nelson's daughter, son-in-law and chaser.^[4]

In 1911, former schoolteacher Mary McAfee Atkins (1836-1911), widow of real estate speculator James Burris Atkins, bequeathed $300,000 to establish an art museum. Through sound management of the estate, this corporeality grew to $700,000 by 1927. Original plans called for two art museums based on the carve up bequests^[5] (with the Atkins Museum to be located in Penn Valley Park). However, trustees of the two estates decided to combine the two bequests forth with smaller bequests from others to make a single major art establishment.

The building was designed by prominent Kansas City architects Wight and Wight, who also designed the approaches to the Liberty Memorial and the Kansas governor's mansion, Cedar Crest. Basis was cleaved in July 1930, and the museum opened December eleven, 1933. The building'due south classical Beaux-Arts architecture fashion was modeled on the Cleveland Museum of Fine art^[iv] Thomas Wight, the brother who did virtually of the design piece of work for the building said:

We are building the museum on archetype principles because they take been proved by the centuries. A distinctly American principle appropriate for such a building may be developed, merely, and so far, everything of that kind is experimental. 1 doesn't experiment with two-and-a-half one thousand thousand dollars.^[six]

When the original building opened, its final cost was $2.75 million (about $54 1000000 in 2018).^[4] The dimensions of the vi-story structure were 390 anxiety (120 m) long by 175 feet (53 grand) wide, making information technology larger than the Cleveland Museum of Fine art.

The museum, which was locally referred to every bit the Nelson Fine art Gallery or simply the Nelson Gallery, was really two museums until 1983 when information technology was formally named the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine art. Previously the east wing was chosen the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, while the w wing and antechamber was called the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art.^[seven]

On the outside of the building Charles Keck created 23 limestone panels depicting the march of civilization from east to west including wagon trains heading due west from Westport Landing. Grillwork in the doors depict oak leafage motifs in retentivity of Oak Hall. The s facade of the museum is an iconic construction in Kansas City that looms over a series of terraces onto Brush Creek.

Nearly the aforementioned time as the construction of the museum, Howard Vanderslice donated 8 acres (32,000 m²) to the w of the museum, beyond Oak Street, for the Kansas City Fine art Found, which moved from the Deardorf Building at 11th and Principal streets in downtown Kansas City.

As William Nelson, the major correspondent, donated money rather than a personal art drove, the curators were able to assemble a collection from scratch. At the meridian of the Great Depression, the worldwide fine art marketplace was flooded with pieces for sale, but in that location were very few buyers. Every bit such, the museum's buyers found a vast market place open up to them. The acquisitions grew apace and within a short time, the Nelson-Atkins had i of the largest fine art collections in the country.^{[ citation needed ]}

1 of the original components of the edifice was a re-cosmos of Nelson'southward oak paneled room from Oak Hall (and namesake of the estate). The room independent Nelson'south red plush easy chair and bookcases. The room was dismantled in 1988 to brand way for a photography studio.^{[4] [viii]}

Ane-third of the building on the first and second floors of the westward wing were left unfinished when the building opened to allow for future expansion. Role was completed in 1941 to business firm Chinese painting and the rest of the edifice was completed after World War II.^[4] In 1993 Michael Churchman wrote a history of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, High Ethics and Aspirations.^[9]

Directors [edit]

Paul Gardner, 1933-1953 [edit]

The museum had four Directors before Julián Zugazagoitia's date in 2010; the start was Paul Gardner (1894-1972). A native of Massachusetts, Gardner graduated from MIT in 1917 with a caste in architecture. He served with stardom in WWI, later which he traveled in Europe and North Africa for a year. In about 1919 he became a dancer with Anna Pavlova's Ballet Company under the proper name "Paul Tchernikoff". Gardner somewhen went back to graduate school, earning a master'south in European history from George Washington University in 1928 then enrolling in the doctoral program in art history at Harvard. In March 1932 the cautious Trustees of the Nelson Art Gallery, hesitant about naming a full-fledged Manager, appointed the graduate educatee as their assistant on a trial footing. Gardner took to the new position at once, and then was named by the Trustees as Managing director eighteen months later, on September one, 1933. He would serve for the next twenty years.^[10]

Ethylene Jackson, 1942-1945 [edit]

Ethylene Jackson (1907-1993), Paul Gardner's executive secretarial assistant since 1933, became acting director in Nov 1942 when Gardner was commissioned a major in the United States Army. As well her function as executive secretary to the Director, Jackson had served as curator of the decorative arts collection.^[9] Paul Gardner served as a Monuments Human in Europe, returning to the Nelson in December 1945. Ethylene Jackson left Kansas City for New York City the following year after marrying art dealer Germain Seligman.

Laurence Sickman, 1953-1977 [edit]

Upon Paul Gardner'south retirement on May i, 1953, Laurence Sickman (1907-1988) became the Gallery'south second Managing director. He had been associated with the Gallery since 1931.

Laurence Sickman, a native of Denver, Colorado, had become interested in Japanese and Chinese fine art as a high school student. Later two years at the University of Colorado he transferred to Harvard, where he studied with Langdon Warner. He as well became fluent in Chinese. After graduating with a B.A. in 1930 Sickman traveled to China on a Harvard-Yenching scholarship. There he reconnected with Warner, who was by so in China, under consignment to purchase art for the museum Trustees. Warner recommended to the Trustees that the immature graduate student assume the responsibleness of negotiating art purchases for the Gallery, as Warner was moving to Nihon.^[xi] Sickman'due south apprehending as a collector earned him the respect of the Trustees, who sent him thousands of dollars with which to buy fine art. Since he was on a scholarship, his expertise cost the Trustees nothing. He made the 6,000-mile journeying to Kansas Urban center in December 1933 for the opening of the Gallery, then returned to Mainland china. Returning once more to the United States, he was made the Gallery's Curator of Oriental Fine art in 1935. Past 1941, Sickman's purchases of Chinese fine art had given the Nelson Gallery 1 of the best Asian collections in the The states.^[12]

Sickman, like Paul Gardner, was commissioned every bit an officer in the The states Ground forces as a member of the Monuments Men, serving from 1942 to 1945 in England, Bharat, and People's republic of china. In his absence, his very capable assistant, Miss Lindsay Hughes, was appointed acting Curator. Sickman returned to his curatorial office after the war; eight years later he was named Manager. Among the many successes of his tenure, the most important was the major exhibition "Archaeological Finds of the People's Democracy of China", which ran from Apr 20-June 8, 1975 and attracted about 280,000 visitors. The exhibition of 385 pieces was a result of the détente between the United States and Communist China that Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to that country had begun. This was a professional and personal coup for Sickman: his reputation as a scholar and the collection he had built at the Nelson Gallery fabricated Kansas Metropolis one of only 4 cities the exhibition would visit, subsequently Paris, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.^[13] Laurence Sickman retired on January 31, 1977, and was named Manager Emeritus and advisor to the Trustees.

Ted Coe, 1977-1982 [edit]

On Laurence Sickman's retirement, Ralph Tracy "Ted" Coe (1929-2010) became the Gallery's third Director. Coe was a native of Cleveland, where his father, a steel manufacturer, was an art collector. The recipient of a bachelor'southward degree in fine art history from Oberlin Higher and a master's in compages from Yale, he had worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. before coming to the Nelson Gallery in 1959 as Curator of Painting and Sculpture. While a curator, Coe organized several large and well-attended special exhibitions. The most influential was "Sacred Circles", an exhibition of 900 Native American fine art objects. Organized to commemorate the American Bicentennial, the bear witness opened at the Hayward Gallery in London, England, running from October 1976 to January 1977. Financial back up was chop-chop organized in Kansas City to make the Nelson Gallery the only American venue. "Sacred Circles" was the 2nd most popular exhibition afterward the Chinese prove of 1975, running from April 16-June nineteen, 1977, and drawing more 245,000 visitors.^[ix] Ted Coe requested a sabbatical from his duties equally Managing director in March 1982 and resigned at the stop of June, having worked at the Nelson for 23 years, including 4½ years equally Manager.^[13]

Marc Wilson, 1982-2010 [edit]

Ted Coe was succeeded by Marc Wilson, who served from 1982 to 2010.^[ii]

A panoramic view of the backyard in front end of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Summer 2008

Bloch Building Add-on [edit]

N façade of the original building (1930-33), with the Bloch Edifice (1999-2007), left.

The Thinker marked the n archway prior to the addition of the Bloch Edifice when it was moved to the s side.

In 1993, the museum began to consider the outset expansion plans since the completion of the unfinished areas in the 1940s. Plans called for a 55 percent increase in space and were finalized in 1999.

Architect Steven Holl won an international competition in 1999 for the design of the add-on. Holl'south concept, conceived and realized with Design Partner Chris McVoy, was to build 5 glass pavilions to the e of the original building which they call lenses. The lenses top a 165,000-square-foot (fifteen,300 yardⁱⁱ) underground building known equally the Bloch Edifice. Information technology is named for H&R Block co-founder Henry W. Bloch. The Bloch building houses the museum's contemporary, African, photography, and special exhibitions galleries as well a new cafe, the museum's Spencer Fine art Reference Library, and the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court. The addition cost approximately $95 1000000 and opened June 9, 2007. It was part of $200 million in renovations to the museum that included the Ford Learning Middle which is home to classes, workshops, and resources for students and educators. Information technology opened in fall of 2005.

In the contest to design the add-on, all the entrants except Holl proposed creating a modern add-on on the north side of the museum which would have drastically altered or obscured the n facade which served as the main entrance to the museum. Instead Holl and McVoy proposed placing the addition on the east side perpendicular to the main building. Their aim was to engage the museum's iconic sculpture garden to fuse the experience of art, architecture and mural. Their lenses now cascade down the east perimeter of the grounds.

During construction, Holl's plan met with considerable controversy. It was described as "grotesque, a metal box."^[14] All the same, reviews of the new construction once completed accept generally been raves:

New York Times compages critic Nicolai Ouroussoff gives this description:

For the art earth, the add-on, known as the Bloch Edifice, should reaffirm that art and compages tin can happily coexist. The residuum of the states can draw condolement from the fact that public works of our own day and historic period can equal or surpass the chiliad achievements of past generations ...

The issue is a building that doesn't challenge the past and then much as propose an alternating earth view that is in constant shift. Seen from the north plaza, the addition'south primary archway gently defers to the old building, the crystalline course suggesting a ghostlike echo of the austere stone facade. From there, the eye is drawn to the distinct even so interconnected translucent blocks, which are partly buried in the landscape ...

It's an approach that should be studied past anyone who sets out to blueprint a museum from this bespeak frontward.^[15]

The museum has gone against traditional conservatorial thinking in allowing natural light from the lenses to illuminate its fine art work. Virtually of the exhibits in the add-on are below footing with the 27 to 34-foot (10 1000) drinking glass pavilions higher up them. Officials say that advances in glass technology take allowed them to block nearly of the harmful ultraviolet rays that could damage the exhibited works.^[xv]

The custom glass planks were manufactured by Glasfabrik Lamberts and imported by Bendheim Wall Systems.^[16]

Admission to the museum is free every solar day and visitors may apply any of seven entrances to access the building. The main company's desk is in the Bloch Building. On the north side of the museum, a reflecting puddle now occupies part of the J.C. Nichols Plaza on the due north facade and contains 34 oculi to provide natural low-cal into the parking garage beneath. The casting of The Thinker which occupied this space prior to the renovations has been relocated to due south of the museum.

In 2013, the combination of Steven Holl Architects and BNIM was selected to build a $100 million addition to the John F. Kennedy Eye for the Performing Arts that will be modeled somewhat on the Bloch Add-on.^[17]

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Collections [edit]

European painting [edit]

John the Baptist (John in the Wilderness), by Caravaggio, painted 1604, ane of the works in the Nelson-Atkins's European painting drove

The museum's European painting drove is highly prized. It includes works by Caravaggio, Jusepe de Ribera, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Petrus Christus, El Greco, Giambattista Pittoni, Guercino, Alessandro Magnasco, Giuseppe Bazzani, Corrado Giaquinto, Cavaliere d'Arpino, Gaspare Traversi, Giuliano Bugiardini, Titian, Rembrandt, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, and Peter Paul Rubens, too equally Impressionists Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Vincent van Gogh, among others.

In early on 2016, The Temptation of St. Anthony, a small panel long attributed to the workshop of Hieronymus Bosch, was credited to the painter himself subsequently forensic investigation of its underpainting; it was added to the ranks of only 25 authenticated Bosch paintings in the world.^{[18] [xix]} The Nelson-Atkins also has fine Late Gothic and Early Italian Renaissance paintings past Jacopo del Casentino (The Presentation of Christ in the Temple), Giovanni di Paolo and Workshop, Bernardo Daddi and Workshop, Lorenzo Monaco, Gherardo Starnina (The Adoration of the Magi), and Lorenzo di Credi. It has German and Austrian Expressionist paintings past Max Beckmann, Karl Hofer (Record Histrion), Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Oskar Kokoschka (Pyramids of Egypt).

Asia [edit]

The museum is distinguished (and widely historic) for its extensive collection of Asian art, especially that of Imperial Prc. Most of it was purchased for the museum in the early 20th century by Laurence Sickman, then a Harvard fellow in Communist china. The museum has one of the best collections of Chinese antiquarian article of furniture in the country, including one of the celebrated group of glazed pottery luohans from Yixian (c. 1000). In addition to Chinese art, the drove includes pieces from Afghanistan, Japan, India, Islamic republic of iran, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Southeast, and South Asia.

American painting [edit]

The American painting collection includes the largest collection open up to the public of works by Thomas Hart Benton, who lived in Kansas City. Among its collection are paintings by George Bellows, George Caleb Bingham, Frederic Church, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent. It also has fine Contemporary Paintings and Creations in the Bloch Edifice past Willem de Kooning, Fairfield Porter (Mirror), Wayne Thiebaud (Bikini Daughter), Richard Diebenkorn, Agnes Martin, Bridget Riley, and Alfred Jensen.

• American painting

• 

Photography [edit]

In 2006, Hallmark Cards chairman Donald J. Hall, Sr. donated to the museum the entire Authentication Photographic Collection, spanning the history of photography from 1839 to the present twenty-four hour period. It is primarily American in focus, and includes works from photographers such as Southworth & Hawes, Carleton Watkins, Timothy O'Sullivan, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange,^[twenty] Homer Folio, Harry Callahan, Lee Friedlander, Andy Warhol, Todd Webb,^[21] and Cindy Sherman,^[xx] among others.

Native American [edit]

In 2009, the museum opened a suite of Native American art galleries, totaling 6,100 square feet, among the largest such displays in a comprehensive art museum.^[22] The gallery includes the fine art of Jamie Okuma, a Luiseño and Shoshone-Bannock creative person known for her beadwork, mixed media small sculpture, and fashion fine art.^[23]

Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park [edit]

Exterior on the museum's immense backyard, the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park, designed by Dan Kiley, contains the largest drove of awe-inspiring bronzes by Henry Moore in the United States. The park as well includes works by Alexander Calder, Auguste Rodin, George Segal and Mark di Suvero, among others. Beyond these, the park (and the museum itself) is well known for Shuttlecocks, a four-part outdoor sculpture of oversized badminton shuttlecocks by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.^[24]

Other [edit]

In addition, the museum also has collections of European and American sculpture, decorative arts and works on paper, Egyptian art, Greek and Roman art, modernistic and contemporary paintings and sculpture, and the fine art of Africa and Oceania. The museum also houses a major drove of English pottery and another of portrait miniatures.

See as well [edit]

• Kemper Museum of Gimmicky Art

References [edit]

1. ^ "The 10 All-time (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels". Time. time.com. xiii Dec 2007. Archived from the original on December sixteen, 2007.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Julián Zugazagoitia Named Director of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art" (PDF) (Printing release). Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine art. five March 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-x .
3. ^ "Architecture & History: Founders". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2011-03-ten .
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine art". Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections. 2007. Retrieved 2011-03-10 . ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
5. ^ "Founders-Mary McAfee Atkins". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2011-05-nineteen. Retrieved 2011-03-x .
6. ^ "Original Nelson-Atkins Building-Wight and Wight". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2011-03-10 .
7. ^ "Two Buildings, One Vision". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2011-05-xix. Retrieved 2011-03-10 .
8. ^ Kristie C. Wolferman (1993). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Culture Comes to Kansas City. Academy of Missouri Press. p. 36. ISBN978-0-8262-0908-5.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Churchman, Michael (1993). High Ideals and Aspirations. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. pp. 98. ISBN9780942614220 . Retrieved 26 February 2017.
10. ^ Churchman, Michael (1993). High Ideals and Aspirations. Kansas Urban center, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. pp. 37–38. ISBN9780942614220.
11. ^ Churchman, Michael (1993). Loftier Ideals and Aspirations. Kansas City, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. pp. 28–29. ISBN9780942614220.
12. ^ Churchman, Michael (1993). High Ideals and Aspirations. Kansas City, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. p. 51. ISBN9780942614220.
13. ^ ^{a b} Churchman, Michael (1993). Loftier Ideals and Aspirations. Kansas City, Missouri: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. pp. 98, 102. ISBN0-942614-22-iv.
14. ^ Maria Sudekum Fisher (June 4, 2007). "Nelson-Atkins Museum previews new addition". Staten Island Accelerate. SILive.com.
15. ^ ^{a b} "A Translucent and Radiant Partner With the Past". New York Times. NYTimes.com. June 6, 2007. Retrieved 2011-03-10 .
16. ^ "Lamberts' Linit U-profile drinking glass" (PDF). Glasfabrik Lamberts GmbH & Co. 2007. Retrieved 2011-03-10 .
17. ^ "KC firm BNIM volition help design $100 1000000 expansion of Kennedy Centre". KansasCity.com. Retrieved 2013-04-05 .
18. ^ Siegal, Nina (Feb ane, 2016). "Hieronymus Bosch Credited With Work in Kansas Metropolis Museum". The New York Times . Retrieved February 1, 2016.
19. ^ Russell, Anna (Feb 1, 2016). "Kansas City Museum Painting Accounted an Authentic Bosch". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved February one, 2016.
20. ^ ^{a b} "The Nelson-Atkins Museum Acquires 800 Photographs". The New York Times. 2017-eleven-08. Retrieved 2020-01-02 .
21. ^ Kathryn Shattuck (February xviii, 2006). "For a Dearest Museum: Dearest, Hallmark". New York Times. NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2010-10-10 . Last month the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., acquired the consummate Hallmark Photographic Collection, ... 161 by Todd Webb
22. ^ "American Indian Fine art Collection". Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine art. Archived from the original on May xiii, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
23. ^ "jamieokuma". jamieokuma . Retrieved 2017-03-11 .
24. ^ Cole, Suzanne P.; Engle, Tim; Winkler, Eric (April 23, 2012). "fifty things every Kansas Citian should know". Kansas City Star . Retrieved April 23, 2012.

External links [edit]

• Official website

Share this post